Do You Pay Your Taxes Joyfully?

Tim Challies asks this loaded question yesterday in his blog. I would commend to you his biblical answer found HERE.

It is tax season again. In just a couple of weeks a lot of us will be writing a check to the government, or, far better, hoping that the government will be writing a check to us. It is this time of year when, more than any other, we are forced to think about taxes, so once again I find myself pondering the first few verses of Romans 13. Paul is writing to the church at Rome and telling them that each one of them is to actively obey the governing authorities in every situation. He makes no exceptions; he simply commands them to obey all the time—”Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” It’s interesting to think about what Paul was commanding here.
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Families' Fridays

Starting a Family Devotion Time by Michael Kelley I haven’t always been a family devotion guy. It’s not because I didn’t want or aspire to be, I honestly did. But we went a long time as a family before pulling the trigger and trying to integrate this practice into the regular rhythm of our family life. We’ve been doing morning devotions together for about five years now – long enough to where our kids expect that we will. It’s a long road, as are most things with young children I’m finding out. Though revival doesn’t break out every morning over eggs and toast, our continued hope and prayer is that times like these build into the love and discipline our children will have in the future when it comes to God’s Word. Through those five years, we’ve tried different things, failed at a bunch, and have learned some things along the way. So, as encouragement to those of you just starting out or maybe some affirmation for those of you already in ...

Why is no one trying to be like John the Baptist?

This Sunday morning the sermon was taken from John 3:22-36. In that passage, two of the disciples of John come to him with the report that Jesus was now baptizing more people than John. John's response is one of the most humble in all of Scripture. It was in reading that response that a thought occurred to me. With all the leadership and ministry books out there, why do we not have people picking up on the ministry style of John the Baptist? Maybe I am a little cynical, but I guy who gets his head chopped off might be a bit of a tough sell in our success-driven marketplace. Can you imagine the title? "Five Easy Steps to Losing Your Head." I can't imagine that book making it on the Christian bestsellers list. Yet John the Baptist is a great example to those of us in ministry. His clarity about his own place and role in the ministry are worthy of emulation. Here are some of the observations I made as I looked at his response to ...

Oops!

I can be a real klutz. I have very few manual skills and I never grew out of the "tripping over my own feet" stage of life. I have fumbled and dropped more than my fair share of balls. In other words, "oops" has been a regular part of my vocabulary. It is not only in the physical world that I have fumbled things. I have messed up relationships. I have prejudged people before ever getting to know them. I have used and abused those who love me most in this world. I have failed and sinned my way into more than one tight corner and created untold disasters. Oops is not even sufficient for the ways that I have blown it. Perhaps that is why something Paul, our worship leader last Sunday, said resonated so deeply with me this week. He said "Oops is never said in heaven." Our God never is clumsy. He never makes mistakes. His plans never go belly-up. He never fails. He never ever has to say oops - and that comforts me.

The Plodding Preacher

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