As I’m writing this, I’m watching the colors of the leaves change almost daily. What a few days before was a splash of green is now mixed with yellows and reds and a few leaves that have already turned brown. Each day is a visible reminder that life has seasons, and rather than complain about the seasons, we should embrace them and ask God to teach us what He wants us to learn. Just think about all the seasons you go through if you live a long life:

• Childhood
• Teenage years
• Going off to college or getting your first job
• Moving away from home
• Getting married
• All the seasons around having or not having kids
• Empty nest
• Aging parents
• Changing careers
• The death of a child, spouse, or parent
• The end of your youthful idealism and the reality that life isn’t fair
• Spiritual transformation
• Times of personal revival and renewal
• Changes in your health

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This is the first blog I’ve written since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Someone told me that one in six men will have prostate cancer in their life. It’s the most prominent cancer in men, as breast cancer is in women. The last few months have been, to say the least, an emotional roller coaster. The “C-word” takes your breath away. It brings a new normal and a fast learning curve. Learning that you have it leads to discerning what kind of treatment is best for you. Listening to countless stories of other men who have been diagnosed with the same thing and are living active lives is encouraging. Continue reading “When God Works in Unexpected Ways” →

I have my favorite bookstores. I know that I’m old school, but I wish we still lived in the day when a bookstore was a bookstore. Now they are filled with ten thousand items that have nothing to do with the Christian faith. I’ve found books on losing weight for Christians, cooking for Christians, Christian aerobics, and a lot of other nonsense. Here’s a list of items you’ll probably never find in your local bookstore. But then again, you might. Continue reading →

Sometimes God allows us to sit under the shade of great men – to stand in their shadows, to walk with them, listen to them, or pray with them. One of those men in my life was John Bisagno. In the very early hours of Sunday morning, August 5, John walked through the gates of heaven to, what I believe was, a glorious reception. He was met by people who had preceded him in death – his beautiful bride, Uldene, former staff members, people who had been saved under his ministry, people on foreign fields who came to Christ because John followed the Great Commission to “go into all the world and make disciples.” Continue reading →

Not everyone in ministry will finish well. Not everyone who starts in ministry will finish. Some will stumble out of the gates, others will collapse or quit at the midway point, a few will be distracted by a fan in the stands they want to impress, and some, unfortunately, will run a good race but in the end will falter and fail.

I want to finish well. When I stood as a young man in front of Vance Havner and sang a solo of I Have Decided to Follow Jesus (“…though none go with me, I still will follow, no turning back…”), I meant it. I still mean it. It’s not always easy. The world, the flesh and the devil all lay down obstacles on the path. It takes the work of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the saints to make it through some days. Continue reading →