Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

New post on my mission trip blog for this summer. ›

Some have actually argued that ‘visions’ and ‘revelations’ are unimportant, perhaps even dangerous, and that they lack the capacity to build up the church or to encourage believers. May I simply remind you that Peter declared on the day of Pentecost, citing Joel’s prophecy, that the seeing of ‘visions’ was to be a characteristic feature of the outpouring of the Spirit in the last days, i.e., in the present church age.

For some people it seems easier to ‘die for the Lord’ than to live for Him. Those who have a perverted understanding of the Cross glory more in death than they do in life. They fail to see that the point of the Cross is resurrection, not the grave.

Missions are A LOT more than social justice documentaries & leisure travel. A generation is rising to fully embody Isaiah 61.

Though you feel I’m far away, I am closer than your breath. 

The challenge for pastors, leaders and participants of a short-term team, is to take all of that experience, and all of that passion, and all of those stories that are walking off the plane at the end of two weeks and guide them into real, tangible, Spirit-filled change. That’s when Missions stops being something that your church does and starts being something that your Church is. That’s when the value of a short-term team reaches beyond the scope of the individual and into the DNA of your community. That’s when short-term missions turn into the long-term Faith.

The language of the Spirit is prophecy.

The word “revival” means:

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

For Paul, the Spirit was an experienced, empowering reality. Paul would not have understood most historic Protestantism. I know that sounds unkind but it is true. The reason he would not have understood it is because he would not have understood a Christian life in which the experienced life of the Spirit was not the key to every dimension of that life.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

˙buıɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ sı ǝʌıʇɔǝdsɹǝd