Featuring excerpts from The Joy of Following Jesus by J. Oswald Sanders Paul says, “It is my constant ambition to please Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:9) Or “I make it a point of honor to please Christ.” My heart leaps in response! Yes, me too! I want to please the Lord in all I do! Recently,…
We all want to experience more joy in life. Jesus prays this for us, asking the Father for us to have the fullness of his joy (John 15:11, 17:13). Fullness of joy! His joy! That’s a lot of joy! What can we do if we’re experiencing a lack of joy? How do we experience a…
Recently at our TLC retreat for pastors, leaders, and caregivers Kristi and led the group through one of our most popular Soul Shepherding experiences: “Psalm 23 Pictures to Pray.” To set up this “Visio Divina” exercise Kristi led us in a verse-by-verse meditation on Psalm 23. For many of us our attention was drawn to…
TLC1: VIM Plan Years ago God gave me a corrective word about my teaching and preaching ministry: “Less is more.” I was inspired to begin learning to be more like Jesus in the way that I taught in seminars and groups. First I learned to speak slower, using more stories and pauses. I also practiced…
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Last night some dear friends took Kristi and I to a Christmas concert with Michael W. Smith and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. We were so excited to hear our favorite musician sing! But out of about twenty songs he performed from the piano…
“Jesus is enough for me!” Do you believe this? Probably you would say that you do. When you list out your life priorities I can imagine that you write “Love God” or “Follow Jesus Christ” at the top of your list. My question for you is: Have you organized your whole life around being devoted to…