Pastor Bob Merritt comments on the importance of sacred places in his book When Life’s Not Working: “Sacred places are important because they recalibrate the emotional and spiritual gauges in our life. They reconnect us with thoughts and feelings that get suppressed by emails and traffic. Sacred places awaken our soul.” Two sacred places come […]
The newest book I’m reading is When Life’s Not Working by Bob Merritt, senior pastor of Eagle Brook Church in the Twin Cities area. In the introduction he states that all of us face two options in life- the hard life or the harder life. The author asserts that discipline is essential if you hope […]
The first century philosopher Epictetus (cited by John Ortberg in When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box) once stated: “This is our predicament. Over and over again, we lose sight of what is important and what isn’t.” On this glorious Easter Sunday, as we rejoice in Jesus’ ultimate victory over […]
One of my favorite Jeff Manion (The Land Between) quotes is on the subject of complaint, as opposed to honestly crying out to God: “The heart drifts toward complaint as if by gravitational pull- after all, complaint seems a reasonable response to a sequence of disappointing events. . . . Before we know it, complaint […]
In If You Want to Walk on Water . . . , John Ortberg says that the distinctive difference between Type T (thrill-seeking) and Type W (water-walking) personalities is that Type W’s have learned to wait before acting. When we step out in faith to accept God’s calling, we might immediately get confirmation of our […]
In Chapter 8 (“Focusing on Jesus”) of If You Want to Walk on Water . . . , John Ortberg differentiates between optimism and hope. Optimism requires a belief that things progressively will get better, whereas hope is more inclusive and faith-based: “Hope includes all the psychological advantages of optimism, but is rooted in something […]
In his book The Knowledge of the Holy, Christian author A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) writes; “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us . . . the most portentous (foreboding, ominous) fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or […]
In his book If You Want to Walk on Water . . . , John Ortberg uses the cave as a symbolic description of times of utter discouragement and failure. Sooner or later, everyone will spend time there. While it’s easy to believe that God is present during time of great success, Pastor Ortberg asserts that “. […]
In If You Want to Walk on Water . . . , John Ortberg delineates the differences between fear and trust as they relate to our perceptions of God: “Fear whispers to us that God is not really big enough to take care of us. It tells us we are not really safe in his […]
In his book Putting Your Past in Its Place, Stephen Viars applies that old adage, “Eat it today, wear it tomorrow” to issues of the heart. The inner feelings or emotions we demonstrate today will have lasting consequences unless we diligently apply God’s Word in our adversity. Dr. Viars cautions that: -Today’s reactions become tomorrow’s […]
Long before Franklin Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau once commented, “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.” Perhaps that’s why “Fear not” is God’s most frequently repeated instruction (366 verses) in the Bible! John Ortberg believes the reason God gives that instruction so often “is that fear will sink us faster than anything else. […]
Victor Frankl was a Viennese psychiatrist who survived two Nazi concentration camps. He talked about the men who showed compassion to others and would share their last bit of food (cited by John Ortberg in If You Want to Walk on Water . . . ): ” . . . they offer sufficient proof that […]