World-class runners understand the importance of living with grueling discipline.  They train day after day, week after week stretching and pushing their bodies to the limits.  They endure harsh elements, early mornings, and late evenings in preparation for the next race.  Why do they embrace such austere restrictions and regulations?  Easy, they understand the value of time.  Their discipline is rooted in the perspective of the clock. To the passionate runner, half a second, even a tenth of a second, could very well mean the difference between first or last place.

In his book, Margin, Dr. Richard Swenson said, …

Have you ever read the Bible all the way through?  The secret to spiritual success for the new year will be found in the daily intake of God’s Word. Period.  Most of us have difficulty going one day without food.  Typically, after just a few short hours, we crave something else to eat.  But Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.”  Without a consistent and continual diet of God’s Word, the spiritual man will go hungry.  Some of us could be starving at this very moment.

I …

If you have taken the time to read any of my posts this year, I would like to personally thank you.  The intention of this blog is to present biblically-minded principles in a practical, ministry-based format.  Our site-statistics manager has logged the top ten posts over the past year, and I would like to share those posts with you in the order of their popularity.

As I studied and reviewed the statistics,  I found that most of you are interested in articles and thoughts concerning church ministry and personal spiritual formation.  That is interesting to me because those are the …

I love technology, but when it comes to reading books, you can call me old-fashioned.  There is something about holding a book in your hands, turning the pages, highlighting and making notes that just satisfies the ol’ codger in me.  Occasionally I will read a book on my iPad, but I really don’t enjoy it that much.

The Hidden Life of Prayer just may have changed that (at least temporarily).  I recently downloaded this free resource through my Olive Tree App, and to my surprise, I couldn’t stop swiping the pages, ahem… screen.  David MacIntyre, a Scottish preacher and educator, …

“The church of our day has soft-pedaled the doctrine of obedience, either neglecting it altogether or mentioning it only unapologetically and without urgency” –A.W. Tozer

“It’s the quiet life of obedience that will earn a hearing” –Steve Farrar

“As prayer without faith is but a beating of the air, so trust without prayer is but a presumptuous bravado. He that promises to give, and bids us trust his promises, commands us to pray, and expects obedience to his commands.  He will give, but not without our asking” –Thomas Lye

“One of the banes of present-day evangelical Christianity