Links & Quotes

Jesus asks us to proclaim the message about Him, not argue about Him. The best witness is one who truthfully shares his or her personal life-changing experience with Jesus. There is never a reason to quarrel about this! Check out this whole message here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“In 1977, 40 years after arriving in Guatemala, the Franklins retired from full-time ministry, returning to the United States. They made numerous short-term trips back to Guatemala to rejoice with the people who had become their family. From the five small groups of believers they found in 1937, God had blessed them with 600 established churches, 700 licensed ministers, and 55,000 Assemblies of God believers.” What an amazing testimony of faithful, Christ-honoring ministry!

“Enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When we are out of the way of duty, we are in the way of temptation.” —Matthew Henry

“Work of the enemy! Such deeds he loves: friend at war with friend, loyalty divided, and confusion of hearts.” —Gandalf, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King 

I absolutely love the leadership insights I discover during my daily Bible reading. I have turned many of these insights into an ongoing series called Godly Leadership.

“Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. … If we think of the Holy Spirit as so many do as merely a power or influence, our constant thought will be, ‘How can I get more of the Holy Spirit,’ but if we think of Him in the Biblical way as a Divine Person, our thought will rather be, ‘How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?’” —R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 

Our Safe Healing Place

I cry out with my voice to the Lord; with my voice I implore the Lord for compassion. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. (Psalm 142:2)

David knew the release and healing that would come after he poured out his complaint in God’s presence. The injuries others have done to us afflict our thoughts and emotions, and we need a safe place to get that poison out of our mind and heart.

God’s presence is that safe place, that healing place. 

God already knew what was in David’s heart, but David still verbalized it before God—not before his attackers or even his friends. We need to follow this example when we, too, are injured.

The Standard Of The Leader

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible.

Good leaders hold themselves—at a minimum—to the same standard for the rest of their team. But the best leaders hold themselves to an even higher standard.

Check out this humorous story that makes this point so clear.

Check out this full conversation Greg and I had on an episode of The Craig and Greg Show called “Be honest with yourself.” 

In Proverbs 19, wise King Solomon shares a whole list of blessings for those who live with integrity. And on the flip side, you may want to check out my post Don’t putrefy your leadership.

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Profound Humility

When something is recorded in all four Gospels, we should really take note.

Look at the profound humility of John! His birth was foretold by an angel, his ministry was so powerful that people wondered if he was the Messiah or possibly Elijah, yet he never let all these accolades go to his head. 

“I am such a lowly servant of Jesus that I don’t even have the right to take off His sandals.” 

As C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s think of yourself less.” John was too focused on making sure people saw Jesus that he had no time to think about himself. 

Jesus said John was the greatest of the prophets (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28). The applause of the world means nothing. All that matters is the applause from nail-scarred hands, and the voice of the Master saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

De-Sizing The Church

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible. 

I’d like to tell you about a book that I think is an absolute must-read for those in church leadership. Check out my interview with Karl Vaters, the author of De-Sizing The Church, on this episode of The Podcast.

Purchase your copy of De-Sizing The Church here.

You can keep up with all that Karl is doing on his blog.

And if you would like to check out when Karl interviewed me about my book Shepherd Leadership, those videos are here.

Here are a bunch of ways to get in touch with me and follow along with other projects on which I am involved.

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The Catalyst Of Our Witness

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible. 

Jesus fulfilled all of the jots and tittles of prophecy, showing that God is the Promise Maker is God the Promise Keeper. 

We need to be careful of overlooking details we think might be insignificant because we can easily think that our small lives are somehow insignificant. They are not! As Tom Kaastra reminded us last week, we are here on purpose and for a purpose; our lives are eternally significant.  

Immediately after His resurrection, the followers of Jesus struggled to wrap their minds around what they had just experienced. Just before His ascension, Jesus explained to them both what had happened already, and what was about to happen (Luke 24:44-49). 

Jesus said He had already fulfilled the promised about His crucifixion and resurrection. Luke writes that Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand” (v. 45). 

Notice two important things:

  1. The Spirit of Jesus—the Holy Spirit—opens minds 
  2. He opens minds to grasp the truth in Scripture 

Jesus also says that we are still fulfilling the “what is written” (v. 46) in the the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are fulfilling the prophecy that says the message of Jesus will be preached everywhere to all peoples, so that they also can receive the forgiveness Jesus paid for and repent of their Godless ways. 

Who opens minds? The Holy Spirit. 

What does the Spirit use as a catalyst to open minds? Our witness. 

Who empowers our witness? The same Holy Spirit (see Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:4-8). 

A witness is a truth-teller, who tells their firsthand story and who amplifies their verbal testimony by their Christ-honoring lifestyle. Jesus used two phrases to remind us that witnessing is not something we do, but it is who we are: 

  • you ARE witnesses (Luke 24:48) 
  • you will BE My witnesses (Acts 1:8) 

Holy Spirit-baptized Christians are empowered to take Jesus to every street. God has strategically and purposefully placed us on our “streets” to proclaim our witness. From Easy Street to Skid Row, and everywhere in between, we are to fulfill the prophecy of proclaiming this good news to all nations (see 1 Corinthians 9:20-22).

The Holy Spirit opens minds closed to God. He uses our witness as the catalyst for people to repent from their sin and receive the forgiveness that Jesus made available. 

So don’t stop at just receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but also receive the empowering gift He promised—the baptism in the Holy Spirit! 

Please follow along with all of the messages in this series called Takin’ Him to the streets by clicking here. 

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Links & Quotes

The devil wants us to remember what we’ve done or what we still need to do, but Jesus wants us to remember what He has already done. There is a huge difference! Check out this whole message here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“The most likely man to go to hell is the man who has nothing to do on earth. Idle people tempt the devil to tempt them.” —Charles Spurgeon

“What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we have in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? To know God. What is the best thing in life? To know God. What in humans gives God most pleasure? Knowledge of Himself.” —J.I. Packer

The Bible Archeology Report shares the Top 10 archeological discoveries related to the resurrection of Jesus.

We can learn childlike faith by simply watching and listening to how young children interact with their loving parents. This video is a clip from one of the message in our series called Kingdom Praying.

Technological advancements abound all around us. How are Christians supposed to interact with technology: embrace it? ignore it? This is a thoughtful message to give us a biblical paradigm for our daily use of technology. 

“We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our necks that must bow under the yoke.” —Elizabeth Elliot

“The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.” —H.B. Charles 

“Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart.” —Paul Miller

The Craig And Greg Show: Be Honest With Yourself

Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.

Honesty is a vital part of a successful organization, something that every good leader is well aware of. However, when was the last time you asked the question, “Am I being honest with myself?” In this episode, Greg and I unpack how honest self-reflection is a powerful tool to help improve your leadership.

  • [0:14] A challenging quote to kick off this episode. 
  • [1:14] My breakthrough moment regarding my own self-assessment.
  • [3:37] What’s the difference between who I think I am and who I really am?
  • [6:00] We all operate with certain assumptions about ourselves.
  • [7:37] We share some good and bad experiences with interactions we have observed from other leaders.
  • [10:27] Leaders need to hold themselves to the same standards as the rest of their team.
  • [13:47] Why do leaders hesitate to self-evaluate?
  • [15:19] How do leaders create a safe environment to self-evaluate?
  • [18:45] Greg sends us down a rabbit trail!
  • [19:53] What does leadership integrity look like?
  • [22:17] Leaders need to know what their tendencies are.

Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Who Looks Good?

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible. 

The Gospel of John introduces John the baptizer to us like this, “He himself was not the Light; he came only as a witness to the Light” (John 1:8). 

  • John had a similar birth announcement as Jesus had (Luke 1:11-14, 28-33) 
  • John’s birth prompted a Holy Spirit-inspired song from his father that resonates with Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55, 68-70) 
  • The early years of John are described in much the same terms as how Luke describes the early years of Jesus (Luke 1:80, 2:52) 
  • John quoted Scripture and taught with very similar authority as Jesus did (Matthew 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-19) 

Yet for all their similarities, John knew that he was only a herald of Jesus (John 1:19-27). 

John was not the Light—he was only a witness to the Light.

I am not the Light—I am only a witness to the Light. 

You may think that this statement is pretty obvious, and I did too. But as I read these words from John 1:8 again, it caused me to reevaluate just how much I really believe this. 

Do I remember this when no one compliments my sermon? Do I remember this when what I thought was an insightful comment on a verse of Scripture gets hardly any “likes” on my social media channels? Do I remember this when I am complemented and my posts are appreciated? 

Who exactly am I trying to make look good: me or Jesus?

I want John’s desire to become my desire and my prayer: “Jesus must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). 

(Please check out all of the Scriptures I referenced in this post by clicking here.)

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Just Knowing Or Really Knowing?

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible. 

I wonder how well you know the word “know”? Let’s find out.

Check out this episode of The Podcast.

Here are some helpful resources from this episode:

The Scriptures I referenced are 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22; Genesis 2:25; John 1:4-5; Psalm 119:18; Ephesians 1:17.

I mentioned a blog post and video in this podcast about the work Jesus did on our behalf on the Cross. That was called Right Remembering.

My new book When Sheep Bite is available for pre-order!

Here are a bunch of ways to get in touch with me and follow along with other projects on which I am involved

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎