Leaders would help their teams by (1) having shorter meetings, and (2) ensuring their language is clear and concise. Check out the full conversation about “Jargon” on this episode of the Craig and Greg Show.
In a fascinating article about the ways the planet Jupiter protects Earth, the conclusion is spot-on: “Jupiter is more than merely a beautiful planet in the tapestry of the night sky. Its massive size and powerful gravity make it a mighty guardian of Earth. From protecting us from dangerous space debris to helping maintain stable orbits, Jupiter’s influence is essential for life on our planet. Proof of our solar system’s complex design is everywhere around us. It’s easy to see that our world seems purposely made rather than just being a result of random chance causes. From the stars to the tiniest particles, everything in our universe is balanced and works together in a coordinated system. As science progresses and uncovers more about our solar system, scientists keep finding out how perfectly suited our solar system is for life.”
T.M. Moore encourages us to pray for the Church. “The Church is the in-time agency through which the Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. The Kingdom is a spiritual realm; the Church is a physical entity. But is is also a spiritual one; thus it partakes of two worlds at once, and is able to channel the spiritual into the physical to make all things new. The Church is both the sign that the Kingdom has come and the outpost from which the Kingdom advances in the world. Our text is a watershed moment of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and it signals an important focus for every believer’s life and prayers.”
“Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.” —Mia Hamm
“Friendship is a path that leads very close to the perfection which consists of the enjoyment and knowledge of God, such that a man who is a friend of man is made into a friend of God, according to what the Savior said in the gospel: ‘Now I will not call you servants, but My friends [John 15:15].’” —Aelred of Rievaulx
In studying the intense volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io, the ICR concludes, “Since 2013, evidence of a youthful solar system has only gotten stronger. Scientists have been forced to acknowledge that Saturn’s rings are indeed young, and belief in deep time continues to pose real problems for conventional scientists.” The prestigious Nature concurs, saying, “Some such proposals make planetary researchers uncomfortable, because it is statistically unlikely that humans would catch any one object engaged in unusual activity—let alone several.”
Parents and teachers trying to keep up with the ever-changing lexicon of today’s youth will really appreciate this list of slang from Axis.
“Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.” —Susan B. Anthony
The story of Esther in the Bible is one of my all-time favorites. “While Esther herself has not been identified, nor has the plot to destroy the Jewish people been confirmed, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” To that point, here are 10 pieces of archeological evidence related to this amazing story.
Charisse Compton asks, “When was the last time meditating on your body elicited worship?” She goes on to make this case from Psalm 139: “Your body, as much as your soul, is one of God’s glorious works. It bears the unmistakable signature of the divine Artist so that, like creation, your body ‘declare[s] the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1).”
You and I will learn lessons in the hard times that we could learn no other way. Then God will use those lessons so we can help minister to others in their hard times. Check out my sermon about interceding for other saints.
ICR’s Dr. Randy Guliuzza says, “Convergent evolution is the fabricated conjecture evolutionists invoke to explain very similar characteristics between creatures that could not have been inherited from a common ancestor and that evolutionists will never accept as having been produced by an intelligently designed internal programming that is specified for common purposes.” This particular article is about bats which have always had the ability to fly. Not one fossil record shows any flightless bats because God created them as flying mammals.
In the early 1900s, Albert Norris was a missionary in India, observing firsthand the spiritual and physical hardships the people faced there. In an article in the Pentecostal Evangel, Norris wrote, “A Christianity that coldly sits down, and goes on its routine of formal work, and allows its fellowmen to starve, or to be obliged to go through all the hard sufferings and exposure connected with famine, without effort to help them, might as well quit its preaching.”
In answering a question about using AI to write a sermon, John Piper answers with an emphatic “no.” I agree! One of the reasons Piper shares: “One of the qualifications for being an elder-pastor-preacher in the Bible is the gift or the ability to teach, didaktikos (1 Timothy 3:2). That means you must have the ability, the gift, to read a passage of Scripture, understand the reality it deals with, feel the emotions it is meant to elicit, be able to explain it to others clearly, illustrate and apply it for their edification. That’s a gift you must have. It’s your number-one job. If you don’t have it, you should not be a pastor.”
“You don’t try to forget the mistake, but you don’t dwell on it. Don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” —Johnny Cash
T.M. is beginning a series on the ministry of the apostle Paul. He writes, “Paul was able to accomplish great things against great odds not because he was such an enthralling preacher (he was not) or had so many resources to invest in his work (he did not), but because he had such great confidence in his message and his Lord.” Check out this series.
As a father, it always got my attention when my kids would remind me, “Dad, you said….” Not that God ever forgets anything He has promised, but when He hears Moses say, “You swore by Your own self and said to them,” He is pleased because this means that Moses is banking his faith on God’s unchangeable word. Let’s follow this example from Moses and use God’s Word to form our prayers to Him.
The ICR reports, “If the earth is 4.6 billion years old, virtually every square inch of the Earth’s surface would experience a host of erosive events.” But the fact that paleontologists have found so many well preserved foot tracks is a testament to both the Creation and Flood accounts recorded in biblical history.
“When ‘Aunt’ Fanny Lack, a 100-year-old Hoopa Indian woman, accepted Christ and was healed in 1920, she became a local sensation on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in northern California.” This is an amazing story!
“When you hate, the only person that is suffering is you because most of the people you hate don’t know it and the rest don’t care.” —Medgar Evers
Axis’ Culture Translator reported, “A study from World found that 26% of respondents admitted to flirting with a chatbot or AI, either for fun or unknowingly.” I love Axis’ conclusion: “Although social media was initially pitched as a supplement to real-life social interactions, the slope from supplement to replacement is steep. This Valentine’s Day, remind your teens that although real-life relationships can be difficult, we need both the affirmation and pushback that comes with them.”
Greg Morse shares the very real danger of shepherding God’s flock. He writes, “I enlisted to teach, preach, shepherd, and guide—but also to suffer, defend, and die, if the Lord should choose. As a son with his mother, a husband with his wife, a father with his children, so a pastor with his sheep. I am to defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic—spiritual and physical.” Pastors, I encourage you to read this article.
Leaders are needed for tough times. “Doing difficult creates natural separation” for your leadership, says Eric Thomas. Check out this full conversation from The Craig and Greg Show.
“Busier than a businessman, more sought out than a celebrity, wanted as a mother of many toddlers, and bearing a task as big as the world, Jesus prayed.” Check out Scott Hubbard’s post Never Too Busy To Pray.
“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.” —Sir Francis Bacon
“Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” —Hudson Taylor
There are almost 12,000 species of snakes and lizards, but evolutionists still do not know where they came from. Vertebrate paleontologist Michael Benton stated, “The early history of squamates [snakes, lizards] is patchy,” and the debate of snake origin “is far from resolved.” ICR offers the most straightforward solution to this supposed evolutionary dilemma: “snakes and lizards have been created with the genetic ability to undergo “remarkably varied jaw shapes” that have led to “their extraordinary ecological success” as they move in and fill various niches.”
Seth Porch, in talking about the joy of daily reading the Bible, notes, “By itself, neither habit, shame, nor duty will lead you to open God’s word daily with a heart posture of humble expectation and joy. Such an attitude toward the Bible comes only from the astonished realization that in these pages God actually speaks.” I hope you find the joy in reading God’s Word throughout this new year. I love my YouVersion reading plans that take me through the Bible. You may also like the companion book by Dick Brogden called Missionary God, Missionary Bible. And I shared some Bible studies that may interest you here and here.
The apostle Paul lists three indispensable qualities of a godly leader. Remove even one of those qualities, and you no longer have a godly leader. I dive deep on these qualities (and more) in my book Shepherd Leadership.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
T.M. Moore wrote, “We are God’s poems, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek word for ‘workmanship’ is ποίημα, poiema—poem. Perhaps this is why we find it pleasurable when others take an interest in us and want to get to know us better. They’re asking us to ‘read’ our ‘poem’ to them. What fun! And God wants us to know, love, enjoy, and serve Him by all the things He has freely given to us and which He seeks to ‘read’ to us day by day.”
“Saints” is always plural in the Bible. That means we always need to be looking out for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the words James uses to close his letter to the saints.
✅ Gather frequently to encourage others
✅ Reach out to those who are absent
✅ Speak the truth in love
✅ Exhort and encourage
✅ Forgive and ask for forgiveness
✅ Restore quickly and gently
Anthony Kidd warns about something I address in my book When Sheep Bite. “Inherent to our calling as shepherds is the task of looking out for the flock of God and protecting it from savage wolves and false shepherds. However, Paul emphasizes here that one of the greatest threats to the church can emerge from within its own leadership ranks, making self-awareness a critical aspect of pastoral leadership.” Read this full article about the earning signs of diseased leadership.
More amazing findings that show the incredible beauty and wisdom of our Creator! The ICR reports, “Insects, such as the winged insects in the order Lepidoptera, continue to reveal incredible abilities with some facets that zoologists thought were reserved only for vertebrates.”
Christians aren’t celebrating just one Advent, but two. The First Advent of Jesus gives us cause to celebrate, but the expectation of His Second Advent gives us reason to anticipate. Let’s make sure we are always celebrating both of Christ’s Advents. Check out the full sermon on hope.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“When we elevate the end over the means, we miss out, because often God does some of His greatest work along the way. For Him, it’s all about the process, and less about the final destination.” —The King Is Coming reading plan on YouVersion
“If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” —C.S. Lewis, in God In The Dock
I had never even heard of the heart cockle until I read this article. This amazing mollusk has a symbiotic partnership with a type of plankton that lives inside the shells. This plant needs photosynthesis to live and produce the food which the heart cockle needs to survive. But how does sunlight get through the solid shell of the heart cockle? Not surprisingly, our All-wise Creator designed the heart cockle with little “windows” perfect for letting in just the right amount of sunlight the S. corculorumrequires. Amazing!
The Reader’s Digest uncovers some bizarre laws surrounding the Christmas season. For instance, “In 1643, England passed an ordinance ‘encouraging’ citizens to treat Christmas as a solemn holiday, rather than a celebratory feast. By the next year, Christmas had been banned altogether. Christmas remained illegal in England until 1660. … In 1659, the Puritan government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony went so far as to outlaw Christmas in order to discourage ‘disorderly’ behavior that might be ‘offensive to God.’ Anyone who failed to show up for work or participated in feasting would be fined five shillings. The Christmas ban lasted until 1681 and Massachusetts didn’t make Christmas an official holiday until 1856.”
“The future of our country and the quality of our lives is not determined primarily by who is in public office. Politicians are the fruit of the tree, they are not the tree. Our future will be determined by the strength of our families, and we all have control over that. Be great husbands, wives, parents, friends, and neighbors. Live for others, and live as if your kids, and God, are always watching. God is always watching, and our kids are watching more than we realize. Find things to be grateful for and resist the temptations to complain. Go out of your way to make someone else’s life better and yours will be too, even if you don’t like who is in the White House. If our joy is dependent upon a political outcome, we’ll never be happy.” —Joseph Backholm
Psalm 133 tells us that in order for us to sharpen others—and for us to be sharpened by them—we have to be around other them. Christian saints put a high priority on spending time with others.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
From Desiring God’s Here We Stand series comes this great snippet from the history of the Reformation: “[John] Calvin intended to go to Strasbourg for a life of peaceful literary production. But while Calvin was staying the night in Geneva, William Farel, the fiery leader of the Reformation in that city, found out he was there and sought him out. It was a meeting that changed the course of history, not just for Geneva, but for the world. Calvin remembers, ‘Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies . . . and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, he proceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement, and the tranquillity of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance, when the necessity was so urgent. By this imprecation I was so stricken with terror, that I desisted from the journey which I had undertaken.’”
Have you ever heard people claim that celebrity deaths seem to come in threes? It does seem that many times the major cataclysmic events happen in bunches. Dr. Roy Spencer has an interesting post (with corresponding data) in which he outlines the role of randomness in these events.
“In Hebrews 12:2 the writer uses a participle—‘fixing your eyes’—to describe what should be the characteristic orientation of our every waking moment. True and full faith wants to say with David, ‘I have set the Lord always before me’ (Psalm 16:8). … If we are living full faith, having the eye of our heart fixed on the world of unseen things, the reality of that world and all its beauty, goodness, and truth will begin to be evident in our daily lives, filling our lives with the overflowing Presence of Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39).” —T.M. Moore
“There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him, but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy.” —Blaise Pascal
Evolutionists are now using language that sounds like words Creationists use: “Flowers like hibiscus use an invisible blueprint established very early in petal formation that dictates the size of their bullseyes—a crucial pre-pattern that can significantly impact their ability to attract pollinating bees.” Check out this article from the Institute for Creation Research.
Another very helpful apologetic video from J. Warner Wallace. This video explains how the origin of DNA is best explained not by scientific theories but by the existence of God.
Just as the smallest enzyme is invaluable to the human body, the gift God has given you is invaluable to the Body of Christ. Check out the full sermon called Let’s grow together.
My book Shepherd Leadership has five chapters dedicated to the health and wellbeing of pastoral leaders. One important principle: Only healthy shepherds can help their sheep get healthy.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
Clinton Manley has a great post on the way the Holy Spirit empowers a Christian’s life. He tells of this work in terms of an adventure: “We were made to go to God, the Home for our souls, made to enjoy God more and more forever, to really live. And the only way to get there is by following the Way crossing the only Bridge that brings us to God (John 14:6; 1 Peter 3:18). And we can only walk that Way when God’s own breath fills our lungs and animates our steps, when His Spirit sets us walking in a new direction as new creations on new adventures.”
Even among the reformers, Conrad Grebel was consider something of a radical. “Grebel was convinced that the city councilmen should have no authority over the church and its practice — more so, they should have no authority over the word of God itself. On the flip side, he didn’t think the church should have authority over the state either, and he opposed compulsory tithing and the like. The seeds of a separation between church and state were germinating. To us, this separation is as familiar as the air we breathe; to them, it was revolutionary.” Read more about both Grebel and other reformers here.
“If we would rise into that region of light and power plainly beckoning us through the Scriptures of truth, we must break the evil habit of ignoring the spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen.” —A.W. Tozer
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.” —Pablo Picasso
Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace has a great strategy for responding to skeptics who claim that the Bible contradicts itself.
Leaders need to give others confidence to try something new. We need to help people get moving so that we can coach what they are doing. For more great leadership insights, check out The Craig and Greg Show.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
A couple of thought-worthy quotes for pastors. First from David Mathis: “Pastors, observe that in and of itself, mocking is no clear reflection of the faithfulness or fruitfulness of preaching Christ. Wise preachers do not take mocking as an indicator of failure, nor as an indicator of success. Twice in Athens some mock Paul, which may seem like a failure compared to his homiletic triumphs elsewhere. However, others say, ‘We will hear you again.’ And then, in the end: ‘some men joined him and believed’ [Acts 17:32-34]. … How foolish it would be to distract ourselves with the mockers. Or to call special attention to the mocking as some great badge of our own faithfulness. Rather, we have the example of Paul at Mars Hill, who, so far as we can tell, wholly overlooks, with a holy disregard, these mockers and concerns himself instead with those asking honest questions.”
…and then one from John Piper: “Preaching is a happy business. Because even if the text is a hard word that devastates the hearers, the preacher connects the hard word with the gracious word and the hopeful word, and he catches them as they fall. So, in the end, all preaching is a happy business.
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower
“For condemnation to work, we must say to God what the devil has said to us and believe it. If I want to stand before God with excuses that make what He said to me void, I’ll have to quote the devil to God. Does that sound like a good thing to do? God’s will for me is not to condemn me, but to liberate me from everything that holds me back from being what He created me to be through an ongoing relationship. To accomplish that, I need to do the opposite of what I used to do when I walked in condemnation. Instead of quoting to God what the devil is saying, I quote to the devil what God has said.” —Jim Wiegand, in Recruiting To Releasing
Another great story from the “Here We Stand” series of biographies of notable people during the Reformation. “An attendant asked [King Henry VIII] whom he wished to have at his bedside. The king asked for Thomas [Cranmer]. By the time Cranmer arrived, King Henry was unable to speak. Foxe tells the story. ‘Then the archbishop, exhorting him to put his trust in Christ, and to call upon His mercy, desired him though he could not speak, yet to give some token with his eyes or with his hand, that he trusted in the Lord. Then the king, holding him with his hand, did wring his hand in his as hard as he could (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 748).’ The scene sweetly punctuates the most important friendship in the English Reformation. Whatever King Henry believed when he squeezed Cranmer’s hand that day, God used the bond between them to break England free from Roman Catholicism and to recover the one true gospel.”
The ICR reports, “Genesis claims that people in the pre-Flood world routinely attained 900-year lifespans. The best-known example is Methuselah, who had the longest recorded lifespan of 969 years (Genesis 5:27). Skeptics dismiss these great ages as fanciful legends, but recent fossil data are providing unexpected, albeit indirect, corroboration of the Bible’s testimony.” Check out this full report.
“In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.” —Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft
Leaders would help their teams by (1) having shorter meetings, and (2) ensuring their language is clear and concise. Check out the full conversation about “Jargon” on this episode of the Craig and Greg Show. 
Craig T. Owens 