Bringing Scripture to Life

This is a video of my son Jeremiah reciting Psalm 23 at age 4. 

BOOK SNAPSHOT:  "Unhealthy people pleasing is a common leadership problem among today's pastors, affecting more than 70 percent to some degree. Since it acts much like a virus, a strong leadership 'immune system' is needed to counter it. By incorporating insight from the Bible, family systems and neuroscience, a pastor can develop a healthy immune system. Because of the immature ways many of us handle ongoing negative emotions (chronic anxiety), people pleasing is mostly driven by the emotional parts of our brains rather than the thinking parts. When we grow in our emotional maturity (differentiation of self) in both our inner world (thinking and feeling) and our out world (individuality and connectedness), we are less apt to people please. We mature by developing others and ourselves into PRESENT leaders instead of pleaser leaders." (Charles Stone, People-Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Approval Motivated Leadership, p.25). This book has become on...

Have you heard of Emotional (or relational) Triangles before? Triangles are the essential building blocks of relationship systems. We can’t avoid them. If you spend any time with people, then triangles will always form. Leading Sociologists say that "emotional triangles" are a part of all relational systems, and even though these triangles are neither good nor bad, they have the power to wreak havoc in our relationships with others if we do not approach them in the correct way. A triangle is formed anytime three or more people are in a relationship together, and this in and of itself is neither good nor bad...  that is, until their is a  disagreement between two of the individuals within that triangle. Then, what takes place is that the remaining innocent party is lured into taking sides with one of the two individuals who are in a disagreement. Looking at the illustration (below) when PERSON 1 and PERSON 2 end up having a disagreement on ...

Every one of us have scars we have collected throughout our lifetime. Some are physical scars. Some are relational scars. Some are emotional scars, and some are spiritual scars. ALL SCARS are a reminder of a painful encounter or season in life where we suffered greatly. And yet, what we are going to discover over the next several weeks is the fact, that even though the scars we have collected throughout our life – in most cases – tell the story of pain, brokenness, and enormous suffering, ALL OF OUR SCARS are a powerful reminder of God’s love and God’s healing touch upon our lives. If you would like to begin a transformational journey through God's Word, in gaining a clear understanding of how to accurately interpret your relationship with God, in light of your painful past, and your current life situation, I would like to invite you to watch this past Sunday's sermon, SCARS: The Marks of Faith .