Lovin' Tellin' The Story

Photo courtesy of Czarephani I was contemplating the idea of change today when the Lord gave me a beautiful metaphor that I think is worth sharing. You see change is one of those things that, even though it is inevitable, we often resist it. Sometimes it is good to resist change because it is for the worse but the opposite is also true and if change is for the better and brings us closer to the will of God we need to do it whether we like it or not. Change though, however necessary, can break people and organizations if not done with care. This is where the metaphor comes into play. My grandmother on my mother's side of the family, Mimi to be exact, used to weave baskets. She made big baskets, small baskets, round baskets and square baskets. There were all kinds and made out of all shapes and sizes of wood slats. One day I was with Mimi and Pop-pop down at the lake house and she was going to teach me how to make a basket. Well, the first thing that we had to do was take all t...

Photo courtesy of Ryas More thoughts from the National Conversation on Revival. On the evening of the first day of this conference Erwin Lutzer, pastor of the Moody Church, gave a talk entitled "The Eclipse of Christ in the World and His Church." Without going into too much detail about his talk I will summarize it by saying; throughout history, and particularly today, Christ has been shoved into a secondary role in the Church. He used Gnosticism, Sacramentalism, Rationalism, Historicism and Liberalism as examples of ways that Christ was removed from His throne and put in the back seat in favor of some fad of human wisdom. While Liberalism may be one philosophy that effects the Church today there is another that is, perhaps, a more sinister invader and it is one the evangelical community has embraced many times. What I'm talking about is the "Church growth" models. I'm sure many of us have heard of the Saddleback church, the Willowcreek Community and I...

Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear, me, the chief of sinners, spare?  Charles Wesley I want to begin this post with a simple question, "How deep is God's grace and mercy?" Perhaps another way of stating it is, "Are there some sins beyond the redeeming reach of Christ?" The verse that immediately comes to everyone's mind is Mark 3:29 which says, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. Now there is much speculation and debate about what this verse means and questions about how exactly one blasphemes the Holy Spirit. I don't want to get into all those details here 1) because that is not the point of this post and 2) I don't have clear answers to give myself. What I will say is this, I believe that if you are worried about having blasphemed the Holy Spirit...you probably haven't. Why do I say that? Simply because the Holy Spirit ...

I want to depart from the normal content briefly and give some tips on achieving tax exempt status for your organization. When I first realized that I was going to have to go through this process I was terrified. There was no way I wanted to deal with the IRS or the NC Secretary of State. To be sure, there is a certain intimidation factor to government applications, especially when they are asking for a tax break! What I want to give you here are some good resources that will make the process easier and cheaper. Cheaper is the key word. By far the easiest way to get your organization up and running is by hiring a lawyer skilled in tax code and law. However, if you are like me, and perhaps many non-profit organizations, you don't have mountains of money to sink into the process. My goal was to spend as little as possible and do whatever I could on my own. Yes, this led to many stressful moments and perhaps some mistakes but, at the end of the day Number 156 Ministries was granted 50...