An Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew
An Introduction to the Gospel of Mark
An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke
Each of these introductions of the first three Gospels are an attempt to help you read each
of these books with the greatest benefit.
Barney's Best Message
I'm not really that arrogant. It's a play on words. Listen and you'll know what I mean.
Defeating Defensiveness and Overcoming Offenses
We've all been offended and have been defensive at one time or another. It's simply part
of living in this world as sinners among other sinners. This might help minimize the damage.
Do you have any idea how gifted you are?
The Church is not a "spiritual restaurant" where a few people do all the cooking of the food
and a few wear themselves to the bone serving the food, but most just eat, put on weight,
and tip the help on the way out! It should be more like a potluck - everyone brings
something to the table. This paper is about what God has given you to bring to the table.
He’s given you a gift, maybe more than one.
Foundations 101
Foundations 101 is designed for people in one of three different life situations:
Someone who as recently received Jesus as their Savior; someone who has
known the Lord for a while, but hasn't studied the basics of the faith; or someone
looking for a succinct way to teach new believers the foundations of the faith.
This series is all about digging down deep and laying a foundation so that you'll be
able to develop a solid and successful walk with Jesus. Throughout these chapters
we'll look at six fundamentals of the Christian life, six key sections of our faith's
foundation:
1. THE CROSS - (on being forgiven by God)
2. THE INNER-CHANGE - (on being changed by Jesus)
3. THE CONVERSATION - (on being a person who prays)
4. THE CHURCH - (on having fellowship with other believers)
5. THE SPIRIT - (on being empowered to reach out to other people)
6. THE WORD - (on being a student of the Bible)
Foundations 201
This a follow-up to "Foundations 101." In 101 we introduced six topics necessary
for new Jesus followers to study and understand in order to be strong in their faith.
These same themes will now be discussed here on a bit more advanced level for
those who have been born again for a while.
1. THE CROSS - (on being forgiven by God)
2. THE INNER-CHANGE - (on being changed by Jesus)
3. THE INTERACTION - (on having conversations with God)
4. THE CHURCH - (on having fellowship with other believers)
5. THE SPIRIT - (on being empowered to reach out to others)
6. THE WORD - (on being a student of the Bible)
7. THE KINGDOM OF GOD - Foretaste to Fulfillment
In 101 you learned how to get started as a Christian; in 201 you'll learn how to keep
going. The approach taken here is still very much foundational and fundamental, but
on a somewhat more mature and challenging level.
Funny Stuff That Happened To Me As A Pastor
Not all of ministry and church life is serious and hardship. Over the 30 years of pastoring,
some pretty weird things happened to me. Here are some of them.
God's Passionate Pursuit of People
Some things have been changing in my thinking about God. For instance, I’m noticing his
presence and influence in more places than I used to. I’m used to seeing him in the Bible,
in other people (mostly Christians), in my experiences in the Spirit, in the Church, in
sunsets, and such places. But I'm starting to think he plants ideas about himself in more
fields than I had previously thought. I’m also becoming more aware of his passionate
pursuit of people through those ideas that he’s sowing throughout the world. I just don’t
believe that God is sitting on his hands, waiting for people to come to him or for volunteers
for his sales team! I’m pretty sure that he’s already at work in every heart in every place
before anyone ever goes there to tell them about Jesus. Yeah, he’s patient but I don’t think
he’s at all passive. God is the ultimate missionary. He’s more obsessed about bringing his
children back home than we are in trying to convince them to do so; and he does
something about his obsession.
Help Is On The Way
I believe that Jesus is coming back. Here's my meager stab at how it happens.
How God Guides
… he will be our guide even to the end. Psalm 48:14
Along with what I’ve found in the Bible about how God guides, I’m going to share a lot of
my own stories. This topic isn’t theoretical for me. I’ve been trying to follow his lead since I
met him on August 20, 1972. I’ve seen the Lord do some very cool things as I’ve tried to
hear his voice and have made tons of mistakes in the process. It’s been quite a wild ride,
and I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way. I hope that my stories are an
encouragement to you (both my successes and failures). I’m not implying that my
experiences are necessarily a precedent for anyone else. You’ll have your own stories,
some of which you might not have thought about as “divine guidance.”
How To Get Integrated
This is a study on Romans 6 through 8. Those chapters are, in my opinion, the most
cogent in all the Bible regarding the power we have to live like Jesus.
How To Get More Out Of Your Bible
The Bible is a wonderful book! Here I share how to study and understand it better.
Learning Leadership Lessons from 2 Corinthians
Why 2 Corinthians?
To put it bluntly, 2 Corinthians saved my ministry. I’ve always said that there are two kinds
of spiritual leaders: Aspiring and Perspiring ones, and in the mid-1990’s I was one of the
Perspiring ones! There are some people who want to be leaders, and then there are
some, who at times, wonder why they ever became leaders in the first place! I was in one
of those dark-night-of-the-pastor’s-soul seasons (I’ve had several of these over the years)
when the Lord led me to take 2 Corinthians as a kind of prescription for what ailed me. I
had planted three churches and was leading two of them at the same time (don’t ask me
about the sanity of this!). I was in the throes of dealing with a bunch of my own
inadequacies, some significant disappointments that I had with the churches, and a whole
bag-full of hurt feelings. Not only did I feel like a failure, I couldn’t seem to get either God
or people to do what I wanted them to do. I went away for a few days to seek the Lord
and try to get my head together. I was pretty bummed out about how things were going,
when I found myself reading this letter over and over. I began to feel as though I was
attending a leadership class taught by Paul himself. While I’ll never be the leader he was,
from his letter and his example, I’ve gleaned (and continue to do so) many valuable
lessons about spiritual leadership.
Lessons of a Loser
I’m a huge loser. I’ve lost huge amounts of stuff, and I’m not talking about stuff like car
keys or socks (always just one per pair) in the dryer. I’m not whining or looking for
sympathy, I’m just setting the scene so you have some context for what I’ll share about
some of the lessons I learned through the losses I experienced. I’m not the only loser
around. Everyone’s lost something – a parent, a childhood, a friendship, a mind. What was
I saying? Oh yeah, I hope that something among these simple thoughts will help you in
some way as you process your own losses.
Loving An Unpredictable God
Over Chinese food my friend Joe asked me if my faith in God was in tact. I was getting
divorced, broke my neck, and was just diagnosed with cancer. He was concerned for me
and wanted to know how to best be a support to me in my dark night of the soul. I’d loved
Jesus for nearly forty years and had no intention of breaking up with him now. But I told
him that though I didn’t question God’s character, I wondered if he had very “good
judgment.” I’d been Joe’s friend and pastor for many years, and he wasn’t used to hearing
me talk quite that way, but since he asked, I thought it best to answer honestly. With
flushed face he promised to pray for me, which I obviously needed and gratefully
welcomed. That horrific season of my life did alter a lot of my thinking about God – and as
far as I can tell – for the better. You can be the judge of that yourself if you decide to read
on.
Making Adjustments
You can’t really plan for the unexpected, since by definition, you don’t expect it. We make
our plans, try to live as responsibly as we can, and trust God to do what he does.
Nevertheless, stuff happens in our fallen world inside and around our flawed selves that we
couldn’t have predicted. There’s the matter of the free-will experiment in which we’re
engaged (where we’re permitted to hurt ourselves and one another if we choose to). And
then there’s the factor of the clear and present danger of the dark spiritual world,
relentless in its hate for us and the God who loves us. We make plans, some of which are
thwarted, others were foolish and were thus doomed from the start. Regardless of the
cause, we have to learn to make adjustments on the fly. Life isn’t nearly as predictable as
we would wish, so detours are a more regular occurrence than we planned when we
embarked on the trip. So we have to learn to expect the unexpected, bring our fears about
them to God and adapt to what happens.
Once Saved, Always Saved. Is It True?
Here is my humble attempt to address the "Eternal Security" issue.
The Conversation
Let’s talk about “The Conversation” between us and the Lord. Call it prayer, devotions, or
quiet time (not my favorite terms). I’m partial to the term “Conversation” since it depicts a
back-and-forth, an exchange, an interchange between heaven and earth. I think praying is
more of a dialogue than we probably know. It’s not just us talking and him listening. When
we pray, something is coming from him, and then there’s something going back up to him
from us. Then he sometimes sends something back to us in the form of a response to our
prayer. What we have with God is a relationship, a fellowship with him that makes “The
Conversation” possible.
The Day I Got My Whatever Back
The core issue of my lost “whatever” was really a loss of trust. I simply didn’t trust God
like I had before. He’d let me down (at least from my vantage point at the time) and I
wasn't willing to expose myself unreservedly to him again. “Whatever you want, Lord” was
not going to proceed out of my mouth again until at least we got some things straightened
out between us.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
This is a paper on a not-very-often-addressed topic of the review and reward of all
Christians.
The Kingdom of God
Here, in a very brief study, I give my understanding of the Kingdom of God - past, present,
and future.
The Spirit-Filled Christian
We're told as Christians to, "Be filled with the Spirit." This paper is about how we go about
that and what we might expect as a result of that fullness.
Treating Timidity
Not to be harsh, but it’s my observation that a disproportionate percentage of American
believers in Jesus are timid in the expression of their faith. There are "don't-dare-miss-it"
people and then there are “don't-dare-try-it" ones. I think Christians should be more
courageous, not only out in the big bad world, but even among themselves in their
comfortable churches. Jesus has too many frail followers here – afraid to take any risks or
do anything for the first time. There’s something about our middle class suburban
spirituality that lulls us toward a tentative, rather than a forward form of faith.
When God Says Wait
In a time of profound suffering I discovered some things I hadn't seen before in the well-
known Philippians 4:6-7. This is a brief study on this passage.
Why I'm Still Following Jesus
(An Encouragement to Endure)
Quite a few people have expressed to me their surprise, that I’m still following
Jesus after losing my marriage, my ministry, and my health. I’m just as surprised as
they are that they are so surprised! It’s almost like they expect me to give up on the
Lord because he hasn’t given me what I want. Yeah, I’m way grieved about my
circumstances, pretty scared, and have had my moments of being ticked off with
him, but to stop following Jesus would be the height of stupidity. He’s my only
constant. I have no other hub around which to revolve. I may have very little idea
about what he’s doing, and why he allows what he does, but I know he’s with me
and loves me extravagantly. Why in the world would I leave the only purpose of my
life now? I’m still following Jesus because he’s real and he’s still real important to
me.
Wigetisms
I make up words and definitions to things. It's just something I do. It might amuse, and
even edify you to read this.
Y 4 Gospels?
Have you ever thought about why the Bible has four biographies of Jesus? While they have
many similarities, they are also quite different from each other. This should help you read
the gospels for all they're worth.
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