15. Get out of debt if you can.These days it’s possible to accumulate $30,000-$60,000 in debt by the time you graduate from college. You could double that when you add in three or four years of seminary. You owe it to yourself and to the ministries you serve not to start with a heavy load of debt hanging over your head. That may mean taking f…
I’m doing live radio this morning on AFR Talk Radio from 11 AM-12 Noon Central Time. To listen live, click on the link and then click on “AFR-Talk.” You can also watch the video stream live….
8. Travel.In earlier generations travel was expensive and difficult. Today it’s no big deal to go online, book a ticket, and fly to Spain or China or Kenya or Chile. Tom Friedman is right. The world is flat, and the future belongs to those who have multicultural experience. So take a semester and study abroad. Build an orphanage in Ecuador. G…
Twice in the last week I have been asked what advice I would give to a young person preparing to go into the ministry. The question is so broad that it defies an easy answer. So much depends on the person, their background, and their sense of God’s calling. I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. But when you…
Several weeks ago Paul Bubar asked if I would speak last Wednesday night at a church about an hour north of Word of Life. During the drive to the church, Paul and I talked about his fifty years of service with Word of Life. At one point he mentioned that in the early 70s, he had invited Dr. Lee Roberson, noted pastor and founder of Tennessee Temple…
If your heart needs some encouragement, check out this YouTube video of David Phelps singing “No More Night.” …
Check out Comfort Cafe, “an ezine and resource center offering women facing difficult life challenges hope, help and healing.” This month’s theme is “coping with divorce.” Ruth Wood, the editor, told me they are featuring three of my messages. …
All week long, at the beginning of every class session on Galatians, I haev been repeating this statement:When we are wrong about the gospel, two terrible things happen:Sinners are not saved, andGod is not glorified.That’s the heart of the message of Galatians. We can’t afford to be wrong about the gospel.Today when I finished my final …
Yesterday during the second hour I recruited two students to help me explain the difference between the law and the promise in Galatians 3:17-18 because it’s not the easiest concept to understand. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the p…
This week I finally decided to start Twittering. Note the capital “T” because Twitter refers to the latest and greatest social networking craze. If you Facebook, think of Twitter as the status line at the to of the page that tells what you are doing at the moment. When you Twitter, you write down (in 140 characters, words and spaces) wh…