May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.” Psalm 35:27

When God delays in answering prayer (such as healing Lazarus), it is so that He might answer it in a different way (such as raising him from the dead) in order that He might receive more glory.

When God vindicates His servant leaders, He does so in order that those who support the leader may shout for joy and gladness and always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant.”  

The great aligning objective of man, the one thing that they can look to outside of themselves that will cause them to rise above themselves, the polar magnet that will cause the metal shards of our scrappy existence to pull together, is the in order that increased praise of and attributing worth to (i.e., worship of) God’s name and character.  

When working with...

Let’s face it, we often only leave a place of comfort when we are prodded, pushed or shoved. Most people have some resistance to change and stay in bad situations rather than to face the unknown. This is not true for everyone, but articles abound on why people say “the old is better.” The nation of Israel had arrived in Egypt hundreds of years prior and their temporary escape from famine-ravaged Canaan led to them falling in love with garlic, leeks and sunset cruises on the Nile. 350 years later a handsome young fellow was born, but things had started to get a little nasty for Jacob & Sons in North Africa. Infanticide was Pharaoh's latest trick to control the Jewish population; this was followed by slavery and hard labor. You would think people would rush for the EXIT sign, but they didn’t.

“Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians…’ but they did not listen to him...

I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. 

Jeremiah 32:39-41

Jeremiah had just got into real estate. He was living in confinement in the king’s courtyard because he was predicting the doom of Jerusalem and Zedekiah, its king. “The word of the Lord came to me…” God’s word is not constrained, even when our circumstances have us imprisoned. “Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field…’” They were in a real estate slump. Nebuchadnezzar was besieging the city, and the prophet himself...

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard  Psalm 62:11

What was it that God might have said—what one thing—that would cause David to hear two? I believe what we are seeing here is faith-based implicational thinking. If A is true, then B and C must also be true. Put another way, ‘If God promises me X, then he must be Y and Z, otherwise he could not make the promise.’ It is good to hang onto God’s promises, but it is a deeper thing to hang onto the God behind the promises.

David was not in good shape, it seems, and his enemies were out to cause him to crumble. While he admitted his condition (I am a leaning wall) he didn’t start with himself. He chose to start with God whom he describes this way: “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress…” He does the Math this way: ‘God is my fortress + I am a leaning wall = I will never be shaken.’ That is a pretty awesome reality! The formula is...

I have been thinking about faith this last week, probably because I have been into Hebrews—not the coffee shop at a hipster church… the book in the bible. There are an amazing number of deep one-liners in Hebrews. I read the first two or three chapters wondering, as some have postulated, whether Mary, Jesus’ mom, did write the book. It has a lot of “Listen up! This is my son and he is greater than all prophets, higher than all angels” themes in it. Later in the book I got more immersed in the concept of a brand new order where every follower of Jesus has gained access to the courts of heaven where their advocate represents them. I took a detour of sorts to learn more about Melchizedek.

Now I have arrived at the 11th chapter where clearcut definitions and examples of faith are supposed to be, and I find a messy collection of madmen going for moonshots. “I am pretty sure I heard God say he was going to give me a whole country… and me and my...

Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting. Leviticus 26:5

Even business leaders whose companies are doing well wonder whether their current business performance can be sustained. What if Scripture showed a possible way to avoid business downturns? The first thirteen verses of Leviticus 26 hold the conditions and the promises of sustained business performance. Our challenge is that we read it and think it is Old Testament mumbo jumbo and therefore miss the truth.

The conditions don’t seem that onerous: No idols of any sort, observe the Sabbath, reverence the sanctuary, follow God’s decrees, and obey his commands. What does this look like if we put that into New Testament speak—make that 21st Century language? 

• Idolatry for ancient Israel meant buying into the worldview and religious system that were not from God. In business this means basing our business practices on assumptions that are not...

Fires are raging on the West Coast of the US. Family and friends are posting images of eerily lit orange streets. In recent years there have been fires in Australia, Europe and Africa. Some of this is nature’s way of clearing out years of underbrush or propagating a species that needs fire to explode into new life. Some of it is of human making, like the fire set off at a party. Some say climate change is the cause—too much human intervention—and others claim there was not enough management of the environment. (For the record, I do not attribute God’s judgement to acts of nature.)

There are many perspectives… and the fires burn. Weeds and brush are burning, debris is turning into ash. Your heart stops, however, when you see old growth redwoods, hundreds of years old, going up in flames and family homes gutted by the blaze. In some cases a large percentage of towns has been decimated. 

As I was reflecting this morning on where we are in the world I...

…new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.
Isaiah 42:9

We know that our calling is derived from the calling of Jesus: how we should walk out this calling with an internal humility, and how our calling has no context without the unstoppable I AM being at the center of it all. 

6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; 

8 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. 

 9 See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."

There are four more things about the “how to” of this calling:

• It involves a new thing, not religion as usual (v9)
• The Father will reveal them to us (v9)
• It will mean being led “by ways they have not known” (v16)
• If we trust in the same old way, we will fail. (v17)

First, if you want business as usual then you don’t want your business to be in...

Some years ago we started spending most of the year in a coastal town called Melkbosstrand just North of Cape Town. A local pizza eating spot is called I Love Melkies and their sticker can be seen on cars in the area.

I think it is time to bring out an “I love Melchiz” sticker. Truth be told, Melchi of the Old Testament has one of those names it is easy to gloss over. He pops up obscurely then disappears into the background for about 1000 years until David gives him a fleeting mention. Then Melchi seems to vanish again until the book of Hebrews unpacks his significance. 

This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.”...

Religion can be a terrible thing when people get attached to the form of something and miss its essence.  About 500 years before Moses introduced the nation of Israel to the idea of having a whole tribe that were priests there was a man named Abram (which means exalted father) who encountered a guy who was both a king and a priest.  Abram recognized that this man was awesome and spontaneously gave him 10% of the loot that he had collected from a battle with a bunch of other kings. Then the man, who was a king-priest, refreshed Abie with wine and bread, and blessed Abram, giving him a new name... Abraham—father of many nations. 

Fast forward to Psalm 110 and King David gets a peep into heaven and observes a conversation between Father and Son. “The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool… The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow:
    “You are a priest forever in...