Podcasts + Posts

Every few weeks, I'll talk to someone who's nervous about some of the "things we're into." They're nervous about essential oils. Vitamins. Supplements. Or even some of the things I've taught about laying on of hands or frequency.

Here's why: they assume that everything we know about God can fit into a tight theological box. One with nice corners. Tidy seams. Even a bow on top. 

Truth is bigger + better than all of that. 

In fact, I don't even think that truth is founded inside of theological constructs like propositions and statements and confessions. Truth is found inside of those, but it's not grounded there. Each of those boxes all point to something larger. 

You, truth is not found in a package of tidy words, truth is found in a person. In fact, ruth is a person; truth is embodied in a person; and all truth belongs to that person (John 14:6).

Who has the unique angle on truth?

This isn't a new issue. Church people have debated it for...

We built a zip line in our backyard from some scrap wood we had after sodding the yard and re-arranging the stairs on our deck. For about a year, the kids never had an issues with it. 

No falling. No bleeding. No screaming...

Those were the basic rules governing my agreement to our boys’ requests for the contraption in the first place. As long as no one falls off, gets hurt, or fights about the whole thing… we’re good.

That plan worked flawlessly for about 720 days or so- almost two years. Then, one afternoon, Mini (that’s what we call Miriam, our youngest girl) hit a snag in the line when she was about 10 feet in the air. She fell, landing on our wrist. 

I heard the little "thud" in the backyard, as I was sitting on the deck just 20-30 feet away. 

To her credit, she followed two of the three rules. No bleeding. No screaming… 

At first, it seemed like everything was fine. She was shaken up a bit, but was easily...

One of the first miracles Mark records is Jesus healing a leper (see Mark 1:40f.). There’s an interesting nuance about the entire story that I’ve read over and over and always missed…

Jesus touched the leper rather than simply healing Him with a word. Even though He heals many others with His words only. Even though He actually performs “long distance” miracles, healing events in which someone visits Him one village and asks for healing for a person in another village.

Why touch the leper?

It seems odd, particularly when you realize that the leper was healed as soon as Jesus spoke: “As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed” (1:42).

Furthermore, lepers weren’t supposed to be touched. People believed that if you touched a leper that you, too, became unclean. 

Perhaps that IS the issue here. Jesus touched him because the leper needed to be touched more than he needed anything else, including...

To encounter YOU is to encounter the presence & power of the Kingdom. End of story. 

But let me explain… 

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a jillion times. I mean, if we're completely honest with one another, I've actually said it- or something like it: 

“I need to get spiritually re-filled.” 

Or- “I need to get ‘connected.’”

And- “I’m spiritually dry…”

The implication from these statements is that, somehow, we're missing something, that we're spiritually empty...

We measure the things that matter to us the most

I was running through my neighborhood one morning, praying and thinking as I moved through the city’s streets. (Our house is awesomely loud = running through the streets seems to be one of my “getaway” times.)  

One particular morning, at some point, my thoughts shifted to how, particularly in our city, we’ve shifted from the idea of a...

I worked in a rehab /re-entry / restoration center for about 7 years. Actually, 8 years- if you count my year-stint working under a grant program at the other one.

One thing I noticed is this: the boomerang. A lot of people walked through the front doors of our ministry center to receive help, they got it, and then they went back to the same lifestyle they were living before. Some of them did this multiple times.

In fact, once you get in "rehab circles," it's not odd to meet someone who's been in and out of all of them in a single city. You read that right. They've done this 90-day program, that 6-month one, that 30-day treatment, that 45-day...

In just a few years, they've received more help from more people than most people ever thought possible... yet nothing has changed.

It's almost like it doesn't matter how much the external circumstances change ("If I can just go to the place... or if I can just get that ____________... or if...

The message of Jesus is bigger than the forgiveness of sins. The Gospel affects all of life. Jesus desires for the Kingdom to come present, now. The goal isn’t simply to get people to Heaven; the goal is also to get Heaven to people.

Some background on that...

At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, we read that Mary was told to name her child Jesus. His name actually means “salvation, deliverance.” The angel told her, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 

The name Jesus, Yeshua, actually means “salvation.” That is, “Name the baby Salvation because He will save…” Salvation is Jesus’ very identity. 

Jesus came to save people in a far greater way than we may have thought, however. It’s important to note that Jesus came to offer a complete salvation, a salvation that affects the entire person.  

Throughout the story of His life on earth, we...

You can feel better right here, right now. Yes, you've got far more control over how things go than you might suspect. 

Many of us have- at some point or another- fallen victim to the "victim mentality." We say things like- 

* "I got the bad side of the gene pool."

* "My genetics are wrong."

* "I have a predisposition for ______________________."

I get it. Sometimes, those things are true. Sometimes. 

And, yes, they're true just enough times that we believe them to be true all of the time. However, doctors are now telling us that most illness and disease is merely 5% genetic and a whopping 95% environmental. 

By "genetic" they mean exactly what we attribute most everything to- our DNA. Our heredity. What we got from our parents. 

By environmental, they mean... well... things like...

* What we eat

* What we do when we're active (lifestyle choices)

* How often we choose not to be active- i.e., we don't need to be sedentary but we do need rest (a major...

I'm not much on over-promising. Just the opposite. I like it when others under-promise and then over-deliver, so I try to do the same thing.

That said, there's one "tool" I've learned (I didn't make it up, in other words- someone taught it to me) that works for healing 99.99999999% of the time. 

Dare I say it works 100% of the time? Yes, it's that good...

First, why- and then what

Let me tell you why it works, first...

Basically (and this is the way simplified version of it, OK?), your limbic brain manages your memories and handles your emotions. The two are often connected.

Sometimes, there's a positive aspect to it. You remember something exciting- and there's emotion attached to it. Feeling. Heart.

Many times, though, there's a negative association. You remember a painful person, place, or thing... and there are emotions attached to it, too. Your heart might start beating faster, your speech may become more intense and...

Quick question- How many of Jesus' miracles weren't miracles?

Yeah. Sounds kind of heretical to even ask it doesn't it?

Turns out, there are a few different words in the Bible used for "healing." Let's break them down...

One word, iaomai, means "instant healing." It's abrupt. It's cataclysmic. It changes things immediately.

I've seen iaomai firsthand.

* I watched it when my brother's eye was healed (he scratched it rushing through trees in the backyard when we were kids and wasn't supposed to be able to see out of it, again, when we were kids).

* I saw it when my little sister's heart murmur was healed... Now, the doctor uses the chart of her first heart rhythm to teach was a bad heart is like- and he uses the second to show what a perfect heart is like...

The tension for me is this...

Jesus said that we would lay hands on sick people and they would recover (Mark 16:15f.). He said we would do greater works than He did because He was going to the Father...

Some people are hoping for a miracle. That's their health plan. And, let's be honest, sometimes that's exactly what's needed- a miracle. 

However, even if a miracle comes, you'll need to manage it, to steward it... in the same way lottery winners have to manage their money.

Ask the tough questions with me...

• Why do most of the people get a financial windfall- be it through the lottery, through a large inheritance, or through a huge sports contract- go broke within just a few years?
• And why do some people "lose" their healing?

I don't know about you, but I've seen people healed of something- radically, miraculously- and then watched it all go away. It's almost as if the healing never happened. Honestly, I struggled with this concept for a few years.

Why does the healing disappear?

One day it dawned on me...

I was watching an ESPN documentary about professional athletes- how many of them earn incredible sums of money (in the millions, overnight!),...