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God has graciously provided for me to attend seminary part-time. We’ve already had a little banter on Cross Connection about the ‘semantic range’ of the word seminary, specifically whether or not cemetery is in the gloss. All humour aside, a relevant issue is keeping your faith vibrant in seminary. This statement does not imply that …

I love how imaginative my kids are. Ethan (4 years old) and Addie (soon to be 3) have super vivid imaginations (I’m sure Eva does too, but she’s only just turned 1). The other day while driving home from Costco we had one of their movies playing in the back seat. During the “moral of …

A term you may hear thrown around a lot these days is the word Missional. You may have wondered what it meant, who was behind it, and who is being Missional. The church loves to name movements within. We have had the Great Awakening, The Azusa Revivals, and The Jesus Movement to name a few. …

One Woman’s Story  A couple of weeks ago in our Men’s Bible Study Calvary Chapel Santa Cruz we looked at the subject of repentance. For many guys, a surprising aspect of that study was the fact that repentance is not only for the time one initially responds to Christ. Repentance is for Christians as well …

Just hours before His arrest and brutal death, Jesus shared some final thoughts with His closest followers. One of the sentences that He spoke to His apostles contains applicable truth that every missionary needs to have spoken to them on a regular basis. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you …

In keeping with the theme of my last few posts on doing what is hard and not resting in past victories or stalling out in our spiritual growth… I’d like to share a bit from a sermon I just taught on Habakkuk. In the first two chapters of Habakkuk we see a man struggling with …

In my spiritual journey God has used a number of things to shape me.  I think I accepted Christ at a Tuesday night Bible study that was at a Vineyard church.  From there I started attending Horizon, then to The Rock when Miles McPherson launched it, then to a little Mexican church in National City, …

Yesterday I finished preaching through the book of Jonah (listen here). In the last couple verses, there is a powerful contrast where God says to the comfort-seeking prophet, “You pity the plant…” In the next verse God then says, “I pity Nineveh…” The word pity (ḥûs) used here in Hebrew carries the idea of teary-eyed …

For many Evangelical Baby Boomers the word Millennial is connected to the “End Times.” This is largely due to the fact that one of the hallmarks of American evangelicalism in the last 50 years has been a vivid end times discourse. But in our 21st century American Lexicon, Millennial has a greater connection to the …

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: – Psalm 50:14   I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. – Psalm 69:30   Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. – Psalm 95:2 …