Quick show of hands. Are you a real Christmas tree person? How many of you cut down your own tree? It’s always good to know who owns chainsaws. I grew up with fake Christmas trees. Back then, they were really bad fake trees. Today, they look almost perfect. They never drop needles. They never need water. They look alive. But no matter how realistic they appear, they are still plastic. They will never grow. You can water them, plant them in the ground, and give them sunlight. Nothing will happen. They are not alive. Unlike fake trees, every person has a root system. The question is not whether you have roots. The question is where you are putting them. Some of us plant our roots in comfort. Others in control. Some in success, approval, or how many people liked our latest post online. And it matters, because whatever you are…
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In 1994, Jim Collins wrote Built to Last. He asked a simple but profound question: Why do some companies endure while others, just as promising, fade away? His conclusion was clear. Lasting success is not built on what’s trendy. It’s built on deep values and a strong foundation. What Collins put into words in 1994, the apostle Paul was teaching nearly 2,000 years earlier. People still ask the same question today: How do you build a faith that actually lasts? That’s the question we’re exploring. And Paul addresses it head-on in two short verses from Colossians. A Young Church in a Noisy World Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians to a young church in a small town in what is now modern-day Turkey. Interestingly, Paul had never even visited the church. It was started by one of his coworkers, Epaphras. The believers in Colossae were surrounded by competing voices…
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From Casual to Committed You’ll learn pretty quickly that I enjoy a few things. Three in particular: coffee, baseball, and pickleball. Pickleball is fascinating to watch when someone first discovers it. They go all in. New paddle. New shoes. Matching outfits. Sometimes all in the same week. Anyone can start strong when something is exciting. That’s true for pickleball. It’s true for a business startup. And it’s true for following Jesus. The real question is this: are you still on the court when the enthusiasm fades and your knees are sore? In Colossians 2, the apostle Paul talks about how to move from being a casual Christian to a committed follower of Jesus. And his message is simple but challenging. The Christian life is not a one-time event. It is a daily walk with Jesus. Jesus Is Enough Paul wrote Colossians from prison to a group of new Christians he…
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History is full of incredible innovations: the printing press, antibiotics, artificial hearts, GPS. Each one changed the world. But here’s the thing ... what starts as groundbreaking eventually becomes ordinary. Nobody claps for the microwave anymore. The same danger exists with the church. Over the past 2,000 years, there has been no greater development than the creation of the church. Yet if we are not careful, we can let the church become so familiar that we forget how miraculous it really is. A Spirit-Empowered Story The book of Acts is the history book of the early church, written by Luke as a companion to his Gospel. If the Gospel is the story of Jesus, Acts is the story of how the church carried on his mission. Acts begins this way: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day…
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Anonymity can have its perks. Even celebrities get tired of cameras in their faces and fans asking for autographs. The only autographs I ever signed were at the bottom of checks ... and those were to pay the bills. As Jesus’ ministry gained momentum, anonymity became impossible. Crowds started to follow. Word about him spread quickly. But the real question was: did people actually understand who he was? In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples two questions. Question One: Who Do People Say I Am? “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’” (Matthew 16:13) They answered with what they had heard: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet. People admired Jesus. They respected him. But admiration is not the same as understanding. It’s possible to be sincere and still miss the truth about him.…
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