In the previous blog post (see here), I wrote about waking up earlier so that a person can have extra dedicated time to spend with the Lord in prayer and meditation before the day begins and before everyone else gets up. It's a good idea if…

I spend anywhere from 3-4 hours per day engaging in spiritual practices as a modern monastic. As someone who has multiple responsibilities as a husband, father, and employee, it can be hard to find time throughout the day to actually do this. I seem to be on…

I don't like saying long prayers for people. This might seem a bit strange to say outright given that I serve God as a pastor. Isn't praying for other people one of the main things I do? Now notice that I didn't say that I don't like to pray for other people. I certainly…

I live in a part of the world that has, relative to other countries, an abundance when it comes to material wealth and possessions. It's not uncommon here to see large homes, luxury cars, and designer-branded clothing. Some people see these material possessions as…

Will longer prayers be heard by God more than shorter ones? Not necessarily. Longer prayers aren't necessarily better at getting God's attention than shorter prayers. Some people mistakenly think that longer prayers are better. This idea isn't found in the Bible. In fact, Jesus seemingly tried to dissuade us from

Several months ago, I attended a conference with other pastors and Christian leaders. I arrived at the conference center quite early on the second day of the event when the hotel staff was still setting up. As I entered the area where the conference was being held, I spotted one of the hotel staff members singing (quite loudly, I must add) the lyrics to…

There's a story in the Old Testament of the Bible that haunts me. It's a story of two people who were supposed to be serving God as His leaders but they were doing such a poor job at it. They were actually "priests" in God's service and they were treating the sacrifices to God with such contempt by…

A couple of months ago, I attended a webinar where people were discussing the topic of clergy burnout. A substantial number of pastors and ministry leaders are burning out and leaving the ministry. This is not a surprising idea. This has been a reality for a while now. But what…

"I need to stay closely connected to Jesus." This is a statement I repeat to myself often. Accomplishing this activity every single day is harder than it looks. It's so easy to get distracted during the day with the work that I need to finish, family responsibilities that I need to fulfill, and errands that I need to do. I can…

Don't you sometimes wish you could predict the future? I know this ability would definitely help me prepare a lot better for what's to come in my life. But alas, we can't predict the future and perhaps that's for the best anyway. Do I really…