PTL Wednesdays

Families were stretched out along the shore enjoying a beautiful sunny afternoon when several young women walked by in bikinis that left very little to the imagination. It didn’t take long before heads began to turn. A group of young men suddenly lost interest in their volleyball game. As the women moved toward a row of lounge chair a few noble husbands quickly looked away while others were nudged by their wives before finally breaking their gaze. The young women giggled and smiled as the attention confirmed their choice of swimwear had done exactly what they’d hoped for… get the guys’ attention. Our culture says there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look sexy. But have you ever stopped to think about what that actually means? To look sexy is to present yourself in a way that invites sexual attention. It encourages others to focus on your body before they focus on you. People often call it confidence, but it’s really allowing your body to become the source of the attention you receive....

It wasn’t long after I posted a message on an atheist platform that my phone lit up with notifications. It started pinging so fast I couldn’t keep up. I expected pushback and disagreement, but one message in particular didn’t sit right with me. The reply was personal and disrespectful. Before I thought it through, I typed a response that matched their tone. As soon as I hit send I regretted it. I knew I hadn’t responded out of wisdom but out of emotion. By the time I went back to fix it, the damage of that quick reaction had already been done. He replied, “I thought Christians were supposed to be different and not trade insult for insult.” That moment showed something deeper than a bad reply. It showed how fast the flesh takes over when we feel attacked. In those instances, truth takes a back seat and pride takes over. We stop responding with wisdom and start defending ourselves. James 1:19 tells us to be slow to speak and slow to anger, but emotions flip that order in seconds. What sh...

“Once upon a time” (I always wanted to say that 😊), you heard the gospel and gave your life to Christ. That part may have seemed simple enough, but how do you go from living for yourself to living for Him? Faith marks the beginning of the Christian life but it was never meant to stop there. Faith is meant to grow into something more. It’s like the foundation of a house. The foundation matters, but it was always designed to support a finished structure. Faith is the foundation and love is the house that mature faith becomes. That’s the picture we see in 2 Peter 1:5-7. Christians are encouraged to build on their faith with qualities like virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. These qualities are not replacements for faith. They’re the evidence that faith is alive and growing. Genuine faith doesn’t stay stagnant. Over time, it becomes visible in the way a person thinks, lives, and treats others. Virtue matters because it’s the first visib...

Motherhood gives a clear picture of sacrificial love. A godly mother puts her children first in ways that often go unseen. Her time, energy, and comfort are regularly set aside for someone else’s good. I remember a time when my mom bought coats for my brother and me. As I was hanging mine up in the closet, I noticed hers was showing signs of wear. She just smiled and said she’d get herself one soon. She wore that same coat all winter. That’s the kind of love that carries a real cost. That moment stayed with me because it reflects something Scripture also reveals again and again. You see it in the story of  Moses . His mother, Jochebed, despite Pharaoh’s command to kill Hebrew baby boys, chose to trust God by placing her son in a basket and sending him down the Nile. You see it in Hannah, the mother of  Samuel , who prayed for a child and then gave him to serve God in the temple. You also see it in Mary, mother of our Lord and Savior, who endured the agony of watching her Son s...

Have you noticed how easy it is for people to build entire beliefs from just a couple of Bible verses? A big reason false ideas spread is that people take isolated passages and turn them into full doctrines while ignoring everything else scripture says. That kind of selective reading works great for the scammer in the pulpit telling you to take out a loan to get a “blessing,” but it doesn’t work when it comes to knowing the truth. That’s why it’s important to slow down and read the Bible as a whole instead of pulling isolated lines into a system built around one idea. Take for example how some verses seem to emphasize faith alone, while others emphasize works. Ephesians says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith…not of works” (Eph 2:8-9). If you stop there, it can sound like works have no role at all. But then the book of James says, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas 2:17). James even says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by fait...

My meetings took longer than I thought so I had to drive from Dallas to Houston late at night. I was on a dark stretch of highway when I felt the sudden thud of a flat tire. My heart sank when I realized I didn’t have a spare but I managed to reach the next exit. Relief quickly faded as I rolled into a dimly lit gas station in the middle of nowhere and found it was closed. When the tow truck finally arrived the driver said no one nearby could help but he knew of a 24 hour tire shop in Dallas. As he towed me all the way back I just sat there frustrated and tired as more time slipped away. I didn’t know it then but a storm hit Houston and flooded parts of the highway I was headed toward. What I thought was a setback was actually God stepping in. We get upset when plans fall apart and we question why things don’t go our way. Maybe you look at your life and wonder why you’re not where you thought you’d be by now. I know I have had times when I expected to be further along in my career and ...

I’ll never forget the time I was running late for work and I couldn’t find my keys. I tore the house apart looking for them. I had couch cushions on the floor, drawers pulled out and my frustration was building by the minute. I kept checking the same spots over and over like that was somehow going to help. I even started blaming my wife, convinced that she must’ve moved them. She calmly walked over and checked one of the places I had already looked. Of course she found them sitting in a kitchen drawer and I found myself owing her an apology. It wasn’t that the keys were hidden. It’s that I wasn’t really seeing what was right in front of me. That’s how it is with Jesus in the Old Testament. He isn’t missing. He’s woven throughout the whole story… hiding in plain sight. From the very beginning the Old Testament gives signs that point directly to Jesus. Right after the great fall God tells Adam and Eve that her offspring will crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). That’s the first hint ...