I just had the kids pull a shirt that I wanted to wear out of the washing machine that hadn't been started yet. It must be clean, right, because it was in the washer?

Thousands of people will go to church tomorrow on the same basis - hoping that being in the proximity of cleansing will make them clean. It doesn't work that way. Christ's blood must be applied personally to be effective.

Receive Christ personally. Walk with God personally. Then church will make a difference - both TO you, and THROUGH you.

Sometimes ministries become like the parking lot that I'm sitting in - highly specialized. By the time I found a parking spot that was not designated for someone (loyalty members, online orders, handicapped, veterans, families, etc), I'm pretty sure that I was in the next county.

If we're not careful in the ministry, we will become so targeted in our specialties and outreach, that we drive away the one who simply wants to learn to have an old- fashioned, daily, step-by-step walk with God.

May we be able to say with Paul in Acts 20:26-27, "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. (27) For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

The Apostles declared (starting with Peter at Pentecost) that we are in the last days. We've spent 2000 years rightly expecting the imminent return of Christ. Imminence is not the problem - it is that we have forgotten that imminence is tied to the Great Commission. Each time that He was asked about His return or about the establishment of the earthly Kingdom, Christ seemed to point His disciples to their responsibility to reach the whole world with the Gospel. This was Paul's driving force, and he believed that Christ's coming was soon, not based upon a calendar date, but based upon the great traction they experienced in fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching the whole world with the Gospel. If we want imminence, we must be serious about the Gospel.

I think that one of the greatest dangers to the Christian home today is a dating spirit mixed with matchmaking family members. This creates a constant dissatisfied state where one is essentially practicing for divorce and heartache.

If, instead, we realize that God made ONE woman (Eve) for ONE man (Adam), and that God did not give them the freedom to date around, we can give our young people hope and the focus to walk with and work for God while waiting for Him to bring the perfect mate that He has designed - just for each one of them.