During the 10-day special morning prayer meetings we had last January, I preached from the book "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn. The subject of heaven made me think of my grandmother, whom I hope to see first when I go to heaven. My grandmother had a warm and loving heart. When I was in high school, most students wore army boots because they were inexpensive and durable. In the winter, she warmed my boots near the stove before I wore them so that my feet wouldn't get cold. When making soup, she always replaced the soup in my bowl with fresh soup from the pot right before I ate ...

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Our families used to be big, consisting of 3 or 4 generations living together. Intentional training of children wasn't necessary because children learned right behaviors by observing how their family members interacted with each other. Today, the nuclear family is the norm. Children can't learn right behaviors unless their parents intentionally teach them. Sadly, most young parents appear to be uninterested in training their children. They seem to think that their only responsibilities as parents are to meet their children's needs and fulfill their wishes. That's wrong. ...

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People have asked me: what's the retirement age for our Shepherds? There is no retirement age for Shepherds because shepherding is not a ministry but a lifestyle. Just as mothers and fathers never stop being mothers and fathers, Shepherds don't retire from being spiritual parents. Some of our current Shepherds are 70 years old or older, above the typical retirement age in the corporate world. When you want to make shepherding your lifestyle, you shouldn't be too anxious about your ministry results. You need to learn to enjoy ministry. When your ministry is fruitful, ...

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The heart of the Christian faith is loving relationships - a loving relationship with God and loving relationships with neighbors. A loving relationship with God can be expressed differently, just as you have different loving relationships with different people. In some families, children speak to their father very politely, as to a guest, and this respectful attitude doesn't mean there's no love between them. In other families, children talk to their fathers like friends, and this casual attitude doesn't mean there's no respect between them. Different children simply ...

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I don't like making a big fuss over small things. Before I became a Christian, to me a wedding ceremony was just a formal process that gave legitimacy to two people who wanted to live together. Accordingly, I felt that my own simple wedding ceremony, which was attended by only a handful of people, was still fussing over nothing and that the sooner we got it over with, the better. I feel that funerals are also things we can easily make too much fuss over. In my will, I've requested that my funeral ceremony be as simple as possible and that my body be cremated. I don't want ...

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Pluralism is the prevailing pathos of today. Many people believe that all religions - for example, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Confucianism - are essentially the same. Their goals are the same; only their methods differ. People who say this don't understand religion and obviously believe in none. If they did, they wouldn't say absurd things like this because the founders of these four major religions wouldn't agree. Would Mohammed say that Christianity and Islam are the same? No! He would say that Christianity is wrong because Christians believe that Jesus - whom ...

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We often hear from people who claim that they visited heaven. I often wonder if what they saw was truly heaven or if it's merely something that happened in their brains. My skepticism increases when even non-Christians report similar experiences. For the annual 10-day early morning prayer meetings in January, I've chosen to go over "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn. I'll preach from it as usual and I'd like you read it before you come. Alcorn is a seminary professor who has published many books. In this book, he describes what heaven will look based solely on Scripture. He ...

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