Pastor Tom's Community

We cannot love our neighbors as ourselves if we refuse to take the effort to see the world through our neighbors' eyes or try to imagine life in his or her skin. We cannot love our neighbor without learning to sing the songs of lament and the entire book of Lamentations. We cannot love our…

Prophecy – προφητεία – is "forth-telling" rather than just "fore-telling." It is speaking truth forward in proclamation and even in speaking encouragement toward a future reality that is understood through insights that God gives. It is not clairvoyance or mere prediction. It is laying out a reality and applying a scriptural promise in a setting…

"You, God, know my folly;my guilt is not hidden from you." – Psalm 69:5, NIV I do not know your folly. I am not absolutely certain that I know my own. God knows. Some may consider this bad news.  I consider it liberating and the ground upon which grace can build a house of witness…

"They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” – Revelation 17:14, NIV   It may seem like a slam-dunk to go to war against a lamb, but this Lamb does not win…

"Go and tell that fox …" Even in the flesh, Jesus is unperturbed by threats and plots. He says, "I will keep on doing the good I am doing and I will finish my course." That is all that is required … to keep on doing what we have been placed here to do until…

"Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Come tomorrow … Come tomorrow, what if Christians in our nation would make some resolutions like those I humbly and tentatively suggest below? I can only speak to and for Christians on this matter. People of other faiths and ideologies often…

"Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!"– Psalm 74:3, ESV Sometimes it seems hopeless; we feel invaded; conquistadors have entered the sanctuary and dismantled the holy places, desecrating all that is sacred. We complain to God because there is no where else to go. God, though indignant, is…

  From "The Shoestring Conspiracy" – Passion Let's face it. No ministry has enough resources to do everything God has called it to do. Churches are not goldmines. We often have to start small and do ministry on a shoestring. I have a series of chapters I have written on this subject out of experience…

    "The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, 'It is done.'" – Revelation 16:17, ESV There will come a time when "it is done." All of it will be done. Lots of us throw up our hands in…