Category: Photos

Happy New Year!

God has been faithful for another year, providing faith and understanding into his Word, family times together, friendships, work, food, money, health, energy, and more!

James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” I thank the Lord for everything.

I continue to serve with joy as full-time pastor of Lake Shore Church in Chicago. What a privilege! I love the people God has given us and the work of making disciples who make disciples, the work of evangelism and preaching.

My wife Nancy remains healthy and vigorous and loves helping family. I thank God for her, and for all my sons, their wives, and our six grandchildren. (Missing from this photo are Brian and his family)

Much of my study and reading in Scripture this year has been in Psalms and in the Gospel of Luke because I have been preaching through both on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. This has been a spiritual feast. I love God’s Word, by which I fellowship with him and know him.

You can listen to my recent message from Luke titled “A Beautiful Mind.” For other audio recordings of sermons on Luke, see here.

Scripture memorization has an increasing role in my devotional time. It facilitates Bible meditation, prayer, and worship, and renews my mind. It increases my faith. Among other Scriptures, this year I have focused persistent efforts in memorizing Isaiah 58, which has been challenging, but rich and edifying.

The highlights of my reading this year have been the following books: The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith, by John MacArthur; Gospel Assurance and Warnings, by Paul Washer; The Barbell Prescription, by Jonathon Sullivan and Andy Baker.

Nancy and I are both training with barbells several times a week.

This year was my best ever in evangelism on the sidewalk. I went out 41 times and proclaimed a hopeful, three-sentence gospel message to 5,774 passers-by, of whom 1,524 took gospel pamphlets. The three sentences are: “God raised Jesus from the dead. So there is hope for everyone who follows him. In a world of death and evil, there is hope in the Son of God.” (The pamphlet I hand out is an abbreviation of the article Four Things You Need to Know about God, by Ray Comfort.)

I am thrilled to have created an email book titled Nice Is Not Enough: 15 Marks of Faith According to Jesus. It’s a free book delivered one chapter per week by email. I am now at work turning it into a paperback to be self-published on Amazon. To get the email book for free starting today, sign up here.

My prayer for you is the prayer of the apostle John: “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.” (3 John 1:2 ESV)

Happenings

–In May I attended the Discipleship.org conference in Indianapolis. I heard several motivating and instructive messages and got some excellent books. Thanks to Tom McElroy from Navigators Church Ministry for making my attendance possible and for letting me ride with him there and back.

–I either got a new neighbor upstairs or my old neighbor recently got a big dog who likes to whoof and whoof and whoof. Pray for us.

–I’m spending many hours working on the technology of our church using Subsplash for our website, app, livestream, and online giving.

–My son Mark had a major healing from digestive troubles that he had suffered for several years. Thanks be to God, our healer!

–In our church I am preaching through the Gospel of Luke, now in chapter 7. Jesus is awesome!

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Most recent Bible memorization and meditation

Luke 6:46–49. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

“Coincidentally” I saw this week that John Piper has a new book coming out titled All That Jesus Commanded. I think I’ll read that.

My next theme

Last week I finished the series on being “Tested by Truth and Error.” My next series is on “Understanding God’s Jealousy.” That is not exactly a warm and fuzzy topic, but it is must reading for those who want to know and love God as he truly is. He says numerous times that he is a jealous God, and he even says that his very name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14). That’s important. That is a truth with which we need to come to terms. So join me by reading here beginning next Monday. Your reward will be a deepened relationship with our greatest Treasure, the God of all things.

Recent reading

Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? By L. Michael Morales. This is not light reading, but it is rich biblical theology on Leviticus. Yes, you read that right. I am reading a book on the theology of Leviticus. Why? Because Leviticus is concerned with God’s holiness, and that is a subject I want to understand as deeply as I can. When Jesus said that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, do you know what Old Testament Book he was quoting from? You guessed it (19:18).

The Complete Book of Discipleship, by Bill Hull. I have heard of Bill Hull for a long time but never read anything by him, so I picked this up at the conference. I’m on page 35, and I now know why Bill Hull is an important writer on discipleship.

Prayer and Fasting, by Roadcup and Eagle.

Reading and rereading: Isaiah. 2 Corinthians.

Botany for Gardeners, by Brian Capon. I’m not a gardener, but this is extremely interesting. Each time I pick it up, I am left marveling at our Creator.

King Jesus and the Beauty of Obedience-Based Discipleship, by David Young. Why had I never heard of this book or this author?