We have been blessed by a core leadership team and staff that has been together many years. As a result, we have been through many battles together. I don’t think anyone enjoys conflict, but they nevertheless thrive on it. They come alive with focus and resolve when there are attacks. Even so, we have some that I have watched recoil with every new attack. Their first tendency is to draw back and retreat, but when they fortify themselves in the Lord, they tend to be the ones who stand with great endurance. On the other hand, the ones whose first...

After speaking at an NFL team chapel, I was invited to join the team for dinner before the game. I ended up sitting with a group that included a winner of the Heisman Trophy, the award given to the best college player in the country. The other players at the table were also some of the best at their positions. I asked all of them how they achieved what they did, and each one related how they started out very young with a devotion to be a professional football player. Then they became focused on a single position. They...

Leonard Jones has been our chief musician and main worship leader since the beginning of our ministry. Sometimes he gives a one or two-minute teaching while leading worship that can be as profound and important as any sermon. He also writes a daily blog for our website that I read every day because they are either profound or just timely truths. Recently, he talked about how agitated he gets when he sees musicians using worship to practice, rather than using practice to worship. I know Leonard lives this, too. He is a world-class musician, and I have heard some...

Last week we discussed how the most successful in any field are usually those who do the basics the best. I am sure you have noticed how I repeat some of these principles. I may try to say them a little differently, using different stories, but they are nevertheless the same principles. I am trying to make the teaching interesting and effective. Repetition is required in developing any skill, including Christian character. The wise embrace repetition and are always those who are the most serious about training and practice. The wise never waste an opportunity to review a truth and...

We are taught in Romans 1 that we have all been given a conscience, and the ability to follow it or not follow it is in our power. The resolve to follow our conscience, or what we perceive to be right or wrong, is the basis for character. Our character is strengthened by good teaching and training. This is why we have teaching and study as basic Christian disciplines, and the better it is, the more disciplined the people will tend to be.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. There are some amazingly disciplined people who have had...