The recovery of long-lost truth is as exciting and rewarding as the discovery of a buried treasure. It even precipitates a “gold rush” of sorts, with many rushing to launch a caravan to the field of discovery. Others take off helter-skelter, hoping, with a minimum of equipment, to scrounge a nugget or two before the riches are gone.

What was it like to be around Jesus? What kind of person was He? How did He deal with the problems of life? How did He deal with unusual people–people with unusual backgrounds, circumstances or needs? How did He speak to the common person on the street? How did He view people and circumstances differently from the way we often do?

Over the years as I have spent much time in ministry and counseling, I have come to believe deeply that the Bible is so true when it speaks of Satan being a liar and murderer. Not only do I know it to be true because the Bible says so, but also because I have seen so many Christians who have been deceived by many of Satan’s lies.

How do we distinguish the seeker-driven, need-oriented church from the one that is biblio-centric in nature? (The Bible is central.) After all, they look very similar, right? They certainly both seem to preach the Bible.

Debbie and I recently celebrated our fortieth anniversary. We decided that we would take the week off and combine a week’s vacation with our fortieth anniversary celebration.

One of the great sections of Gary Thomas' book, Seeking the Face of God, has to do with “entering the quiet.” This refers to disciplines which believers must learn in order to keep their souls quiet before God. Such disciplines keep the noise and detractions around us out of our souls, or to say it another way, they mitigate the distractions which often lure our souls away from a moment by moment, personal, and intimate commune with God.

I have had this gnawing within me for a while that those Patriarchs of the faith in centuries past probably knew more about the pursuit of God than most of us today. That is why I found Gary Thomas’ book, Seeking The Face of God, so refreshing and enlightening. Seeking the Face of God is replete with quotes and description of the church fathers (and mothers) down through the centuries that had a burning passion to know God.

This past Sunday I talked about our approach to Ministry. I shared the four-fold plan for disciple-making that our Lord left us found in the book of John.  We concluded with looking at our Evangelism Infrastructure and Discipleship Infrastructure.

I sometimes scratch my head when I hear Christians talking about holiness. I get this impression that they are talking about something that is out of reach for all believers yet something that all should aspire to obtain. There is no doubt that we need to recognize and ascent to the reality that God is a holy God.

When sin has it way with us, we are often devastated and quick to believe Satan’s statements of shame that tell us that we are failures and we will never fly as high for Christ again. The book entitled, Seeking The Face Of God, speaking profoundly to this subject. Again, let me share some of the insight.