Lance Brown

Our desires are confusing things. Some are clearly wrong and some are clearly right. It is what the bible calls “deceitful” desires that trips us up. Chasing these usually leads to the exact opposite for that which we hope–great and lasting satisfaction. But “deceitful” desires are powerful. They won’t go without a tenacious fight within us. What…

Amos was a shepherd and a fig tree farmer. God gave Amos tremendous courage to confront both king, priests, and the people not only of their sins which deserved judgment, but of the stubbornness and proud tenacity to repel any message they did not want to hear.  Namely, the results of such living end in…

We continue our study of the minor prophets. This week we’re studying the book of Joel. The book of Joel helps us with some of the great questions: When national disaster strikes, how are we to think about that? How are we to react? How are we to think about God? How are we to think about…

As we begin our study of the minor prophets, Hosea bats lead-off. It is a stunning representation of the people’s stubborn refusal to respond to God on His terms, to stubbornly insist on running their lives in spite of the inevitable de-railing that will occur, and the exceptional love of God for a sometimes unfaithful and…

All too often you could summarize the real purposes of our lives in three ways. (1) Health, (2) “Me and my family,” and (3) “the good life” (convenience and comfort). Serving the Lord often gets dropped down into the realm of “when convenient.” Do we not think of serving as a way of life, the…