Empathic Listening – How It Helps Relationships, Business and Ministry

So I learned a new term after reading Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“. The term is “Empathic Listening”. In short, empathic listening is the art of actually caring about someone you’re talking to. The goal is to first seek to genuinely understand a person, and then to be understood. When someone discerns that you’re actually taking initiative to clearly understand them, it’s more likely that they’ll reciprocate …

2017 India Trip Recap

On July 31st, 2017 I set out to visit my friends in India who are doing amazing work to reach the Indian people for the Lord. The objective was to document our journey and give an accurate picture of India from a Christian perspective. To help me accomplish this I brought photographer Chance James and film maker Manny Collazo. A short film documenting our journey will be released early 2018. …

Life, As Seen on Facebook

Today I had an encounter that was both encouraging and convicting at the same time. After church, a good friend of mine gave me a big hug and told me how proud of me he was. He is much older than me (old enough to be my dad), and we’ve been following Christ together for about the same length of time (I think we were even baptized on the same …

My two greatest fears

If I’m being completely honest with myself, I have had two fears that have propelled much of my drive, but have simultaneously caused a lot of inconsistency and doubt in my life.  I’ve had these two fears in the back of my mind for years.  I can attribute much of my success and achievements to these fears; as well as some of my procrastination and hesitancy.  The struggle is real, …

Faith vs. Science? Review of the film “The Unbelievers”

It’s almost midnight on September 13, 2014.  I just finished watching “The Unbelievers” – a documentary following Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss as they travel the world speaking at different venues and events spreading their “gospel” of atheism.  From time-to-time I watch films, documentaries, speeches, debates, etc. created by people with different beliefs than me to make sure I have some insight into their worldview before I engage them in …

Don’t Move Ahead of God – Verse of the Day: Joshua 2:23

VERSE:Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia Grove with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing. After three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you must break camp and follow it. But keep a distance of about 1,000 yards between yourselves and the ark. …

No Excuses

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3 This small verse is packed full of huge truths.  At the very least, we can see that as believers we have absolutely no excuse for living in sin, defeat, immorality, or immaturity.  It says clearly that God has (past tense) …

“It’s So Hard To Be A Christian”

If you walk through the process of discipleship with enough people, undoubtedly you will hear things like, “man, this is just hard” or “it’s so easy for me to fall”, “I have a hard time with ____”, etc.  Maybe you have felt that yourself.  Maybe you still feel that way!  Basically, detachment from worldly pleasures is often a difficult task for many, and they chalk it up to their lack …

Evolution VS God

The Evolution VS God video was just released to the public for free viewing today.  It’s a great video that gives some practical questions to ask those who put their faith in what the “experts” claim to be fact.  The reality is that evolution is not a fact that is proven by the scientific method – rather, it is a theory that has to be believed by faith. Most people …