On Sunday, I kicked off a new teaching series focused on mental health and the mind shifts we can make based on the Word of God to live happier, healthier, God-honoring lives.   I began with a look at Philippians 4 as Paul taught us how to find peace even when we feel anxious.PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7  6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, p...

Recently, a member of our Port Lavaca family, Sue Wingfield, shared this list of things that God says are true about you, me, and every believer in Jesus.  As you deal with negative thoughts and destructive thought patterns, use these truths to help you test and retrain your thoughts.MY DADDY SAYS:I am loved beyond all understanding. (1 John 4:7-11)Nothing can separate me from the love of God. (Ro...

From The Parent Cue Easter is about a lot of things.  It’s about Jesus keeping His promises. Jesus told the disciples He would leave and then come back, and when Peter, John, and Mary went to the tomb and saw it was empty, and later saw Jesus alive, they knew Jesus could be trusted because He did what He said He would do. And because of that example—and many more—we know we can trust Jesus, too.  ...

On Sunday, I challenged the church to take their next step as a disciple of Jesus because I believe Jesus calls every believer to be a disciple.  Our call to follow Him personally and to follow Him fully is just as real as His call to the men on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  I unpacked on of the paradoxes of following Jesus on Sunday as the path to growing as a disciple.  What was the paradox...

Trust is hard to build and all too easy to break.  When trust is broken, the feelings of hurt, betrayal, and potential loss are real.  That's why we all need to be ready to choose to trust again.  But how do you do it?Give yourself time and space to heal.  Broken people break things so fight the urge to respond in anger seeking revenge.  Take the teaching of Proverbs 19:11 to heart:  "A person’s w...

On Sunday, I taught one of the counterintuitive truths on trust.   Here it is:  If you are trusting God, there are some people you shouldn't trust. God's Word gives us trustworthiness tests so that we know who to trust with what.   If we trust the wrong people, trouble is soon to follow.Read it for yourself in Proverbs 25:19 19 Like a broken tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in a ...

Trust is the fuel of life.  Trust makes everything work because we have been wired to trust both God and other trustworthy people.   In the days ahead, I pray that God will teach you how to build trusting relationships or strengthen the trust in your relationships.  When we get trust right, we live in safe, reliable relationships that are for our good and not our harm.  When we get trust right, we...

We’ve all heard it….” just trust me.” Like that is supposed to make you jump on board when someone says it. It always falls short, and as the neuroscientists tell us, there is good reason. It turns out that your entire nervous system and brain is wired to always scan the environment and every person, and ask one question before any other: is it safe? The answer to that one question, a decision tha...

from the Parent Cue Talking to my kids about love scares me. Love feels like such a massive, important topic and I’m afraid I’ll mess it up. My kids are eight and three—how can I distill the grand concept of love in a way they’ll understand not only now but for a lifetime? To be honest, I’m only just discovering what love is…at the not-so-tender age of nearly 40.It’s not that I wasn’t taught about...

This past Sunday, we kicked off our Revival Sunday series of worship events at Parkway Victoria and Parkway Port Lavaca. Throughout the year, we will set aside days to seek the Lord through extended worship with music, prayer, and an inspirational message at all locations.In the Old Testament, we saw the people of God set aside days to seek the Lord. They had a day where they would seek atonement ...

God's love is at the heart of Christmas. The Bible tells us that:  “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) Every Christmas, we celebrate and know that God chose to love us.  He didn’t wait f...

When the birth of the Savior was announced to the shepherds in the field, the promise was clear:  we have nothing to fear because the birth of our Savior is good news that brings joy to all people.   The promise from the fields of Bethlehem still stands today.  Christmas is good news that brings great joy.At times, the Christmas season can seem more stressful than joyful. But, no matter the stress...

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  ISAIAH 9:6In an ever-changing, chaotic world, we need peace.  Peace that doesn’t come and go with the circumstances in life, but peace that is permanent.  Peace that doesn’t end at the grave, but is eternal.  P...

On Sunday, I wrapped up our study of Psalm 23 with one of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture.  David summed up all of God’s care, concern, leadership, and protection in Psalm 23:6 when he penned.PSALM 23:6 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever.  There are a few words that jump out from this single ver...

In Psalm 23:5, we see a picture of God’s provision for us.   David describes this with beautiful imagery.  Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  In David’s day, it was the host's responsibility to welcome guests with a couple of common practices:  anointing their heads with oil which was soothing and refreshing, and ...

Psalm 23:5 presents our relationship with God as a meal at a table. It’s not just any meal. It’s a special meal with the best of everything. Even better, our host is also the best of everything, and He is there to dine with us, talk to us, be with us, and enjoy us.This meal sounds great.  The food couldn’t be better.  The company couldn’t be better.   The conversation couldn’t be better but take n...

From Lifeway As we continue our study of Psalm 23, I invite you to a familiar oasis where we will see that God is closer than you think in times of crisis.  In the first four verses of Ps. 23, David takes the gentle picture of a shepherd with his sheep to describe the relationship God has with us and we with Him. Everything makes sense in our understanding of a shepherd leading his flock to green ...

Psalm 23 offers something that we all need today.  It offers us rest and renewal in the midst of our busy lives.   In our always-on, always-available culture, we all want rest and renewal and we are all challenged to find both.  One of the reasons, we struggle to find rest is because our our unhealthy engagement with social media.  Social media is an all-of-us problem because it promises rest and ...

Psalm 23 is very personal.  This is David's testimony, his personal experience with God.  There are no references to "we" or "us" or "they," but only "my" and "me" and "I" and "You."  But what comforts us and helps us is the psalm's confidence. David really believes this about God. We realize as we linger over these words that what David writes is not poetic exaggeration or theoretical theology. H...

We all leave a legacy.  Some legacies are good.  Others, not so much.  Discover from the life of David how to pass down a legacy worth living.  If you evaluate David as a parent, you are going to see someone who looks alot like you feel as a parent.  You are going to see someone with some high and extremely low points as a parent.  He got some things right and got many things terribly wrong.  Rath...