Let me ask you a question: When you go into vacation mode, is your spiritual life still switched on? If I’m honest, many of my past summers I went on vacation and switched off my faith-life. All I wanted to do was get out, enjoy, and forget about work and all the stressors of the day. I didn’t think about going to church on vacation. I didn’t think about sharing my faith on vacation. I certainly didn’t think about the gospel on vacation. I was basically a summer vacation Atheist.

Newsflash: nobody ever got to their deathbed, and in reflecting on their lifetime, said to themselves, “Boy, I wish I had spent more time in the office!” No one ever said that. They said, “I wish I spent more time with family. I wish I spent more time having fun. I wish I spent more time relaxing.” They don’t say, “I wish I spent more time working.

Here's the truth: we can be great, big Jesus followers at work, but if we neglect our family, it discounts our witness and testimony.

1 John 4:11-12 says, "Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." In other words, the way that you love your family should be an extension, an expression of God's love for you. And if it isn't, then your life is not expressing the gospel in its fullness.

Many times over the last 20 years the Lord has asked us to give more than we were comfortable with, and found the more we generously gave, the less the money and possessions had a hold on us.Being generous literally changed our perspective on earthly things.

Workplaces are so easy to remain at a comfortable distance with people. Invite your coworkers and their families over for dinner. Develop genuine relationships over dinner with them and watch it transform your workplace.

Our temperature swings in the Spirit. Some days we are really hot and some days we are really cold, but most of the time we are kind of tepid (lukewarm). What can we do to avoid the doldrum?

As I turn 52 and lean into my 53rd year, I pause to reflect on the incredible life I have lived and the impact that Jesus has had on me. My heart really started to radically transform when I gave the Lord the first hour of every day.

The People of Israel had seen God wipe out the Egyptian armies, they saw the Red Sea part, they ate manna and meat from God’s hand.  Yet, they doubted God could deliver the land that He had promised.  I find it easy to criticize the people of Israel and their lack of faith in God, yet right now I am doing exactly the same thing.

My presumption is that Ground Hogs day was invented by some very bored people in PA who grew weary of winter and one day they noticed a ground hog stick its nose out of the ground.  Just like the ground hog we have placed the Holy Spirit in the spot light only for show.