Consider what it takes for successful businessmen and businesswomen, effective entrepreneurs and hardworking associates, shrewd retirees and idealistic students to combine forces with a creative pastor to grow a "successful church" today. Clearly, it doesn't require the power of God to draw a crowd in our culture. A few key elements that we can manufacture will suffice.

But then I realize there is never going to be a day when I stand before God and He looks at me and says, 'I wish you would have kept more for yourself.' I'm confident that God will take care of me.

Peruse the Christian marketplace, and you will find a plethora of books, songs, and paintings that depict God as a loving Father.

My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus' words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to Him.

Surely the gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that He is.

Despite the obvious qualifications of all of Jesse's other sons, God appoints the unlikely David to become the king of Israel.

No sound system. No band. No guitar. No entertainment. No cushioned chairs. No heating or air-con. Nothing but the people of God and the word of God. And strangely, that's enough. God's Word is enough for millions of believers who gather in house churches... Jungles... Rainforests, and middle-eastern cities. But is his Word enough for us?