Note from John: Stories like this one serve as an important reminder that even in times where death is painfully imminent, God’s Peace is always available when we cry out to Him. When I heard Bill’s story, it reminded me that some people seek a return to the experience of an NDE, yet miss open-mindedly…
DetailsHappy New Year! Wow, what an end to 2015 I had. For me, 2015 had the highest highs (my daughter’s marriage, son’s graduation, Imagine Heaven hitting New York Times Bestseller list), and 2015 had the lowest lows (father-in-law getting brain cancer and dying after a 7-month battle, my mom’s death after 8 years of Alzheimer’s…
DetailsI asked my friend, Vince Antonucci, to guest blog for me. Gateway Church partnered with Vince to start a church on the strip in Las Vegas. What I love about Vince is that he’s real – No Perfect People Allowed started with him! Vince is not only a pastor, but he is also an author.…
DetailsSome Christian pastors and bloggers have come out against all near-death accounts (NDEs) as deceptive or satanic—demanding they be banned. Why? Well actually, this is partially the reason it’s taken me decades to finally write Imagine Heaven. Here are the main concerns that I seek to explain in Imagine Heaven. Some NDE accounts say…
DetailsDr. Mary Neal was kayaking with friends in Chile. Forced over the wrong side of a waterfall, her kayak lodged between two boulders, pinning her several feet under the waterfall. “I repeatedly and forcefully tried to reach the grab loop of my spray skirt, but the power of the water forcing my arms downstream was…
DetailsWe continued our series at Gateway Church in Austin called Epic! To get the most out of this series, read through the daily Scripture readings and the Next Steps with your family, with running partners, or in a life group. You can also watch previous messages in the series at www.gatewaychurch.com/podcast. Here are some of what I shared this…
DetailsIf you think about it, everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to simply love his or her neighbor. Yet that’s all God needs to change the world. If every person sitting in an Austin church loved 8 to 10 neighbors, 2 million people would be impacted! I hope you’re willing to practice…
DetailsSPOILER ALERT: I had over 300 pages of research for Imagine Heaven, so I couldn’t include everything in the book. In some of my upcoming blogs, I’ll be sharing “the rest of the story” or my insights. One little fact I wished I’d included in chapter one is found below. If you haven’t read chapters…
DetailsDale had always dreamed of being a commercial airline pilot. By nineteen, he already had his pilot’s license. Chuck and Gene, commercial pilots who had taken Dale under their wings, kindly let Dale fly with them. That fateful day, the three of them took off in a twin engine Piper Navajo into a clear Los…
DetailsAs you probably could have guessed from another long absence, I’ve been taking vacation to just unplug from everything. I’ve spent every morning praying and seeking God’s replenishment and restoration. I needed it. If you read my last blog, I shared just a small snippet of the compressed highs and lows of the last nine…
DetailsI realized that I haven’t really blogged since April. There’s a reason: my mom died (funeral number one), then I had to lay off some of my good friends the week after her funeral (felt like funeral number two), our now son-in-law went into the hospital for bile duct/gall bladder surgery, my daughter graduated from…
DetailsWe’re starting an AsUR residency at Gateway Church in Austin. Why? “The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center.” We may be planting churches, but we’re losing…
DetailsThis weekend I interviewed Dr. Walter Bradley, co-author of The Mystery of Life’s Origin. We talked about three big questions surrounding Science and Faith that you can listen to or watch on our website: Gatewaychurch.com/podcast. If you want to go deeper into each of these questions, keep reading. I’ve included several additional resources. Faith…
DetailsThis Easter I talked about the Unburdened Way. I’m just convinced that so much of the weight we carry emotionally, relationally, spiritually comes from going our way instead of God’s way. The cross tells us that we can be forgiven, even when we go our way and fail and fall. But forgiveness is not the…
Details“Here I sit, day 11 of watching my mom slowly die—holding on. It’s brutal. But 8 years of the slow deterioration of Alzheimer’s is brutal too.” That’s all I could write three weeks ago, and then I quit. I couldn’t even blog at all. Day 12, my sweet mom went to be with Jesus and…
DetailsIt’s a difficult realization, but so incredibly liberating… “I have No problems.” I’ve been saying it to myself over the last 5 months, as everything around me seems to be falling apart at times. “I have no problems.” Of course, the other truth is I could list three pages of things I’ve “counted” as my…
DetailsWe had a lot of fun this weekend as Rick Shurtz and I went head to head in our first annual Super Bull Smackdown of Preaching. We had a lot of fun, lots of laughs, as we taught through Hebrews 12:1-3 on Winning the Game of Life. And yes, the random phrases we had to…
DetailsThis weekend I got a surprise visit from Dave White, a man who invested in me by encouraging me when I was a 25-year-old engineer working for Chevron. As we walked around Gateway Church, I got to introduce him to person after person who said to him, “Thank you, because God changed my life because…
DetailsLeading up to Christmas, we’ve been looking at God’s revealed character, “The God You Need,” in our Sunday services (listen at www.Gatewaychurch.com/podcast ). Isaiah “proves” God exists by giving many threads of historical evidence pre-written (see past 3 blogs). Let’s continue looking at what Isaiah foretold 680 years before Jesus—that the coming Messiah…
DetailsI had someone ask me why God chose one people group over others (referring to the Jews). Chosen does not mean all Jewish people are automatically right with God, or more loved by God than Arabs or Americans or any other people group. Chosen means chosen for a responsibility. God created the nation of Israel…
DetailsI have never heard a better argument for the existence of God than the foretelling, 2600 years beforehand, of the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Never in humanity has a people group been scattered across the globe, without a land or government, then suddenly re-born as a nation (and after nearly 2000 years dispersed!?).…
DetailsCan you prove God’s existence? That’s a common question, but I find few willing to actually seek answers—because there are amazing “proofs” of God’s existence—but you won’t find them if you don’t seek them. We’re teaching through key passages in the book of Isaiah at Gateway Church leading up to Christmas, and I’m reminded how…
DetailsPicture the scene… It’s 3:00 pm. You’re hungry. Famished. You had to work through lunch and haven’t eaten since you practically skipped breakfast. The only thing keeping you going is a 6:00 pm dinner date. In less than 3 hours you’ll leave the office, head to a local restaurant, and dive headlong into an all-you-can-eat…
DetailsI asked Rick Shurtz, Teaching Pastor here at Gateway, to write the next two blogs based on his new book Freebird: Work Free, Live Free. I read it this summer and it’s excellent! Very creatively written as a story of four friends who coax a member of their group into a dare that turns his view…
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