“Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” These words have been a foundational statement within the church for the last two thousand years. We hear it as a mission statement to go out into the world and share the hope of Jesus with others. I’m sure you have heard many sermons on this passage. Yet what was Christ saying to Peter? Why….”Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”? The words “Come follow me…” were powerful at the time, but I believe the words, “I will make you fishers of men”, become more powerful to Peter at the Day of Pentecost. These words have a significant meaning whether you are an employee, business owner or CEO. Becoming fishers of men starts with…”Come, follow me….” “Come, follow me” These words were powerful in the culture that Jesus lived in. I believe when we understand the context of those words, it becomes even more powerful in our culture. To understand those words we have to go back some. Hebrew education in the first century in...

Luke is the author of the book that bears his name and Acts. Each book is very detailed. Acts records the first thirty years of history of the church, where the Gospel of Luke records the life of Christ and the events that surrounded his story. It was very important to Luke to get the story right, because at this time (around 60 AD) many stories were filling the marketplace about this Jesus character. Many stories were being said that contradicted the divinity of Christ, his death and resurrection. Words were being put into the mouth of Christ that never had credibility and for Luke he wanted to set the story straight! The word of Christ acts and salvation were spreading throughout the region, and in just thirty years or so was making an impact in the culture as a new religion sect was on the rise (Acts 11:28). Luke gives us his reason for writing his account in the first four verses of chapter 1… “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled amon...

                               Through the years I have come to believe that Paul was one of the greatest defenders of the faith. He had to be! In Acts 17 Paul visited Athens. A city that was polytheistic by all means. As Paul was walking the streets he notices altars set up to various god’s. One altar is said to have caught his attention, “The Altar to the Unknown God”. As was custom of the day a group of men, the Council of Areopagus(men who considered themselves as custodians of teachings that introduced new religions and foreign gods, NIV Bible Study), would listen to new ideas. Paul was brought before the council to share with them this "new" idea. The philosophers and others asked "What is this person trying to say?" What happens next is an example of one man using his knowledge of Christ and presenting him in such a way that he di...

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."    — G.K. Chesterton The call of Elisha has always stood out to me. Here is Elijah hiding in the caves for fear of his life. He had just shaken his culture by humiliating and killing the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). God shows himself with such power that those that witnessed this epic confrontation of ideas fell to their knees and repented. Yet a threat from Jezebel, who was angry at the killing of the prophets of Baal, thrust Elisha into hiding. We then read the conversation between God and Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-18. At the end, God assures Elijah of the 7000 men who have not turned their backs on God (vs 18). Thus the call of Elisha. “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elis...

A team is as good as its leader. Being involved with my wife’s business for the last twenty years I have heard many quotes, yet this is the one I use the most with my teams and their captains… "The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang." -Mary Kay Last weekend I headed back to my Ala Mater for the annual Alumni Game. It had been twenty years since I set foot on the field I once played on. I was excited and couldn’t wait to put on my cleats and kick the ball around with other fellow alums. As the time came for the announcement of players I was getting excited! Then I heard the announcer voice each alumni’s year they played. “2005…..” “2007…..” “2009…” “2010….” “Ed Limon….played between 1986 and 1991!” At that moment as I made my way to the center of the field, I felt so old! I was the oldest player there! Then the announcer named the starters for Vanguard University. “From England……” From Ireland….” “From Senegal…..” “All Conference…..” You get the picture. It was hu...

e-van-tre-pre-neur [ih-van-truh-pruh-nur] n. a person who uses business or other venture to share their faith in the marketplace I was about twenty thousand feet in the air on my way to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. My brother and I were on our way to meet his father-in-law who was building an orphanage in a small town outside La Esperanza. As I sat there on the plane it was time to pull out the book I was reading and get some good reading time in! You know those moments were you do not want to be bothered, yet the title of my book caught the attention of my neighbor, “Anointed for Business” by Ed Silvoso. “Is that a good book?”, he asked. That one question once again proved how God sets up divine appointments. You know those appointments that come out of the blue and you walk away saying “Wow! Wow! Let me throw in another…WOW!”. Come to find out through our conversation, this gentleman was a missionary! Yet he was not your inside the box missionary who went into the country with the tit...

This last month I was one of the many millions who watched the USA Women’s soccer team defeat Brazil in the Women’s World Cup in Germany. It was the knock out round…win move on, losers, go home! USA, ranked number one in the world, was down a player, due to a red card. Playing a man down the game was tied and sent into two fifteen minute overtime halves. Within two minutes, Brazil scores! For the next twenty eight minutes I saw a team so determined that you could sense something was on the horizon. With less than one minute left and on the verge of going home, the USA scored! My house was in an uproar as we joined in with millions shouting and screaming to what we just witnessed! As overtime ended and headed into penalty kicks, the USA came out on top and moved on to the next round! It is times like these that inspire people to do great things! What an inspiration to millions of people as they watched a group of women with so much determination to scream out the motto: NEVER GIVE UP! ...