Author Archives: Dr. Mike Courtney

And Now, We Wait

And Now, We Wait

I am reminded at the beginning of this Holy Week that Jesus knew what the end of the week held for Him, but He had to wait for the weekend to come. Can you imagine? Knowing the agony, the betrayal, the loneliness, knowing the power, the miracle, the resurrection, all of that was coming, and… Continue Reading

The God Who Takes Forever

The God Who Takes Forever

There is a wonderful praise song that we love that talks about “the God of angel armies.” Imagine in your darkest and most difficult hour the heavenly host of celestial beings all coming at God’s command to surround and protect you. I can get fired up about that. One line of the song says, “The… Continue Reading

Right Where We Are Supposed To Be

Right Where We Are Supposed To Be

(This is the funeral message I preached for my dad yesterday. You don’t have to read it, and it may seem a little strange even me posting it. But…it’s my blog. When you write a blog you can post strange things too. 🙂  Anyway, if you are in a strained or estranged relationship, there may… Continue Reading

The End

The End

When you use your family as an illustration or an example there are two distinct dangers. One, the audience will think, “Man, that is one messed up family,” which is probably true but no more messed up than any other family. Or two, they will think, “Man, that is one cool family. They really have… Continue Reading

Legacy Leadership Lesson

Legacy Leadership Lesson

Joshua has always been my hero. His courage and integrity, standing with Caleb for what he saw, as one of the original ten spies that went into Canaan, when the other eight backed down from the challenge of conquering the land. His loyalty, spending years as the right arm of Moses in the very difficult… Continue Reading

Celebrate Life

Celebrate Life

Jakson scored his first One Goal Basketball basket the other day. He is six and so far, his team is undefeated. No thanks to Jakson. He happens to be on the team with Davin, who is a fifteen year old in a six year old body, and Anthony who is the Eveready Bunny in a… Continue Reading

On Conditional Statements

On Conditional Statements

Jon-Mical is 10. Jakson will be 7 in a couple of weeks. They don’t know it, but they are masters at geometry and philosophy, well, at least one part of geometry and philosophy, the conditional statement. Let me remind you of Philosophy 101. A conditional statement is also called an “if-then” statement. If this is… Continue Reading

Change

Change

Deuteronomy is just about to get the best of me. This is the place in my yearly, “through the Bible” reading, like Leviticus, that I go into hyper speed reader and pray for a change in scenery. Proverbs is sounding repetitious. Paul can’t get over the giving kick in II Corinthians. I’m glad there are… Continue Reading

Deuteronomy 24

Deuteronomy 24 has some good advice. That thing about staying home for a year after you are married? I like that. I wonder if that could be retroactive so that, after 40 years, I could take a year off from work and tell the boss, “I didn’t get my wedding bliss year way back then,… Continue Reading

Digging Out of Conflict

Digging Out of Conflict

Okay, chapter 23 did me in. You are so complementary about my ability to find a story in these obscure Biblical passages, but I just can’t. Doo-doo-ronomy 23 (I had to go there, didn’t I?) takes us someplace that I cannot possibly make a devotional from. Nope. I got nuthin’. Let’s try II Corinthians 7… Continue Reading