“Trusting with the heart leads to righteousness and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation.” Romans 10:10 Paul talks about two processes by which we show ourselves as disciples. The two processes are trusting and confessing. I call these processes because neither is a one-time thing. Trusting has to be something we do every hour of every day. The Jewish concept of the heart (lev) is that this is the “total control center of human existence—encompassing intellect, choice, conscience,...

Unity is such a wonderful concept, isn’t it? It sounds admirable and certainly is something we should all not only long for but work toward. The problem is this. Unity is costly. Jesus told those gathered to count the cost. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to...

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of...