Power (pou' er) n. 1. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority. 2. A person having great influence over others. [excerpted source: The American Heritage Dictionary] There are quite a few more definitions, but for this blog I'm sticking with these two. - - - - - How you understand power tells others quite a lot about you. If you are a person who seeks to control others, you will exercise whatever authority you have over people. If you are a person who se

I have discovered that there are 2 types of Christian. One embraces the Physical and the other embraces the Spiritual. The Physical Christian, for whatever reason, has difficulties in dealing with/believing in spiritual matters. They are trapped in the world's view of things, which only includes things they can relate to physically (see, taste, touch, etc). They tend to put miracles into the box of "those happened back then, but not now" (basically Cessationism). They pray fo

I am in the process of finishing a book. Funny thing, I thought when you were done, you were done. I even went to the stationary store and printed a copy for myself. Ha ha. Jokes on me. Apparently, not so. After talking with a good friend who is a writer, I discovered quite a few things were yet ahead. Including the fact that this type of book should be longer. I had about 35,000 words, but this category should be around 50-55,000 words. Okay. back to the drawing board I went

I thought it would be good to post some guidelines for answered prayer. I'm not sure where I got these, but they've been proven in the testing field of life, so I recommend them for you. 1) Envision a Clear-cut Objective - Be Specific! Too many people pray for "everything and everyone;" in generalities. You know, like "God bless everyone in the whole world!" So how do we know if God has answered that prayer? It would take quite awhile to ask everyone to find out! When we pray

The Salvation Army is a holiness believing branch of the church. One of only a few, I am sorry to say. That said, besides one sermon about 4-5 years ago (by a young Captain), I can’t remember the last time I heard a solid holiness sermon. What’s THAT all about? One of the problems is that some of our theologians have tried their very best, over the years, to make holiness so complicated no one can understand it! Why do we make it so hard? It is not. We can all understand it

For three years my wife and I were appointed to the International College for Officers. During those years, some thoughts tumbled around in my head about my officership. On the sprawling grounds of Sunbury Court, you find a great place to work out such thoughts. I would like to share them here. My hope is that others, who may be struggling with any number of these points, will come to their own solution. Perhaps a younger officer/pastor might take these as a challenge for the

Danielle Strickland once told me of an interaction with a "running friend" she had made. After developing a good relationship over time, and getting close to "winning" her new friend to Christ, out of the blue her friend asked her: "am I one of your 'projects?'" Danielle said it was a wake up call when she realized people are not "our projects." What is it about us Christians that causes us to think we can make people our projects and not really care about them as friends (an

I don't know who wrote it or where it came from (or I'd credit them), but I have been carrying a little pamphlet in my Bible for many years. It's titled "Warfare Prayer" And has Ephesians 6:10 on the cover "Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord's mighty power within you." It's quite long, but I have used it many times when the struggles seem overwhelming. I reprint it here in it's entirety hoping that you too will be able to use it in the

There are those who believe the Bible is our ONLY source of hearing from God. Now without going into a long diatribe, let it suffice to say I believe the Bible is ONE source, albeit the primary source. But there are other ways God speaks to his people today. God did NOT allow the Bible to be canonized and then remove his other ways of communication, expecting us to limp along from there on out on only one resource of understanding what God desires for us. The case I usually p

For my time with God every day, I have been reading through "30 Days with Wesley: A Prayer Book." It has become one of my staples, with a morning and evening section for each day. Thirty days is enough to keep it from seeming like I'm repeating all the time. It's not my only book or method I use, but it is an now important one which I enjoy. In one of those readings, I came across this prayer: O Father, have mercy on all humanity. Draw all people to Your Truth. I f

The Coolest thing about reading the Bible, is that Holy Spirit lives within it's pages. In other words, as we read, He gives insight into the words. There are those who read without God's Spirit within themselves, and they will never see or understand the deeper meanings God has planted there for His people to discover. There are times when you see things that are good, then there are times when you see things that are AMAZING! Over the years, I've gotten all kinds of special

Scene One: Central New Jersey, a quiet little suburb of Red Bank near the East coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Fade slowly in: Many years ago I was quietly sitting in my living room reading. It was early evening and my family was around the house doing their respective routines like homework, watching TV and washing clothes. It was a typical evening in the Burr home. I don't remember what I was reading, except that it was spiritual in nature. Probably something by Peter Wagner,

We are known by a variety of "titles." These titles represent things we do. For instance, I am a Dad, spouse, musician, officer, friend, man, blogger, teacher, Rays fan, son, boss, etc. You may know me by one of these titles, but each is only a facet of what I do, not who I am. If you ask "Who are you?" these titles by themselves actually tell you very little. They may even conjure up inaccuracies based on what you understand a particular title to mean to you. It depends on w

Perhaps "fraternization" isn't really the word I want here, but at least it should get your attention. What I'm referring to is how leadership relates to those they lead. When I think of fraternization, I think of the military. I picture uniformed leaders with lots of brass on their shoulders (or at least a high rank) relating to the rank and file soldiers. Fraternization doesn't have a good connotation, for it brings to mind a leader relating to a lower soldier in ways that

I believe Jesus is very concerned that we understand the world does not revolve around us. In The Salvation Army, the founder William Booth, got that and taught us well with his famous "Others" telegram (a one word message to all soldiers around the world). In fact I am told the world's smallest package is someone all wrapped up in himself! Satan did not get that, fought God vehemently over this very subject, and has caused one third of God's "leadership team" and much of hum

Are you ready for shocking statement #2? Leadership is not about making the decisions. It's about listening through the Body for God's decision. Consensus is an interesting thing. Here's the American Heritage Dictionary definition: 1. An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole or by majority will. 2. General agreement or accord. The assumption is that everyone in the group will come to agreement with interaction and discussion. Sound impossible? Maybe in the world,

As I approach the subject of leadership, I must begin with a question: "What is it about my leadership philosophy that differs from what could be considered a traditional leadership philosophy?" After all, there are plenty of good books on leadership. What could I possibly have to offer you that would be different? That difference, as I was reminded years ago by JE at The War College, is I lead from my apostolic gifting. Therefore I will attempt to share apostolic insight wit

There are SO many amazing things found in the Bible! When I discover a new one, the more amazed I am (God is just so cool!). Here is one of those incredible hidden messages pointing to Jesus way back in the beginning of the Old Testament. I got this one from Chuck Missler. I've heard him talk about this in some of his talks, but this one is found in his book: "Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages from the Edge of Eternity." BTW, if you haven't listened to his teachings, you're reall

For many years I wrote a blog on Blogspot. However since I am now using my own website, I will now focus my efforts here. This is a new beginning! Of course my intent is to develop a following of people who are interesting in learning and dialog. As a teacher, I want to teach. But as a follower of Jesus, I want to dialog with other followers (and perhaps some who are interested in or questioning Christianity) who desire to learn more about God (Yahweh), his ways and how to se