Well, that's what I get for not staying up to date with backups. Somehow, my web host deleted all my key files from my blog database. What does that mean? It means I just wasted about half of my day trying to restore my blog to what it was like back in September. Things will be a little broken for …
Posting old sermons
I've just made some great progress posting old sermons to this site thanks to the free storage and bandwidth offered by ourmedia.com and the Internet Archive. If you look in the category links, you'll find links to all my newly posted (but old) message series dating from May 2001 through …
029-03 — God Is Eternal
SCRIPTURE: Various To help us develop a taste for God, I'm going to spend the rest of my time at Northwest Baptist highlighting seven key attributes of God. We are going to talk about who God is. In this first message, I dig into the deep concept of God being eternal. We'll find out once again that …
What’s in a name?
I posted this over at our church plant website (www.lafayetteinitiative.com), but I'm copying it here for those who don't read the other site too much. Please post your comments, and if you want to participate in our church name straw poll, click here. And whether you can participate in the poll or …
Rolling Stone Interviews Bono
This last year, my wife and I have been really infatuated with U2, the rock band. We read a book on the band called Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 and Jen just finished a book that was one long interview with Bono. We've become convinced that aside from the theatrics of Bono's public persona …
Silliness of Worry
In preparation for a sermon recently, I came across this passage in Ecclesiastes: If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever …
I’m now on iTunes!
It's official. My sermons now can be found on iTunes! If you have been using iTunes 4.9 or higher for your music player, just open it up, and in the search box type "Jeff Mikels." After a few seconds, it will show my sermon podcast, and you can click on the "subscribe" button to automatically …
American Beauty: A Lesson in Grace
Tonight, Jen and I watched the movie American Beauty. It's really interesting to me that I had never wanted to watch the movie at all. In fact, when the movie first came out, I was kinda disgusted that a movie like that had come to the American cinema at all. The theme seemed so dark, it seemed to …
Preaching to Be Heard
At the Midwest Baptist Conference Annual Meetings a couple weeks ago, Jerry Sheveland, the president of the Baptist General Conference gave a seminar on preaching. In it, he shared his personal 10 Commandments of Preaching. Preaching to be Heard Jerry Sheveland Only two things are eternal …
MBC 2005 Annual Meetings Keynote
These are my notes from Jerry's keynote message. I'm posting them mostly for my own use, but if you benefit from them, praise God! Keynote message from the 149th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Baptist Conference by Jerry Sheveland The first seven chapters of the book of Acts tell the story of …
So Dark is Europe
Phil Gottschalk has been a missionary in Europe for a number of years, and he just sent me this unbelievable email. I'm quoting it here: Here's an e-mail I just received. It is typical of what we have experienced for the past nearly 20 years in Europe. This friend is studying Dutch in Leuven, …
029-02 — Trick or Treat
Various Scriptures The second message in this series is all about helping us truly grasp that God is the treat and everything else is only a trick. There are at least four reasons why. Listen up to find out! Download Now Subscribe to this series by dragging this link to your podcast software or …
Make the Right Things Easy
I read this article recently where the author is talking about how to make users of your product or service happy. The basic premise of the article is that you should make the right things easy and the wrong things hard. A great illustration of this is a three pronged electrical plug. There is only …
Web Empowered Church: Update
UPDATE: Well, it appears I made a small stir by blogging my criticisms on this. In my original post from October 11 (no longer available), I think I may have made some people mad at me. In the past week or so, I've been in conversation with some people over at the Web Empowered Church forums and …
029-01 — Introduction
Psalm 34 With this message, I'm starting a brand new series that I hope to accomplish two things: Help to increase your appetite for knowing God. Help you to realize that whatever effort it takes to know God better will be worth it. With this first message, I dig into Psalm 34 to show that …
Sorry, Gotta Go!
I think this is hilarious! I just found this website called "Sorry, I Gotta Go" at sorrygottago.com and it is incredible. The whole site is just a bunch of sound effects to use when you want to get out of a phone conversation. For example, if you are talking to someone, you can pull up this website, …