Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.
Reading the Bible Helps Inform Us of Who We Are I love reading the Bible. While the entire Bible is useful to teach us about God and inform our faith journey (2 Timothy 3:16), I particularly enjoy the stories about the people, our spiritual ancestors. I like reading about Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, […]
Talking to God on a Regular Basis Is Key to Life and Faith; Don’t Live Without It The Bible talks about praying in the morning, at noon, and in the evening (Psalm 55:17 and Daniel 6:10). Though never a biblical requirement, the idea of praying each day at 9:00 a.m., noon, and 3:00 p.m. became […]
Though Many are Quick to Criticize the Social Gospel, We Would be Mistaken to Do So The primary way we learn words is through divining their meaning from context and everyday usage. That’s how children learn to talk and how most adults expand their vocabulary. We presume their meaning, deduce their function, and discern how […]
Take Time to Tell God What You’re Thankful For on Thanksgiving and Every Other Day Too The church I attended several years ago had a Thanksgiving practice of having members stand to share what they were thankful for. From my perspective this never went well, with too much silence or too much forced sharing and […]
Arguing Over What is True Has Divided Jesus’s Church for Centuries I’m a huge advocate of Christian unity, that as Jesus’s followers we should all get along and live in harmony. Denominations and theological perspectives don’t matter; Jesus does. In the book of John Jesus prays that his future followers will play nice with each […]
Most Christians Carry Unexamined Criteria that Others Must Agree with Before They’re Accepted I was once interviewed for a volunteer position at my church. The pair of interviewers cranked through a series of pre-assigned theological questions to determine my supposed worthiness to lead. For some queries the answers were straightforward; others, not so much. On […]
Should We Consider the Kingdom of God As Our Future in Heaven or As Our Present Reality on Earth? The Bible often talks about the Kingdom of God, sixty-eight times in all (in the NIV). Five biblical authors—Mark, Luke, John, and Paul—cover this topic in ten of the New Testament’s books. Luke writes the most […]
Our Perspective on What it Means to Follow Jesus Shapes How We Think and Act I’ve met people so fixated on heaven that they squander their time here on earth. Not only do they miss the opportunities before them, but they also offer a negative example to the world of what it means to be […]
Jesus Provides a Simple Solution For Us to Follow When We Face Opposition Recently a friend asked for some assistance at a writers conference, for help in modeling a writer critique process. I and several others were happy to volunteer. We arrived at the session and disbursed ourselves throughout the room, each sitting at a […]
God Doesn’t Want Part of Our Attention; He Deserves 100 Percent As the main speaker talked at a business conference, I looked around our table of eight. Seven people had their smartphones out, pushing buttons with intention and staring at those tiny screens as if they showed the most essential of images. Why were they […]