Don’t Do Church Wrong I think we’re doing church wrong. At first I assumed it was just me, but today’s church is stuck in a rut, an Old Testament rut. We follow an Old Testament model for church. Moses’s Method: The Old Testament Model When God gave Moses the Law, he established some key expectations […]
Hanging Out with Those Who Share Our Beliefs May Be Comfortable, But It Isn’t Good In the post “Can You Be a __ and Still Be a Christian?” we discussed our tendency to judge other Christians and evaluate their faith through the lens of our life and the spiritual decisions we make. But these choices […]
Be Careful Not to Judge Others Based on Who We Are or What We Do Over the years I’ve heard many people wonder out loud about the validity of another Christian’s faith based on what they do or some aspect of their life. Often this takes the form of, “Can you be a ______ and […]
Go into All the World and Make Disciples About two billion people in the world call themselves Christians, more than those who align themselves with any other religion. But how many will call themselves disciples of Jesus? The Bible never tells us to make Christians or even to be a Christian. But it talks a […]
How Big is Your Tent? A Call for Christian Unity, Tolerance, and Love What’s It Take to Be Welcome in Jesus’s Tent? The Bible gives us the answers, but most people miss them. And too many clergy spout manmade solutions that miss the mark. Discover what Jesus said it takes to “go all in” for […]
Elisha’s Total Commitment to Follow Elijah Leaves No Option to Go Back After Elijah has a meltdown of sorts, God reassures him that he is not alone and gives him several things to do. One of those tasks is to anoint his successor, Elisha. Elijah finds Elisha plowing in a field. It’s a group effort, […]
God Doesn’t Want Part of Us, He Wants Our Whole Heart When we follow Jesus we must do so with all our heart. There is no turning back to what we left behind. He wants our full attention, not part of it. We must go all in for Jesus. Follow Me Jesus gives his followers […]
Let’s Reframe the Idea of a Christmas Sale in Spiritual Terms This time of year, we so often see the phrase “Christmas sale” that we barely give it a thought. And if we do think of it, we lament the secularization of our holy celebration of Jesus’s birth. Yes, the commercialization of gift giving and […]
Jesus Didn’t Come for the Righteous but for Sinners As Jesus walks along he sees a tax collector, Levi. He says to Levi, “Follow me.” Levi gets up, leaves everything, and follows Jesus. Then Levi throws a party for his tax-collector friends. Jesus is there hanging out with them. As often the case, the religious […]
Consider What Jesus Expects of His Followers—and Us A while ago we looked at the final words in each book of the New Testament. This provides us with interesting information. However, more enlightening is to look at the final words of Jesus in each of the four biographies of him in the Bible. While you […]