Moralistic: We should be good moral people.
Therapeutic: The goal of this religion is to provide therapeutic benefits to its adherents.
Deism: God exists and created the world, but then kinda just leaves us alone unless we need him to fix a problem.
Gardening not only renews and refreshes me, it also teaches me important lessons about the God who created and cares for us. God is revealed through so many aspects of the created world.
Gardening has taught me to look for God in all my daily activities and encounters. As I watch the days and seasons follow their expected patterns, I am reminded of the faithfulness of a God who comes to us in all seasons of life. Our God, who poured out such great love in the complexity, beauty, and diversity of creation, still cares for us and will never abandon us.
So maybe safety isn’t the right prayer: for me, for you, for missionaries, for anyone. Instead, let’s pray for obedience, fruitfulness, thankfulness, and wisdom. Let’s pray that we live according to the Spirit of the law, in step with Jesus, and unafraid of what circumstances are (always) fully in God’s control. And let’s plead for the trust necessary to scrape ourselves free of fear.
My everything was too much like Eve’s everything, I tried to do Your job. At times, I think I even tried to fight You for them. Forgive me. Forgive me for talking about faith while living in fear. Please heal any wounds I have created. Please show me how to take a few steps now in faith. Oh, Lord! There my children go, carrying their questions into the clash and clatter of the cities. It is so hard to see them disappear into the crowd. Father, please do what I could not do for all that I tried.
We see in passages like Deuteronomy 10:17-18 and Psalm 68:4-6 that God associates his care for the fatherless as an integral part of his deity and associates his actions of justice with his special love for those who have no father to provide for them. We see in passages like Psalm 82:2-4 and Ezekiel 22:6-7 that God points to Israel’s neglect of the fatherless as one of the main reasons for His judgment upon them. Even the companions of Job, as they are seeking for an answer for the calamity that he is facing, point to his mistreatment of the fatherless as a possible explanation for his situation. (Job 22:7-10).
Our occupation is not easy. Our time and rights are no longer ours. When we dwell in His presence though, we find in that place of surrender and self denial, a life living for Christ alone. We begin to radiate a Christ focused vivacity.
We are nurturers of God-given seed. Motherhood is our divine calling. Once we own this vision, it will change our attitudes towards our husband, children and home. We will embrace mothering. Our days will no longer be seen as dull but delightful; it’s no longer boring but stimulating; our trials turn into triumphs.
This video features a good advent song placed over some cool visuals of fast-motion painting. This could be a good conversation starter with kids to help teach them during the season of advent.
I’ve come to believe the integration I now experience can best be described as shalom. Though shalom is widely used to express “peace,” the Hebrew actually communicates a fuller meaning. It suggests comprehensive wholeness, or completion. In a world where God is concerned with the flourishing of all people, changing my consumption habits—from the way I eat down to the stuff I keep in my home—allows others, many who I will never see, to thrive.
Another incredible video from The Bible Project. This one is about the first half of the book of Exodus. Watch, learn, understand…
If we are, in our generation, to recover a robust and holistic expression of our devotion to Jesus as our Lord and Master – we must become aware of these entanglements that have reduced the Gospel to salvation as a hyper-individualized flight to a disembodied heavenly state. How you view the future and the end of the story means everything in how you live now. We have been praying: “Our Father who is in Heaven, please send your Son back quickly so we can be home with You” when Jesus told us to pray: “Our Father who is in Heaven, holy is your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven…”
When the path to unity starts with the meeting/church service/ or gathering, then I think its trajectory is skewed from the beginning. I think mission is the better path to unity.
Unite in the furtherance of the gospel. Unite in the suffering and needs of those who aren’t congregating. Unite in the Making of Disciples. Unite in the work of mission.
I suppose there is some discussion needed to decide what that ‘one purpose’ is, but I’d venture to say that it is NOT primarily church services.
It is commonly thought that baptism is a distinctly Christian practice. Would it surprise you to learn that baptism was central practice of Jews in their worship long before Jesus arrived? It is interesting that there is controversy today over the question of whether Jewish believers should be baptized when in fact one of the first controversies of the early church was whether gentiles should be baptized.
A documentary about a South Korean pastor who is credited with saving countless abandoned babies who might have otherwise have died abandoned on the streets is set to open in theaters nationwide early next Spring.
“The Dropbox” tells the story of Lee Jong-rak, who in 2009, constructed a “heated bin lodged in a wall that allows mothers to deposit their children without being seen.” The effort to save South Korea’s “unwanted” children sprung out of Jong-rak’s own experience as his son, Eun-man, was born with cerebral palsy, leaving him bedridden.
I cannot define the word “missional,” at least not in an authoritative or definitive way, for everyone. But I can tell you why I think it must include Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
This does not mean that much of the concern about the way the word “missional” has been used is not warranted. There are some serious and legitimate concerns. However, if we’re going to adopt the term “missional,” here’s what we can’t do and still be on Jesus mission…
At the heart of the Brown case was the responsibility of parents to train their children rightly. “If the parents don’t turn back to God, love Him with all their heart, soul and might, get married, and by good example guide their children in the right way to go, it’s never going to get better, because that is the order of God,” Peterson continued. “According to the Scriptures, God advised us to train our children up in the right way to go, and when you do, you don’t have to deal with this stuff when they go out into the world.”
I have this gut-wrenching feeling that many students will move off to college with nothing learned from church except food, games and shiny events. None of these things are bad, but they aren’t the crux of what will keep a student fixated on the face of Jesus once walking into the real world. Discipleship is key.
We must increase our expectations of a decreasing generation of Christ followers. We must press harder than we ever have before. We must not worry about what is popular, but instead what is biblical. We must pursue that of Christ, and direct students towards the purpose of the cross.
Joel Salatin refutes the common misconception that the best thing that could happen for the planet is for humans to disappear. On the contrary, God wants us to work within his mandate to care for and nurture the earth.
Shane Claiborne shares stories of how he learned about the love of God among the poor. In the middle of his story, he is asked if it’s a sin to be rich.
In some denominations and movements, the Holy Spirit is overemphasized, leading to a Christless Pentecost — putting the Spirit exclusively on the throne and losing Jesus in the temple. In other denominations and movements, the Spirit is but a footnote, an afterthought, even a stranger. What follows are 50 things the Holy Spirit does according to the New Testament…
The primary motivation for us adopting kids was theology. Not biology. Because our lives are directly related to what we believe, our theology should lead way to our biography.
I learned from the Scriptures that God is an adoptive father. There are no natural born children into the Kingdom of God. All of us, who are in the family, are here by virtue of adoption.
Note: The video above is good, but if you want the shorter version, then click the button below to read a great article by the same guy.
When I hear that phrase “a child of your own” separating the children under my roof from the one born from my womb, and my heart saddens at the misunderstanding of this wild-love that’s been birthed within my home among children who wear another mama’s skin, I can’t help but think of him.
He calls me “his own” when the world and my heart wants to label me forever severed.
Adoption is his great declaration.
I’m discovering that meditation is the most powerful way to hear God. Actually, “powerful” isn’t a strong enough word. Meditation may be the most profound, deep, life-changing, heart-enriching way to hear God I’ve ever experienced.
Everyone is a meditation expert. We meditate all the time. We don’t know it because we call it something else, and we slip into it accidentally. Transforming our everyday meditations into prayerful imagination will change your life.
During the 20th century, there have been two spiritual currents that have occurred outside the organized church in the West. The first current occurred in the late 60s and early 70s. That movement came to a peak in 1972 and by 1979, it had all but died.
The second current began in the late 80s and early 90s. Right now, the landscape is changing rapidly. God is raising up new voices and new expressions of church which look very different from the traditional expressions we all know.
Here are the eight characteristics of this new spiritual current…
Much of what we read these days summons us to The Next Big Thing. If nothing else, observes Michael Horton, one thing is obvious: no one wants to be ordinary. Horton calls Christians back to the simplicity of walking with Christ, in the fellowship of his church, for the good of the world. Rather than constantly seeking out the next world-changing craze—#hashtags and all—he urges us to be content with quiet, habitual, step-by-step faithfulness.
The notion that “Lucifer” is a proper name for Satan was popularized in English literature by Milton’s Paradise Lost, where Satan is referred to as the “great Lucifer.”
Isaiah 14:14-21 concerns the fate of an historical king and there is nothing to suggest that the passage teaches anything about Satan. The term “lucifer” is a Latin term that has migrated into our English Bibles and theological vocabulary.
Jews are called (not demanded) to continue to live and identify themselves as Jews, but we in no way feel it is right to compel Gentile believers to honor the liturgical aspects ( i.e. Circumcision, Saturday Sabbath, food laws, feasts) to be saved. I find it fascinating that one of the first proponents of one of the most damaging, murderous theologies ever to be stated, Replacement Theology, was also a proponent of Messianic Judaism!
The intersection of science and religion clearly has the power to capture the public’s attention, but collisions can happen at that intersection. Is there a way for scientific and religious communities to work together more productively?
We have found that many scientists (both secular and religious) as well as evangelical leaders feel there is something amiss about communication between scientists and religious people, but their lives often never cross paths.
Francis Chan and David Platt discuss the problems with losing focus on God in favor of focusing on other good things such as mission, discipleship, productivity, etc. These are good things, but they are not more worthy of our attention than God himself.
Usually, most of us in the room, myself included, squirm as we hear stories of missionaries moving to Africa, folks who gave up careers to move across the country or to take a job that was beneath their education level, Christian musicians who risked everything to go on tour with their families or nonprofit founders who ate Ramen for months on end.
The biggest risk is often continuing to live in a God-honoring way, day in and day out, when it doesn’t feel like much of an adventure.
Porn is so prevalent, according to Regnerus, that if all Christian women left their boyfriends or turned down suitors based on their browser histories, marriage and the future of the church would be doomed. From his article, it’s easy for readers to conclude: Marriage is so important that we may need to start rethinking the idea of pornography as a deal-breaker.
As an unmarried woman, I fall into the target audience for such an argument. Honestly, there’s a lot about being 39 and single that I don’t like. But as one of my friends said when discussing Regnerus’s piece, he’s asking us to capitulate to a worldview that says pornography gets to make the rules, and we just have to live with it. And there’s even less to like about that.
With the popularity of his Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, Clive Staple Lewis is regarded by many to be a “saint of evangelicalism.” The esteemed Reformed Anglican J.I. Packer called Lewis “our patron saint.” Christianity Today wrote that he “has come to be the Aquinas, the Augustine, and the Aesop of contemporary Evangelicalism” as well as “the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist.”
Nonetheless, despite his amazing contribution to the Christian faith, here are six shocking beliefs held by Lewis…
The 1999 film American Beauty captured the imaginations of multitudes of Americans. The film speaks to me on many levels, including the theme that things are not always as they appear. American Beauty brings me back to the primal story involving the biblical characters Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), where everything was not as it appeared. It is everyone’s story, including middle class people fixated with fictional notions of American beauty.
Dr. Rob Rienow explains how commitment is at the core of marriage, no matter how much the people in the marriage may change over time. This is quite opposed to the view that many hold that their spouse will always be the person they were on the day of their wedding.
I would much—MUCH!—rather wash the feet of Jesus than have him wash my feet. I would have done something valuable. I would know I’m of use. Instead he washed my feet.
We want God to consider us as useful; instead God thinks of us as beautiful. We want God to think of us as helpful; instead God says he delights to have us as friends. We are an end in itself.
Francis Chan shares a story about how he got a 2nd chance to talk to someone who God wanted him to talk to after he had already blown it once. His encouragement is to make sure that fear doesn’t get in the way of making disciples.
There is no command in the Bible to go into all the world and plant churches. The Church is never told to plant churches until the end of the age or search out all people groups and plant churches among them. If our goal is to plant a church, then our goal has been accomplished. Let’s have a party and celebrate.
But it’s not about planting churches. The Church is to make disciples of all nations.
Jeff Bethke shares his story of contending with depression and the realization that sometimes God takes us out into the wilderness to meet us in a special way and show us the glory of what he’s doing.
I think we all know what I mean by a church service. There was a lot of time devoted to singing and then the obligatory public speaking (preaching), etc. etc. All of this undoubtedly organized by a clearly planned schedule. Most Western Christians have been to many “services,” some of us thousands of times. While there may be slight denominational variations, they are pretty much all the same, and they are all variations on a theme based on the prototype of the Latin Mass.
Jesus healed. Jesus delivered people from demonic oppression. The apostles healed and delivered people from demonic oppression. And, the early Christians did exactly the same thing. But there was something missing when they did it…the service.
What if church, the gathering of God’s people in a particular local, was supposed to be a temporary thing, a seasonal ecosystem that cycled through life and death, or a snapshot of ecclesiastical, historical, and geographical history. I know, ‘church’ is not a place, it’s a people. We all say that, but still act as if it is a place.
Paul Washer explains what is wrong with the “sinners prayer.” Rather than having someone pray a prayer and then tell them they are going to heaven, he says we should tell people that the evidence of their salvation will be continued growth in repentance and salvation.
The reasoning goes something like this… If I know I have important things to say and I am going to get others to listen to me, then they have to want to listen to me. In order for them to want to listen to me, I have to be someone they want to listen to. It is important therefore, that I sell myself via writing books, blogging, tweeting, preaching, etc., so I can get the message out. My ministry needs attention so I can minister to more, more fully. And, of course, it’s really Jesus’ message and mission, so the end justifies the means.
Timothy Keller explains the apparent paradox in which we are told to pray, and yet is God who is in control. Therefore, we have to wonder if our prayers can really change anything at all. (more…)
Missiologist, Alan Hirsch, talks with Ed Stetzer about the future of Christianity in America amid its increasingly secularized culture. They also discuss the importance of recovering a vision for the 5 key gifts Christ gave to his Church from Ephesians 4.
Note: Jump to the 6:15 mark in the video to bypass the fluffy stuff and get straight to the good stuff with Alan Hirsch.
George Deek is Arab. He’s also an Israeli diplomat. He’s also a Christian. Is your mind blown yet?
George shares his family’s story of displacement and return as a way to show that people who are often thought of as enemies can become friends by securing a future together. Past wounds and sins can be forgiven and redeemed as God works good from those things which people meant for evil. Indeed, it is possible for this to be a reality, even on the world’s largest geopolitical stage.
The Bible does not prescribe an ideal form of government. Yet, for a long time, and to an exceptional degree among religious types in America, evangelicals have found in their national identity a convergence of first principles: They believe in constitutional democracy and they believe that their Bible-based religion is not only compatible with this system, but actually essential to it.
So, where in the Bible do the foundations of modern democracy reside?
“Teens are just that way! It’s who they are.”
Well, history is there to prove you wrong. It may be who they are, but it is NOT who they are meant to be. Teens can be the most energetic, the most passionate, the most powerful people group in the Body of Christ. And Satan knows it.
I’m done watching kids go over the edge. I’m done watching hearts break. I’m done playing tea party in a war zone. Parents, pray for your kids! The Enemy is after them, not just so he can get to them, but so he can get to you!
Anything of value is exhausting.
Planting and keeping a garden.
Business ventures.
Writing and publishing a book.
Raising animals.
Developing strong relationships.
Maintaining a healthy body.
Learning a useful skill or earning a degree.
And yes, having and raising children.
Frank Viola writes and speaks extensively on the topic of church. He has compiled a lot of data on the topic and had a lot of experience interacting with people about it.
Based on my experience and observation over the last 30 years, here are the five top reasons why people leave their local assembly (church)…
Luther actually suggested, “God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.” So when Paul says in Ephesians that “it is by grace you have been saved” it is deeply connected to the work you do in your everyday life. When Paul continues, he goes on to say “for your are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus do good works.” God actually created you to do good.
You simply love your neighbor because they need it, not because they are a means to an end. The good work of God actually frees you to fulfill your calling as you love your neighbor in ordinary ways in your own workplaces, families, and neighborhoods.
Where I saw mess and mayhem, she saw joy and contentment. A peaceful home.
Maybe there’s no easy formula, but here are 12 simple things that can help bring peace into your home:
Above all, we should approach American culture without panic or anger. This will be difficult. We will see things happening that we do, and should, lament, things that were kept from happening by the veneer of American civil religion.
The church now has the opportunity to bear witness in a culture that often does not even pretend to share our “values.” That is not a tragedy since we were never given a mission to promote “values” in the first place, but to speak instead of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of Christ and his kingdom.
As I observe the tactics of the New Atheism, it causes me to wonder. Are we, the Christian church leaning on our services, on our rhetoric, or on our programs as the hope for our neighbors? Because if we are, we may find ourselves with some increasingly stiff competition.
Or are we leaning on the True Initiator, the one who makes the very question of competition disappear?
You won’t miraculously turn into a better person because you got married and had kids, obviously. But, at their essence, families are built and held together through sacrificial love, and this is something that can — if you give yourself over to it — sanctify you and bring you closer to God.
When you pour your energies and efforts into serving and loving your spouse, raising your children, and guiding your family, you’ll find that, inevitably, you grow and mature in the process.
The story of the Good Samaritan is easily the most famous parable that Jesus told. A priest and a rabbi refuse to help someone hurt along the road, but a Samaritan, the one hated by the Hebrew people not only helps, but finds a hotel and pays for the man to get better.
The more I reflect on the story of the Good Samaritan, I’m becoming more and more amazed by the margin in the life of the Good Samaritan to be able to take that amount of time to care for someone he had just met.
Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church. Many evangelicals do not have orthodox views about either God or humans, especially on questions of salvation and the Holy Spirit.
The church in every age has faced theological confusion and heresy. We cannot assume the next generation—or even this present one—will catch an orthodox theology merely by being in the church.
There was an early revival in China in the 1920s. Those early Christians had a vision to bring the gospel “back” from the ends of the earth (China) to Israel. They dedicated themselves to the “back to Jerusalem” movement. They felt they had received eternal life from the Jews and wanted to return to them the same grace.
The Chinese church loves Jesus, loves Israel and loves the Arabs. Today we are here, hugging you. Just as the sun rises in the East, so will this revival return to Jerusalem.
Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei Community, interviews Eugene Peterson about what a pastor is. There are many humorous moments in this video and also many nuggets of great wisdom. This interview will be very encouraging and helpful for anyone who has ever considered the pastoral vocation.
As long as the machine masquerading as “church” circles around to protect those that prey on the most vulnerable, I don’t plan to “get over it”. As long as church leaders give standing ovations to those who built empires on the broken backs of earnest seekers, I don’t plan to “get over it”. I hope to God you won’t either.
“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
But when Jesus said these words, he wasn’t talking about protecting abusive religious leaders from accountability. He was talking about protecting vulnerable people from abusive religious leaders.
I object to any mission to bring prayer “back” to school because I can’t support the faulty theology—downright heresy—of implying God is only around to hear our prayers when the building sanctions his presence.
Prayer never left schools. And God never did either. To suggest otherwise should make us shudder. And yet, that’s what campaigns full of good God-fearing folks seem to be saying.
What are we communicating with our laments over godless classrooms and demands for established prayer times? We insinuate we have the power to take and put God where we want him. We suggest the act of teacher-led prayer or a public invocation of God’s name keeps us from harm or makes a place more God’s and therefore more worthy than another.
The fact is undeniable: for megachurches, cars are essential. It’s probably more accurate to say that cars created the megachurch. Without them, these churches simply couldn’t exist in the form they do today.
The abundance of choices and the absence of limitations is the blessing and the curse of the car. And church shopping may not be a problem of character. Not only has car culture nurtured an emphasis on affinity, but it has also altered ecclesiology (our beliefs about the church). Cars have put church “consumers” in the driver’s seat like never before, and church leaders are forced to buckle up for the ride.
Note: Clicking the “Read More” button below will take you to the first of five pages of this article. Use the links at the bottom of the first page to navigate to subsequent pages.
“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism”, Cardinal Ratzinger said, “which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”
In 2002 Ratzinger noted: “I would say that today relativism predominates. It seems that whoever is not a relativist is someone who is intolerant. To think that one can understand the essential truth is already seen as something intolerant. However, in reality this exclusion of truth is a type of very grave intolerance and reduces essential things of human life to subjectivism. In this way, in essential things we no longer have a common view. Each one can and should decide as he can. So we lose the ethical foundations of our common life.”
It seems to me that the evangelical church places marriage on something of a pedestal, describing it in elevated terms, and investing enormous amounts of time and resources into strengthening that institution. But there was an unintended side effect to this, that as the emphasis shifted towards the significance of marriage, the significance of singleness was minimized.
Of all institutions, church should have been the one place where single people could thrive and feel valued for who they were. After all, there is a deep respect for singleness both in the Bible and throughout church history, just as much as for marriage.
Dhati Lewis explains how we desperately need to recapture the art of hospitality in order to make disciples. He describes a process of taking people into his home for discipleship. This goes beyond information transfer to achieve more of a watch-and-learn dynamic.
The Scripture teaches that the heart is the control center for life. A person’s life is a reflection of his heart. Proverbs 4:23 states it like this: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
Parents often get sidetracked with behavior. The thing that alerts you to your child’s need for correction is his behavior. Behavior irritates and thus calls attention to itself. Behavior becomes your focus. You think you have corrected when you have changed unacceptable behavior to behavior you sanction and appreciate.
“What is the problem?” you ask. The problem is this: Your child’s needs are far more profound than his aberrant behavior. Remember, his behavior does not just spring forth uncaused. His behavior—the things he says and does—reflects his heart. If you are to really help him, you must be concerned with the attitudes of heart that drive his behavior.
Francis Chan and David Platt discuss the importance of keeping the worship of God at the center of the Christian life. Anytime we drift from that, we need to repent. God loves to hear our repentance, and we should do it frequently.
Addressing the will (moralism) produces bored Pharisees. Addressing the intellect (abstract doctrine) creates heart-detached eggheads. Awakening the heart with wonder births humble believers. Wonder leads to adoration. Adoration leads to worship of the One who gave up all for the joy of knowing us. And worship creates humility
Only wonder will change our hearts. Only wonder replaces our artificial hearts of stone.
The rise of “scientism,” in which science is uncritically treated as a religion, holding the power to decide ethical questions, was predicted by famous 20th century Christian author C.S. Lewis, scholar John West explained.
Neither he nor Lewis are anti-science, West said. Rather, they are opposed to scientism, which West defined as “the wrong-headed belief that modern science supplies the only reliable method of knowledge about the world, and its corollary that scientists should be the ones to dictate public policy and even our moral and religious beliefs simply because of their scientific expertise.”
Joshua Butler explains how popular beliefs about hell cause us to miss the point of the Bible’s teaching on the subject. Many view hell as a skeleton in God’s closet. This need not be so if hell is rightly understood.
Note: You might also like our other video post about heaven & earth.
Your heart is a liar and if you follow it you are a fool. I followed my heart into a world of sin and heartache, and no matter how much I tried to blame him… the devil didn’t make me do it. It was all me. My heart wanted what was evil, what was sinful, what was selfish. My heart told me that I would like those things, that those things would make me feel good, and everything would be better. It lied to me. But if I am completely honest, if it were not for the work of the Spirit in my life, I would still follow my heart into the depths of hell.
I resigned as a staff pastor and went on a rather long journey. I was searching for the type of genuine spiritual community found in the Bible: one without unnecessary church buildings, institutional hierarchy or imaginary titles. After all, the church Paul describes as the Body of Christ has many unique members but there is clearly a single authority, a single Head to this Body, which is Christ.
Thankfully I now have firsthand experience living in community with other believers who get to fully function in their callings during church gatherings.
While I don’t believe the Bible has a journalistic type of accuracy that most fundamentalists ascribe to it, nor do I believe that the Bible is some sort of magic book that will yield an answer to every conceivable question posed to it, I am convinced of the following:
(1) All Scripture is inspired by God.
(2) All Scripture is authoritative.
(3) All Scripture is completely true and wholly reliable.
If the Bible isn’t reliable, then putting my faith in the Person that all Scripture points to — the Lord Jesus Christ — is a bit shaky. But note, reliability doesn’t mean perfection. Every historical document that’s reliable in its account isn’t perfect. Meaning, there may be a few typos, grammos, imperfect wordings, and even scribal mistakes. But those don’t overturn nor negate the overall message of the document.
Rich Mullins was a well-known musician during the 1980s and 1990s. A biographical film was released earlier this year, entitled Ragamuffin. Unlike most Christian-made films, this one is actually good. It tells the story of Rich Mullins’ life with an unapologetic look at the pain and loneliness he suffered and his struggles to deal with the fame and fortune that threatened to destroy him. After much pain, loss, and disappointment, he finally crosses paths with Brennan Manning who introduces him to the term “ragamuffin.” A ragamuffin knows he’s only a beggar at the door of God’s mercy. Rather than say anymore about the story, I’ll simply mention that this movie is now available on Netflix, and you should go watch it.
Many a street preacher has used the “lake of fire,” an image in Revelation, to depict God as a sadistic torturer who likes to roast unrepentant rebels like kalua pigs over an eternal spit once the stopwatch runs out.
But is torture really the point of this image? I would like to suggest, in contrast, that the lake of fire is an apocalyptic symbol for the smoldering rubble of Babylon. It depicts God’s judgment on empire, not the torture of individuals. The symbol does not promote a caricature of God as a sadistic torturer, but rather reclaims hope for a world torn apart under the destructive power of empire.
There is a great misunderstanding in churches of the purpose of music in Christian worship. Music is viewed as a means to facilitate an encounter with God; it will move us closer to God. In this schema, music becomes a means of mediation between God and man. But this idea is closer to ecstatic pagan practices than to Christian worship.
It is important to understand that music in our worship is for two specific purposes: to honor God and to edify our fellow believers. Unfortunately, many Christians tend to grant music a sacramental power which Scripture never bestows upon it.
There is a general perception that the only thing keeping every woman of childbearing age from having fourteen children, is some method of family planning. But the facts really don’t support that perception.
John Sowers, of the Mentoring Project, shares his personal story of fatherlessness and how that birthed a vision to turn the hearts of fathers back to the children and the hearts of children back to their fathers in the spirit of Malachi 4.
The phrase personal Savior is yet another recent innovation that grew out of the ethos of nineteenth-century American revivalism. It originated in the mid-1800s to be exact. But it grew to popular parlance by Charles Fuller (1887–1968). Fuller literally used the phrase thousands of times in his incredibly popular Old Fashioned Revival Hour radio program that aired from 1937 to 1968.
Today, the phrase personal Savior is used so pervasively that it seems biblical. But consider the ludicrousness of using it. In Jesus Christ, you and I have received something far greater than a personal Savior. We have received Jesus Christ’s very own relationship with His Father!
Bryan Carter explains how forgiveness within marriage works. The principles he speaks of really apply to all relationships, not just marriage.
Depending on the neighborhood you live in, you may see some strange little structures built in yards or apartment windows recently. The reason for this is that the biblical Feast of Booths (a.k.a. Sukkot) begins this evening. It will last for the next 8 days, and it will be lots of fun! This previous post explains why Christians should consider observing the biblical festival calendar. The festival of Sukkot is the high point of the annual festival rhythm in the biblical calendar, and it is also an occasion for much joy. Click below to read more about how the celebration of Sukkot can teach us about God’s ways and his plan for reconciling with his children…
The Bible teaches that when Christ comes back, it will be Good News! “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’” (Revelation 21.4). Surely we cannot erase judgment from the picture, but the hope is that those in Christ will be raised to eternal life and everything that is wrong with this world will be made right.
This world renewed is going to be our home for eternity, and we have the opportunity to reflect that future in our present. Rapture invites us to escape this world: the last thing that Jesus would have ever taught! “On earth as in heaven” is what he said, not “in heaven away from the earth!” Our world’s future is hopeful. Let’s tell that story and not the escapist narratives that many of us grew up with.
Many Christians, especially those who live in America, are obsessed with the second coming of Christ. Various interpretations surrounding the when, where, and how of this incredible event have spawned endless divisions among Jesus’ followers.
God’s intention from the beginning was to bring heaven and earth together. God’s purpose is to bring “eternity” to “here.” It was to expand the garden of Eden to the rest of the world. Consequently, God’s intention is centered upon earth. God loves the earth and regards it highly. Contrary to what many believe, Scripture teaches that the earth will exist forever.
As I continue to grow as a pastor, I’ve come to find revelations on certain aspects of the church, Jesus, and ministry as a whole. I’ve learned a lot about what being a pastor is, but I’ve also come to realize many things that being a pastor isn’t. Let me share my thoughts with you.
The latest video from the Bible Project gives a visually stunning and concise explanation of how the Bible develops the theme of the Messiah from Genesis to Revelation.
John Piper has recently launched a new series of Bible study “labs”. The trailer video is above. Click the “Read More” button below to see the collection of instructional videos currently available.
Look at the Book is a new online method of teaching the Bible. It’s an ongoing series of 8–12 minute videos in which the camera is on the text, not the teacher. You will hear John Piper’s voice and watch his pen underline, circle, make connections, and scribble notes — all to help you learn to read God’s word for yourself.
“…it is easy to become spoiled if we concentrate on the core of our giftedness—as if the universe existed only to fulfill our gifts….We live in a fallen world and the core of our gifts may not be fulfilled in our lives on earth. If there had been no Fall, all our work would have naturally and fully expressed who we are and exercised the gifts we have been given. But after the Fall, that is not so.”
When I first read that part of the book, I fought it. No, I thought, I will “arrive” one day. I will discover my perfect calling. It’s here, and I’m going to find it.
Luther wrestled with the idea that God is holy, and that no matter how hard Luther tried, he was a poor, miserable sinner. Martin Luther could not see how a holy, perfect and righteous God would ever forgive and love a sinner like himself. Luther had done everything the church told him to do, he had performed all the rituals, said all the prayers, done the penance, but at the end of it all, he knew that he did not have the ability to produce the kind of life that would please God.
Then came grace.
We started going out on the streets, praying for the sick in every place. Me and a buddy were going out on the streets all the time and seeing many healings.
I’ve learned that the high point is no longer the healing, the crying eyes, or the excited person. The high point is when I’ve watched the person transform over time into someone who knows what God is really like and knows how God sees them. The healings, the prophetic words, and the acts of kindness are just tools of bringing somebody into a healthy relationship with Jesus.
In honor of Throwback Thursday, we are remembering a post from June in which a vision for local gatherings of believers takes the place of larger consumer-oriented gatherings that we are used to.
A movement is growing that will radically shift this generation’s understanding of that perennially elusive word: church. Oddly enough, if you go looking for this movement on a Sunday morning you’ll probably come up empty. Thousands of Christians are reclaiming the ancient idea of the “parish” and weaving together a shared life in the place they call home.
I won’t coddle you, like those other bloggers will. You probably are not doing so great…but… everything will be ok. That is, everything will be ok if you look to Jesus. Don’t get caught up in your failures. Stop looking at yourself. I am not saying brush your sins off. Admit your sins. Call them out by name. Claim them as your own, confess them, and then stop looking at yourself and look to Jesus instead. Wage war on your sin in the strength that he provides. He didn’t fail.
How much choice does any individual human actually have? We speak of “free will”—but how much of a choice to accept God’s grace does anyone have, given the brainwashing and propaganda to which they are subjected? How much of a choice to accept God’s grace does a young boy in a radicalized Muslim school have?
Being in Christ is a divine invitation to an eternal relationship, open to everyone. But being in Christ is not an automatic, divinely bestowed or imposed gift.
One Sunday morning when Jimmy Rollins was 37 years old, he stood before the church, and what he saw was a sea of black. The church had a handful of white members and a roster of recurring guest speakers who were Caucasian, but Living Waters Worship Center was a majority African-American church in a majority white town, south of Baltimore. For Rollins, that meant it was a church that had lost its way. Rollins knew that the church needed to change…
With Rosh Hashanah fresh in our minds and Yom Kippur on the horizon, it seems like an appropriate time to pause to ask if Christians should celebrate the biblical holidays.
We should honor the feasts of the Lord because they are replete with symbolism about the full plan of salvation, but not to the point where we give more importance to the mere natural symbols than the glorious supernatural events they symbolized. Yes, we must guard against being too caught up with the “shadow,” when we who are born again are blessed to actually possess the “substance” of what the feasts foretold. The spiritual reality is much more important than the natural foreshadowing.
For several years now I have been involved in the “organic church” movement. For the majority of my Christian life prior to the above mentioned, I had been associated in some way with what is usually called the institutional church.
The question raised in this post is: “Can an organic church philosophy of growth exist within an institutional church?” I think it can, but only if the institution is willing to practice “release” instead of “control.”
Today’s Throwback Thursday article reaches back only a month ago to our post about why Christians should observe the biblical calendar. It seems appropriate to recall this article considering that today is Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”), which is the new year on the biblical calendar. It is commemorated with the Feast of Trumpets. Yom Kippur (“day of atonement”) will follow in 10 days and then Sukkot (a.k.a. Feast of Tabernacles) will finish of the Fall holidays.
We have been robbed of a significant part of our godly heritage through a calendar that was intentionally removed from the biblical one. The early believers in Jesus were all Jewish.
God has a calendar; we have a calendar. He will never get on ours, but it’s best we get on His!
“Left Behind” comes out this week, an apocalyptic thriller starring Nicolas Cage. Based on the best-selling book series, the movie revolves around “the rapture”: a belief that one day all Christians will suddenly vanish, disappearing from the earth to go be with God, while the world they “left behind” plunges into apocalyptic destruction.
Americans may find “Left Behind” to be best-selling entertainment, but is it biblical? I say no. In fact, as a follower of Jesus I find the rapture to be not just a little bit off, but actually upside-down and backwards.
When Jesus comes, here are a few reasons why I want to be left behind.
In almost every American Christian sanctuary (especially those within the Protestant communions), you can all but guarantee that the American flag will be found. And it is my contention that it should be taken down. Today. And never be put up again in the places where we worship the Lord.
The point is that our faith in Christ, our being a part of the Christian church, transcends nationality. When we enter our Lord’s sanctuary we do so to receive His grace: His Word, His Sacraments. We come as the body of Christ to receive Him. We don’t come as Americans. We don’t come as democrats. We don’t come as constitutional patriots. We come as sinners who need Jesus.
I am so grateful for my 25 years of marriage to my wife, Susan. My love for her has grown immensely over the years. I’ve been faithful to her. I’m very attracted to her.
I’m just one decision away from doing something really stupid that could really damage, or perhaps even destroy, our relationship. And I can tell you that I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my marriage.
Here are eight marriage mistakes I’ve made…