What Mr. Rogers Teaches Us About Reconciliation

It’s no surprise that when a Presbyterian minister wanted to heal the divide between blacks and whites, to show us how to serve each other, it looked very much like Jesus’ own servanthood. When Rogers asked Clemmons to become a police officer, he asked him to become the enemy in order to redeem the enemy—just as Jesus took on the form of his enemy to redeem us. And when Rogers shared his pool and wiped his friend’s feet with a towel, he was repenting through servanthood—the same servanthood that motivated Jesus to take up the towel the night before his death.

But both acts required humility. Both acts required relinquishing privilege—the privilege of anger on Clemmons’ part and the privilege of comfort on Rogers’ part. And through this humility, both men embody Christ: neither condescending to the other; both simply surrendering to the other. So that in the very same act, the humiliated are brought up and the proud are brought down.

In one brief scene on a children’s television show, we see this happen. We see two men humbling themselves. We see two men cleansing each other through acts of communion and identification. We see two men showing the world how reconciliation happens. And we hear Mr. Rogers say, in his own quiet voice, “Sometimes just a minute like this will really make a difference.”

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Who Is The Hero Of The Story?

The essential distinction between Christianity and all other religions—including secularism—can be boiled down to one question: Who is the hero of your story?

The human race was cursed when Adam and Eve decided to be the heroes in their own story. When they took God’s place in the Garden. All subsequent sins are variations on that theme: we are usurping God’s place.

But Scripture says that real fruit, the fruit that endures for eternity, is fruit that brings glory to the Father. It makes him the hero; God’s power shown through our weakness. And it’s always been that way.

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What Happened To The Reliability Of The Bible?

The reliability of Scripture came under attack during and after the Enlightenment; especially (and oddly) by Christian leaders themselves.

To counter the attack on God’s Word, theologians and pastors for the last two hundred years have been arguing for the trustworthiness of the Bible. And that’s right. The Bible is trustworthy and that we should argue for its authority.

We read Scripture in order to personally meet Jesus. The Bible promises that in it we actually come to hear God. And that—how to hear God in Scripture—should be the focus of our teaching. We spend so much time arguing for Scripture that we we’ve forgotten to teach how to use it.

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The Hope And Joy of Redemption

When we suffer loss—anything from tarnished reputation, rejection, theft, and even death—we want to get back to what we had before. But the gospel promises more than a mere return to our previous state of affairs.  C. S. Lewis wrote,

For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity.

It’s a spiritual principle that God uses our deepest pains to bring about our greatest joys. Restoration of status quo is child’s play; transformation of suffering into glory is the gospel.

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Be Delighted By God, Not Desperate For Him

Being desperate for God is what someone feels who doesn’t really know what God has done. They don’t really know who God is for them. They don’t get that they are no longer living in a visitational culture. They are a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

When you understand that you are a habitation of God, it changes your whole perspective on how you walk with God. You start actually seeking the Lord.

I am not remotely desperate for God. I’m too busy just being delighted in Him.

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You Won’t Hear God If You’re Full Of Yourself

Most of us unconsciously believe that God speaks only to those who are mature and pure. The trouble is, positive self-talk forms barriers to hearing God: he loves the broken-hearted.

The God of Scripture is attracted to the humble, and it is the humble he loves to raise up. That’s why Jesus invites the broken-hearted: “Come to me all who are weak and heavy-burdened.”

We can approach God full and walk away empty; or we approach him empty—no excuses and no self-esteem—and walk away full.

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Spiritual Lessons From “The Walking Dead”

Recently, I finished every episode of The Walking Dead to date. Beyond the compelling characters, rich storylines, and incomparable acting, the parallels to the spiritual walk are impressive. The gruesome scenes, notwithstanding.

What follows are three critical lessons about the Christian life I observed while watching.

You don’t know what people are really like until you observe them under pressure. Only then do their true colors emerge. This sober fact is brought out powerfully in The Walking Dead.

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A Biblical Definition Of Success

Two great lies have been promoted in our culture during the past 20 years. They are told to children in school, students in college, and workers throughout the business world.

The first great lie is, “If you work hard enough, you can be anything you want to be.” It is often sold as the American Dream, expressed in sayings such as, “In America, anyone can grow up to be president.”

The second great lie is like the first one, yet it’s possibly even more damaging: “You can be the best in the world.”

These lies are accepted by many Christians as well as non-Christians. They catastrophically damage our view of work and vocation because they have distorted the biblical view of success. These two lies define success in 21st century Western culture. Success, defined as being the master of your own destiny, has become an idol.

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The Problem With Finding Identity In Anything Besides Christ

Our naming is an illusion. Or delusion. My old title beat me up; it whipped me with the scourge, “Used to be.” Everything we have will soon be a used-to-be. We need a name that will never let us down—which really means we need a different savior.

The Apostle Paul surely had the Jeremiah passage in mind when he offered a similarly odd plea: “God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).

The impact of my life would be magnified beyond measure if my single boast in the world was: “I’ve got the applause of the only person whose opinion counts—though I don’t deserve it!”

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What’s Wrong With “Relationship Vs. Religion”

Our Christian culture today is saturated with this idea, or at least with the quip, “relationship not religion.”

Unfortunately, the quip is wrong. In fact, it is so misleading it needs correction before we can start undoing much of the damage it has done. And boy has it done some damage. A large percentage of the failure of modern evangelicalism (and other parts of the church) can be blamed on the fallout of this mentality.

Here’s the bottom line, and then I’ll explain: “Religion vs. Relationship” is a false choice, and is always necessarily a false choice. By erecting this false dichotomy, people display that they understand neither what religion is nor what a relationship is. As a result, they denigrate both.

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Why We Want Religious Systems More Than The Gospel

It was easy to speak boldly that my ministry was all about faithfulness to God and His Word. But when humility gave birth to brutal honesty, I freely began to admit that there was undoubtedly this constant undercurrent of concern about my future. If someone else in leadership began to be at odds with me, it could go sour and I could end up looking for another church. If a long-standing and prominent congregant took issue with me, they had the power to influence others against me, and I could end up looking for another church.  At almost every point in pastoring, I constantly stood a chance of losing something.

Reminiscing about this brought me to an important reality followed by an important question. The reality is this: people crave religious systems. The question is obvious: why?

Fear drives this inward compulsion to conform. You are afraid of not belonging any longer. So you behave the way you need to in order to stay with the group. When this translates into churchianity, you come to believe that staying with your local church is tantamount to staying with God. And to not conform to the church is to be marginalized or expelled by both church and God. 

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How America Ruined The Gospel

There is a common belief among Americans that following Jesus will help you get what you want in life. In this story, the “good news” is good because it brings individual satisfaction and pleasure. The good news of the biblical Gospel is that people can be reconciled to God. That may or may not have anything to do with your material prosperity or comfort. (more…)

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Prayer Meetings Are The Heartbeat Of The Church

The condition of a church can be accurately determined by its prayer meetings. Vance Havner said that “the thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.”

A.T. Pierson said: “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.” It’s well documented that all true revivals in history began in the prayer meeting. Based on the teaching of Scripture, the example of the early church, and church history, it seems to me that the need of the hour is to worry less about doing whatever it takes to draw a crowd and to give greater attention to collectively seeking God in prayer.

Spurgeon said: “We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.” He also said: “If we would have Him, we must meet in greater numbers; we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer steadfastness. The prayer meeting … is the appointed place for the reception of power.”

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How Hollywood Teaches Us About Heaven

Year after year, Hollywood churns a host of sequels, reboots, and remakes on a quest to find Eden, because embedded deep within our souls is a nostalgic quest for a lost paradise—and film is often where it leads us.

The reason sequels, reboots, and remakes become mixed up in this desire is because our broken world is deficient to satisfy our hunger. Instead, we attach the desire to something more tangible, but still vague enough to provide an ineffable hope, like memories of feelings we have had in certain times in our past, when things seemed just right. We can expect evidence of this reality when we go to the movies. We are drawn to sequels and prequels because they promise to take us back to a place we remember enjoying. We are drawn to reboots and remakes because they promise to recreate encounters with characters and stories that once gave us comfort. We love these films because they promise to give us something we remember being perfect.

As C.S. Lewis says: “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.

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Sabbath Is For Freedom

Leadership is stewardship—the cultivation of the resources God has entrusted to us for his glory. The Sabbath gives us both theological and practical help in managing one of our primary resources —our time.

One of the fundamental principles of the Bible when it comes to time management is the Sabbath. If we are to be an “alternate city” (Matthew 5:14–16), we have to be different from our neighbors in how we spend our time outside of work; that is, how we rest. So what is the Sabbath about?

God ties the Sabbath to freedom from slavery. Anyone who overworks is really a slave. Anyone who cannot rest from work is a slave—to a need for success, to a materialistic culture, to exploitative employers, to parental expectations, or to all of the above. These slave masters will abuse you if you are not disciplined in the practice of Sabbath rest. Sabbath is a declaration of freedom.

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Why New Testament Believers Didn’t Have Worship Leaders

You’ll see Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Evangelists, and Pastors but you won’t find hide nor hair of a worship leader. Being a full time worship leader I had a bit of an identity crises when I flipped through the pages of New Testament scripture unable to find my job description. Then I realized something: Being a worship leader was something every Christian was called to.

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Seeing Yourself In The Parable Of The Two Sons

Religion is an invisible prison. It makes us think we are okay with God, when we may actually be further from Him than the greatest of sinners. Sinners typically know they are sinning. Religious people never do.

And that’s the deal with the older son. He thinks he is better than his brother because he stuck around with dad. But he’s not better necessarily, for he is judging and condemning his brother, whom the father has accepted and forgiven! The older son is a lost son as well, and he too has turned away from his father.

Both the older son and the younger son need to see how God has graciously forgiven and accepted each of them, one for his many sins and the other for his religious hypocrisy, and both can thank the father for His love, and then show each other the same love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness in return.

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Welcoming Makes Well

“Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me” (Luke 9:48).

“Welcome” is a biblical word rich with a rich meaning. It is more than a smile and a handshake. It is more than what happens during the “welcome and announcements.” If we reduce a welcome to a greeting, we clearly have misunderstood the meaning of welcome.

When Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes this little child,” He didn’t mean “whoever greets … whoever shakes his hand … whoever puts on a friendly face ….”

A welcoming church is the fertile soil in which all people can experience change and growth through the power of gospel of grace.

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The Trap Of Loving Yourself Too Much

Too many Christian teachers today have adopted that secular counselor’s message of heightened self-love. They see the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and claim that it contains the hidden commandment: “Love yourselves more.”

I understand why the world cheers on greater self-love (what other option do they have?); but I can’t understand why Christians, like lemmings, leap into this trap as well.

Thomas A Kempis wrote, “Self-love is more harmful to you than anything else in the world. The proportion you give love to a thing is the proportion that thing will rule you. If your love is pure, simple, and well ordered, you will be a slave to nothing.”

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Making A Movie About Saving Babies Saved A Man

“For me, Christians, at the time—well, evangelical Christians—were crazy people, hypocrites, haters, whatever you want to call them,” Brian Ivie told World Magazine. “But I was experiencing something really authentic. I broke down. I started crying. All I could say was: ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’” he recalled.

Now, in addition to helping tell the story of Jong-rak and in encouraging others to help save abandoned children around the world, Ivie hopes that “The Dropbox” will draw men to Christ just like it did for himself.

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Stop Falling In Love With Jesus

Many pastors and teachers are doubling-down on the relational language – encouraging their flocks to “fall in love with Jesus” or “have a love affair with Jesus.”

Here are three more reasons to avoid romantic imagery: It’s unbiblical, it’s unhelpful and it’s uncomfortable.

When I think of my faith, I do not imagine it as a love affair. I don’t envision myself sitting across a table in a candlelit restaurant, staring into Jesus’ eyes, casually flirting with him. I don’t picture myself walking hand-in-hand on a beach, opening a love note from Jesus, or climbing into bed next to him. My “relationship” with Jesus takes place on the battlefield – not in the bedroom.

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Battling Depression When His Grace Doesn’t Feel Sufficient

Numb and unfeeling, in a pit of darkness and despair…I could not understand why I felt that way. The darkness overwhelmed me, but there was no substance to it, no object, no reason…and I began to think that maybe I was a little bit crazy.

It made no sense.

I mean really, let’s be honest. I was living the “American dream.”  I have a great life by most standards. How could I possibly be suffering depression?

Some say they are stronger for going through depression and coming out the other side. Not me. Each time I go through it, I realize just how weak I really am. I need him more and more. It is always Him. It is all about Him.  Perhaps he permitted me to experience depression to keep me in line.

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Jesus Kept The Sabbath Holy While Pharisees Missed The Point

The original instructions of the Sabbath lead us not into hunger, neglect of ourselves and others, prolonged illness or condemnation as the rabbinic law did, but just the opposite:  joy, healing, building up ourselves and others, intimacy with God and abundant life.  I can attest to this in my own observance of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is just one example of how God’s law brings abundant life.  Instead of a day of don’ts and can’ts that the scribes and Pharisees had made it, Jesus showed us the true meaning and intent of the Sabbath — a day to sit at his feet and receive his life, not depriving ourselves or others, but planning ahead to take a day in which we put away our own pursuits and pursue only God.

In all his comments regarding the Sabbath, Jesus was dividing truth from deception, separating God’s instructions from man’s.  This is what we are required to do today:  Read the instructions for ourselves and follow God’s leading instead of man’s.

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More Bricks, Less Straw, Equals Less Worship

All overworked people know the refrain: More bricks, less straw.

And what’s interesting to note in Pharaoh’s reaction is that he assumes that a request for worship is symptomatic of laziness.

What I find interesting in all this is how the worship of God is perceived to interrupt the work and quotas demanded by Pharaoh. The tension, at least here in the beginning of Exodus, isn’t the clash between slavery and liberation but the clash between worship and work.

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It’s Dangerous To Assume People Know The Gospel

The tips and techniques of Christian tutors aren’t bad, but they obscure the intent of the law; they encourage The Little Engine That Could thinking—“I think I can, I think I can”—instead of driving us to God as we realize, “I’m pretty sure I can’t.”

When Jesus expounded the law about adultery (Matt. 5:27-28), he didn’t offer “Five Steps to Safeguard Your Marriage.” He was saying, “You’ve already committed adultery in your heart; you don’t need new rules, you need a new heart. You need God.”

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ISIS: An Opportunity To Pray For Those Who Persecute You

While it may be difficult for us in the West to know how to respond to ISIS, the families of the slain are faithfully practicing Jesus’ teaching to love your enemies. The brother of two of the slain men tells in this interview how his family is rejoicing in this opportunity to see the kingdom of God amid the grief. He does not grieve as one who has no hope.

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Control Is An Illusion, Striving For It Is Rebellion

Freedom, TRUE freedom, is understanding how out of control we are and then placing our faith in a God who has NEVER ceased to maintain control over what He has created.

So… to everyone who feels like you are out of control…it’s because YOU ARE!!! And, the more we try to control the more likely we are to live in complete rebellion to the one who is in control, who has all things in His hands and who constantly calls us to surrender to Him so that we can experience the joy of living under HIS Sovereignty rather than having to constantly discover that we have none of our own!

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People Can Change Because God Changes People

In honor of Throwback Thursday, we are remembering that a Christian is someone who believes people can change

Once we are labelled, once that sin is attached to you, it is seemingly impossible to break free from it.  Even when the label no longer fits.  Even when you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and have spiritually matured in Christ and repented of these things, and moved on in the power of the Holy Spirit toward Christ-likeness…they can still haunt you.  Reputations are nasty, icky, sticky things.

Some people don’t want to believe that people can change. But people do change, because God changes people.

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The Gospel Does Not Help Us With Self-Esteem

The gospel is difficult yet the burden is light; the gate is narrow yet the invitation is wide. Christianity has never been about self-attainment (that would be a heavy burden); it has always been about self-denial (and thus the narrow gate).

It is only when we let go that we can receive. God wishes to pour out in abundance a stream of living water of God-esteem in our hearts. We simply must release self-esteem.

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Silence In A Loud World: The First Step Toward Wisdom

Someone once said that “wisdom cries aloud in the street,” but I can’t hear her over the buzz of my iPhone, the hum of music in the background, and last night’s Colbert Report. But what if I began to consult with wisdom, shrieking in the street, and asked her what counsel she would give us as we consider the relationship between silence and wisdom? What might Sophia say?

If we listened to the cry of wisdom, we might hear her singing the praises of silence. Wisdom requires silence to flourish. In order for wisdom to characterize how we speak about love, suffering, truth, goodness, and beauty, we must learn how and when to shut out and when to shut up.

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The Problem With Making Bible Characters Moral Exemplars

I question our practice of painting biblical heroes more heroically than the Bible does. Hiding the faults of our heroes robs us of grace. That’s why the Bible doesn’t hide them.

Why do we want our heroes to be better than they really are? Because we think we are better than we really are. We would see more of God’s transforming grace if we spent more time acknowledging our own failures, just like the Bible does of its heroes.

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Worship Is More Than Singing Songs

Real worship is more than singing praises; it is the act of giving away our hearts. Worship is attributing ultimate value to something; it thinks, “If I had that I’d be happy;” it is a deep belief of the heart that says, “That is all I need.”

Worship is what we most deeply value. It’s not just the times we set aside to sing praise songs. We are constantly worshipping. Moment-by-moment, we live for something. “Where our treasure is, there will our hearts and minds be also.”

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Imitating Christ, The Suffering Servant

The only Christian theodicy which I find credible is the confession that God does not exempt himself from the horror of human suffering, but is fully baptized into it. God in Christ joins us in a solidarity of suffering, and somehow by his wounds we are healed. Christ saves us from sin and death only by hurling himself into the abyss. The ultimate imitation of Christ is to patiently absorb sin and offer pardon in the name of love. This is grace.

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Frank Viola Explains The Christian’s Relationship To The Sabbath Command

Resting in the finished work of our Lord is the basis of all spiritual life and work. Only those who rest in God’s promises and cease from their own efforts can receive God’s righteousness, peace, and joy.

The Sabbath day command was an ordinance that foreshadowed the coming rest in God’s kingdom that Jesus Christ would bring (Heb. 4). Christ, in essence, is our Sabbath rest.

God’s desire is that we enter into this spiritual rest now, rather than try to keep the letter of the seventh day command. His aim is that we keep the substance of the Sabbath rather than its shadow. The Sabbath is about a Person, not a day.

The true Sabbath is the kingdom of God that is among us right now, and it will one day be manifested for all to see.

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How To Have A Conversation With God

If our best memories of our earthly fathers are conversations not sermons, why do we think our heavenly Father (who is better than the best earthly father) wants mostly to lecture? “Will not our heavenly Father give good things to us when we ask?” Would we want it any other way?

We most frequently seek God’s voice during times of crisis. “I’m in trouble; I need direction!” The thing is, until we have learned to recognize his quiet voice in the humdrum of life, what chance do we have of distinguishing his voice in the maelstrom of crisis?

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Trusting God Is Scary

But what if the very things I want for my life—including health and wealth—are the worst things for me right now? What if God—filled with love and wisdom—is deliberately, kindly, and gently weaning me from the liquid poison I slurp down every day? What if he does know best?

My battle in life is to believe God loves me more than I do, and he is proving it.

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Shabbat Shalom: Finding Peace And Delight In The Sabbath

Keeping the Sabbath “holy”, to me, had always meant going to church on Sunday. But there was nothing particularly sacred or restful about that. I started looking into Hebrew traditions, the roots of our Christian faith. The rules of keeping the Sabbath, the dynamics of the evening meal, and the following day of rest. I came across a verse I’d never read before, in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, where we are promised the joy and blessing of the Lord if we can delight in a day of rest. It didn’t command, simply, that we take a day of rest. It said, “if you call the Sabbath a delight…” Hmm. That sounded intriguing, hopeful, and just what we needed—a whole day to delight in.

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Jesus Shows How It’s Better To Give Than To Receive

David and Caesar wanted to get something—money, fame, new territory, self-esteem. Then Jesus came and showed us what a real leader should look like. He didn’t come to get anything at all. On the contrary. Under the auspices of Caesar’s demonstration of pride, the Christ was born in the humblest of circumstances.

But Jesus’ methods don’t apply just to leaders. He showed what it means to be a human: to live sacrificially, to give and not to receive despite the flesh’s desire for edification.

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Just So You Know: EVERYONE Is Religious

Many in this age of secularism will go about claiming that they are not “religious.” It seems that many believe that a person is not religious as long as they keep their distance from one of the major faith traditions of the world (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.). This clever web comic exposes the faulty assumption that subscribing to a major world religion is what makes one religious. In reality, every person who believes something, anything at all, is religious…

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Sometimes Christianity Doesn’t Look Like You Think It Should

Christian subcultures are an entertaining phenomenon. Multiple brands of Christianity claim the same Lord and read the same Bible, and yet they promote a set of values sometimes as different as apples and orangutans.

You cannot sanitize grace. You can’t stuff it into a blue blazer and make it wear khakis. Grace is messy, offensive, and it sometimes misses church. To expect God to pump prefabricated plastic moral people out of a religious factory is to neuter grace and chain it inside a gated community.

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Have A Theology Of “Enough” Especially As Christmas Approaches

Asking if it is okay for Christians to be rich is a strange question. It is like asking if it is okay for Christians to overeat, or watch too much TV. It may be permissible, but that doesn’t mean it is a good idea. I believe Jesus came to set us free — and one of the things he wants to set us free from is our obsession with money and possessions. Which is why he says such harsh things like “Woe to you who are rich…” (Luke 6:24).

A constant thread in Scripture is that we are not to take more than we need while others have less than they need, a radical critique of the world we live in. Let’s consider a “THEOLOGY OF ENOUGH.”

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If You Want To Draw Close To God Then Plant A Garden

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.

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Don’t Pray For Safety

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.

 

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Stand With Wendell Berry And Reject The Dualism That Plagues The Church

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…”

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Skewed Views Of Physical Adoption Lead To Skewed Views Of Spiritual Adoption

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.

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Meditation Is Deep Reflection On God – You Should Try It

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.

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Pursue Faithfulness, Not Bandwagons

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.

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Take A Big Risk For God By Staying Where You Are

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.

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Tearing Down The Sacred Vs. Secular Divide In Your Vocation

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.

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New Atheists Are Better At Church Than Christians Are

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?

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We Don’t Need To Bring Prayer Back To Schools Because It Never Left

I object to any mission to bring prayer “back” to school because I can’t support the faulty theology—downright heresyof 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.

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The Vital Role Of Wonder In The Spiritual Life

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.

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See What A Ragamuffin Looks Like

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.

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What We Learn From The Feast Of Booths

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…

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Wholeness Doesn’t Come From Finding Your Calling

“…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.

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Yep, You Screwed Up, Now What?

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.

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What’s So Christian About Celebrating Jewish Holidays?

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.

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It’s Rosh Hashanah, So What’s The Big Deal?

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!

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Doing Ministry Is One Thing, And Doing Life Is Another, Right? Wrong!

I’ve grown up in church my whole life, but if I’m being totally honest, I never really felt like I fit there. Don’t get me wrong. I’m good at making myself fit. I could show up every Sunday morning, help with setup and tear-down, come again on Wednesday night, sign up to volunteer for the different programs, etc.

But at the end of the day, I never really felt like myself when I was doing those things.

But when I got quiet with myself, when I settled down to fall asleep at the end of the day, I knew something was off. I wished I wanted to do the things I was doing. But the God-honest truth was: I was forcing it.

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Sons Of God: A Documentary About The Love Of God

This video is a short trailer for a new documentary about God’s work of reconciliation in Christ. The documentary is called Sons of God. It features many noteworthy contributors who share stories of how God has healed people and broken hard hearts to reveal his love. Check out the trailer above. Click the “Read More” button below to see the full documentary for free (no sign ups required).

 

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A Christian Is Someone Who Believes That People Can Change

Once we are labelled, once that sin is attached to you, it is seemingly impossible to break free from it.  Even when the label no longer fits.  Even when you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and have spiritually matured in Christ and repented of these things, and moved on in the power of the Holy Spirit toward Christ-likeness…they can still haunt you.  Reputations are nasty, icky, sticky things.

Some people don’t want to believe that people can change. But people do change, because God changes people.

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Are You Sure That You Are Sure About Your Salvation?

Since I was duly convinced that my “assurance” was the most important issue, there was this unexpected, subtle thing that happened inside me in response to heaven and my eternal assurance. It became of ultimate importance to protect the formula that leads to my 100% assurance.

I have decided to give back my assurance of salvation—or at least to give back the formula. I cannot trust myself to conceive of it in any non-self-serving manner. Maybe it is just me, but I am blinded by self-preservation.

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If Christians Are People Of The Book, Then Why Are They Biblically Illiterate?

We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking we are a people of the book. Instead, we have become a people of words—but they are our words, made in our image, and if we’re not careful our faith will be too.

When we ignore the question of literacy we risk becoming unmoored from the reason we worship together in the first place. If we are Biblically illiterate then what is the point? The truth is simple: we cannot be God’s people unless we are a people of the Book.

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How To Turn Your Work Into Worship

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12) 

As a follower of Christ our “daily life” mirrors our inward faith and discipleship, or lack thereof.  Our actions in the marketplace speak loudly of how we see our lives connecting with God’s Story of Grace.

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Recovering From The Loss Of A Child

A friend of mine had a stillborn daughter a few years ago. His process of recovering from that devastating ordeal was one of the most best examples I have ever seen of how a disciple of Jesus can grieve well. Most of us do not know how to grieve well. Many people have been through this ordeal, or something like it, and yet they remain silent or feel alone in their pain. This story can help you feel less alone and see the value of speaking about your grief.

This is part 1 of a multi-part account of his journey through incredible grief. The button below will take you to part 1, and then you can browse to other chapters of the story from there. Here’s a link to part 2.

Why did this happen? Medically speaking, we don’t know and probably never will know this side of the resurrection. It is hard not knowing what caused this. But the medical questions really aren’t the most difficult ones. There are much bigger questions.

The thing that sustained us wasn’t answers. The thing that held us up were truths regarding our God. He is a good God. He works good through horrible things. He is loving Father. He cares for His children in a way that a human father is unable. He gives and He takes away. And He does everything for His glory and our good.

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A Glimpse Of Jesus Amid The Michael Brown Tragedy

When the governor put Captain Ron Johnson in charge, something changed. He came not with riot gear, but in his simple uniform. He walked with the people: met with them, listened to them, identified with them. He was from their town. They looked to him and saw him as one of their own. And things de-escalated quickly. He bore his authority in a different way.

Ron Johnson reminds me of Jesus.

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Atheist Says Africa Needs God

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

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A Poetic Response To Mental Illness

In the wake of the news about Robin Williams’ suicide, the issues of mental illness and depression are now on the forefront of many people’s minds. Ann Voskamp has written on of the more grace-filled responses I’ve seen…

I locked lips and heart hard so no one knew about the locked wards and the psychiatric doctors and why my mama was gone and it’s crazy how the stigma around mental health can drive you right insane.

There are some who take communion and anti-depressants and there are those who think both are a crutch.

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Jesus Never Said Following Him Would Be Easy, So Why Do We Say It Is?

Surprisingly, many people don’t reject Christianity because they’ve given up on God. Instead, they’ve given up on the people and things that represent God. They don’t hate Jesus, they just become tired of not finding Him within Christian culture.

As Christians, we sometimes mistakenly try to compensate for God by presenting our faith as easier than it really is. We cover up the ugliness and hardship of authentic faith.

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How Fasting From Sugar Can Help You Keep In Step With The Spirit

As a disciple of Jesus, I want to be controlled by only one thing: The Spirit of God. The reality is that people (myself included) are often controlled by many things besides the Spirit. I usually think of myself as a person with very few vices, but the one thing that kept coming to mind as a vice was sugar.

Something was controlling me besides the Spirit. I am a slave to something, and that is inconsistent with my identity as a child of God.

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Love Your Enemy: Is That Even Possible?

Using the word “love” for an enemy makes the word “enemy” obsolete. You can’t love an “enemy”! Maybe that’s Jesus’ point: the more we love our enemies, the less enemies the world will have. There will no longer be no “us” or “them.” There will only be “us.”

All the pain and suffering we’ve inflicted on one another will be recompensed in the next life, and as you forgive in this life, you will be forgiven in the next. You have one life now. Make sure you’re using it to fully become more like Christ, forgiving and loving generously.

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Many Who Think They Are Pro-Life Still Act Like They Are Pro-Death

Jesus’ encouragements are for self-examination first. Jesus invited his people to look at the shared struggles that we all face and even to have the courage to examine our own souls and name the sin that is there.

In light of that, I wonder if we need to start by talking about death. And in response to the words of Jesus, I want to take a few minutes to put my finger-pointing away and instead repent that I support, create, and defend a culture of death. I am, in fact, pro-death.

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Being Anti-Establishment About Church Is Cool But It’s Nothing If It Lacks Christ

Christless religion can always permeate and dominate, wherever the self-righteous ego (whether in the leadership or my own own) has bumped Jesus from the throne. Switching from robes to suits to jeans and back again (as I have done a few times) is not a spiritual journey … it’s just a fashion statement. Wherever the big “I” reigns as Lord instead of Jesus, you’ll find the kind of religiosity that can co-opt literally any style or form.

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A Jewish Perspective On The Hebrew Roots Movement

Believers who wish to learn more about the Jewish roots of Christianity do well. Learning about the Jewish roots of Christianity can transform a black and white understanding of Scripture into “living color.”

Like the inexperienced gardener who may confuse the flowers with the weeds, so the enthusiastic, but callow, believer may be unable to distinguish between those Jewish Roots teachings which enrich or impoverish our faith. That’s the danger. There are thorns in the garden. We should pay attention to Paul’s inspired advice to Timothy: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).

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