My New Approach to Social Media
I am trying something new in August. I am posting scripture to Facebook. I keep thinking about how much we need to be in the Word right now and instead I find myself scrolling past a zillion posts on who knows what. The thought hit me earlier this month – what if I put scripture […]
Thor: Love and Thunder Addresses Theodicy
Spoiler alert – if you don’t want to know what happens, don’t read this article. Theodicy is the idea of finding a way to vindicate God in the midst of horrendous pain and suffering in His creation. The movie opens up to a scene of suffering. Gorr’s daughter is dying in the desert. Upon her […]
Have We Forgotten How to Encourage?
With all the negativity out there, never lose your ability to be an encouragement to others. It is very hard to pour out from an empty tank. Our inability to encourage may come from the emptiness we face in our own lives. It is also hard to encourage in a culture of outrage. There are […]
How To Make An Idol Out of Anything
What kinds of things consume your thinking? Why are the things on your list on your list? Maybe you think about work all the time because you fear not having what you need. Maybe you grew up without the means to be okay and you don’t want to see your family go through that. So […]
Where Do Mass Shooters Come From?
Mass shooters don’t come out of the blue. They aren’t random. They are discipled to be who they are. We live in a culture that has stripped out absolute truth. There is no objective standard of what is right or wrong. What is true for you may not be true for me. That is a […]
How Do You “Share the Gospel” if You Don’t Know What It Is?
What is the gospel? It is a question we all need to spend some time working on answering. It isn’t steps of salvation – that is our response to the Gospel. It isn’t just dying and going to heaven (although eternal life is part of the gospel). But what is it? Is it penal substitutionary […]
Why Aren’t Most Churches Making Disciples?
The reality is we are all being discipled and every church makes disciples…the question is “what kind of disciple?” Some churches produce consumeristic disciples who are following the latest fad or who are being appealed to on the basis of their desires. Other churches are producing Christ-like disciples. There are churches everywhere in between. There […]
You Don’t Have to Ask the Elders About Everything
Sometimes you will hear people say “We need to ask the elders about that?” There are times when that is true – that you need to talk with a more mature Christian to get insight and input, prayer, etc. But in some cases we are asking for permission to do things God already said to […]
Teach Like Jesus
If we want to teach like Jesus we are going to need to: 1 – Ask lots of questions 2 – Use the Bible 3 – Speak truth to power 4 – Humble yourself 5 – Show people by living what you teach 6 – Train people in skills 7 – Pray all the time […]
Four Things About God that Help us in Life’s Disappointments
There are several working assumptions about God that help us through disappointments in life. 1 – God is big and powerful. 2 – God loves us 3 – God constantly works on our behalf for our good. 4 – God knows everything. Because God knows everything, has the power to work change in our lives, […]