The first question to ask is, do you know anyone who practices a religion other than Christianity? If not, why not? If so, have you learned anything about your own system of belief from listening to theirs? It may be surprising to discover how much we have in common with other systems of belief. Did…
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Difficult times will come; in fact, God never promised that this life would be easy. We get things twisted when we start believing that God is a genie up in the sky pouring out our wish list because, you know, we do good and stuff. Nope. That’s not who God is. Nowhere in the Bible…
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What does it mean to be a peacemaker? First and foremost, it is not having an absence of conflict or accommodating all sides. There are times when compromise is not the answer. When injustice and oppression happen, claiming there is good on all sides and seeking to find the middle ground is not peacemaking. Allowing…
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We live in a proud country. Patriotism is trumpeted from pulpits, and evangelicalism seems to go hand in hand with one party. But is this true? In a world that is measured by clicks, follows, and likes, are we following God’s heart or chasing after acceptance? Have we fallen into the trap of blindly following…
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If you’ve grown up in the church at all, chances are high you’ve heard it said, “Do not conform to this world; instead, strive to be counterculture. But what does that mean?” Especially if the culture you are inundated in is the Westernized church. Let’s break this down, because what Scripture says is not what…
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No matter what faith or community you associate yourself with, you will experience rejection at some point in your life. At no point am I saying that dealing with rejection is unique to Christians; what I am saying is that Christians have been empowered uniquely to deal with rejection. Created for relationship God is a…
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Suicide does not take one life; instead, it impacts the lives of all the people surrounding the one who loses the fight. The ones impacted the most are family and friends, but the ripple effect continues outward to co-workers, classmates, the faith community, service providers, friends of the family, friends of friends and so on.…
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“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Who was Jesus talking to when He said these words at the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6 and Matthew 5)? He was speaking to a group of people who knew what it meant to be poor, to wonder where their next meal was coming from and to live…
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It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that the Christian life should be pain-free. But Jesus never promised to take away the pain of this world. He did promise to be with us through it all. One of the beautiful truths of the Christ story is that God willingly chose to…
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Passive love is tolerance. The absence of hate is not the same as loving. The Christian’s job is to transform the world, to make it look more like the heaven we say we believe in. Throughout Jesus’ ministry He was increasingly inclusive, not exclusive. This requires a commitment from each and every one of us…
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