Tag: Blogs

Small Groups and the Transformed Life – We don’t take community and relationship-based discipleship seriously enough.

Why We Neglect Our Bibles – Many Christians find it difficult to get into a daily habit of Bible reading.

How The News Makes Us Dumb – If you are going to read just one out of print book with a terrible cover this year read C. John Sommerville’s devastating little book How the News Makes Us Dumb (IVP 1999).

3 Ways To Love Negative Nancy – Negativity comes in many different packages and people; emails and phone calls, early coffee meetings and late night barn-burners — how will you deal with it? I’ve had a man stand in my office, look me in the eyes and say, “I don’t like that you are the pastor of this church.” Thanks for sharing!

Social Media and the Sensation of Missing Out – Social media is both a blessing and curse as we all know and have experienced. One curse is that it facilitates the sensation of missing out.

What Kind of Procrastinator Are You? – Procrastinators waste too much time, but to get over this bad tendency, you need to know why you procrastinate.

What Is The Gospel? – Good words from Tim Keller!

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Friendless Millennials In A Digital Age – Whenever someone asks me what the hardest part the transition from college life to real life has been, one answer comes to mind: making friends.

Are We Using The Word “Brokenness” Biblically? – We often hear Christians today talking about “brokenness.” Is it being used correctly? 

How An App Revitalized My Prayer Life – I say it without hyperbole: PrayerMate revitalized my prayer life. It has been at least a couple of years since I made the move from organizing my prayers in a book to organizing my prayers in an app, and, at least for now, I don’t ever see myself going back.

A Pastor’s Reflection On Shyness – I can remember very distinctly how as a teenager I was mortified to meet new people. I was, and still am to a certain extent, a shy person. Give me a choice – stand before one thousand people to speak for an hour or lock me in a room with two people I’ve never met before, and I’ll choose the former.

Re-Creating Campus Ministry – “Our campus access challenges give this generation of students an opportunity to reinvent campus ministry,” said Greg Jao, InterVarsity’s National Field Director. “Even as we use new tools and techniques, we remind students that effective ministry is ultimately relational. It’s about students inviting other students to follow Jesus.”

The Transforming Power of Small Groups – When we preach the gospel to one another in close-knit community, there is spiritual growth that changes us individually and as a whole. We can also begin to position ourselves with an outward focus and encourage gospel transformation in the communities outside the church walls.

Tim Hawkins – Random Jokes

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Loving The Lost: Churches Without The Broken Are Broken Churches – Many Christians are “generational believers,” as they have grown up in a Christian home. That is their reality, but there is a bigger reality. Sometimes we can easily forget there’s a hurting world out there. We drive through it on the way to church, or on the way to work. But at the end of the day, we don’t come to terms with the vast brokenness that surrounds us.

10,000 Little Moments And The Minute Particulars – “The character of your life won’t be established in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments.” 

What Is All This “Gospel-Centered” Talk All About? – The label “gospel-centered” is neither here nor there. There’s nothing sacred about it. But the heart of what is being recovered, both in terms of worldview and in terms of growth, is vital for calm and sanity amid the ups and downs of life in a fallen world.

Look and Live – The reason it feels like just another Sunday morning is because the stakes aren’t high enough.

How 727 Megachurches Spend Their Money – Two organizations that know megachurches well have released a new study they describe as “by far the biggest-scale, cross-denominational response anyone has ever collected about church finances.”

Reading The Bible and The Bible Reading You – I’ve been thinking a great deal lately (this topic seems to come up over and over and over again) about how different groups of North American Christians read the Bible.

The Story of God

 

 

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Three Questions To Help Diagnose Possible Football Idolatry Wherever there is a consuming passion for anything that is not God there is the danger of idolatry. And football is certainly a consuming passion for many in this country. So what are some of the signs that football has grown to idolatrous proportions in the heart of the Christian?

Can Everyone Be A Leader? Simply put, not everyone is a leader nor should everyone be a leader. But everyone is an influencer.

7 Signs Your Spending Too Much Time Looking At Your Phone Recent research has confirmed that cell phone “addiction” is actually a real thing. Professionals have even devised methods of determining if you suffer from a psychological condition that warrants actual medical intervention.

God Loves My Boring, Unimportant Neighborhood – I’ve not seen too many books on missions, church planting, and ministry strategy that addresses a city like mine.

What People Who Are New To Your Church Want You To Know Until you are new, until you’re a visitor, it’s difficult to understand what it’s like and to put yourself in a visitor’s shoes at your church, but it’s so important to try. A warm, welcome, and helpful environment is one of the most essential ingredients for a person to become a follower of Christ and grow and connect within the church.

I Want A “Do-Over” – The gospel is God’s announcement to failing people like you and me that we are now free from the slavery of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Man of Sorrows – Some great theology in this song.

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Why Does God Let Me Stay So Weak? – Why does God let us stay so weak at times? Why is it so hard to put sin to death? Why do we struggle and fail so much? Why are we so often weak in our faith?

Creating A Culture of Evangelism – If we want to create a culture of evangelism in our churches, I believe there are at least 5 things that we must do.

Never Resist The Urge To Pray – The urge to pray does not come from your flesh or the devil, but from God. It is God who is urging and drawing his children to pray.

The Danger of Measurable Outcomes – It is all too easy to get caught up in the sensational and forget the significant.

What Victoria Osteen Got Right – Check out what David Murray has to say about all the hoopla concerning Victoria Osteen’s recent comments regarding God wanting us to be happy. Was she entirely wrong?

Christ Did Not Die For You To Do Keg Stands – Here are a few suggestions on how to begin formulating a Christian response to drinking on our college campuses.

Kid President’s Talk to Teachers and Students

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The Goal Of The Christian Life – When asked what is the goal of the Christian life, a typical mantra heard in evangelical circles is the knee-jerk response, “To become Christ-like.”

A Technology Fast From Everything *Except* The Internet – A few months ago, I moved my family from hot and sunny North Texas to cold and rainy northern England so I could start a PhD on digital Bible use. I hoped to learn a lot about technology, but I what I didn’t expect on was how much the move itself would teach me.

God Does Not View Your Labors As “Filthy Rags” – So what does God think of our good works after we are saved?

Why Read The Bible Everyday? – So why read the Bible? And why every day? Dozens of reasons could be mentioned. Here are a few of the most important: daily Bible reading is how we calm down, tank up, get wisdom, go deep, get busy, and commune with God.

5 Ways To Be A Better Atheist –  I rarely (if ever) see atheists who are seeking truth more than they are seeking emotional confirmation. Most atheists are fundamentalists with lots of claims to intellectual engagement, but little evidence of it.

On The Selfie And The Self – The self is much too elusive to be captured by a phone snap.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

 

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5 Things You Can Do For Christians In Iraq – Like many believers around the world, I am horrified at the persecution of Christians in Iraq. It is a sobering moment to realize that the type of persecution I’ve read about so many times in the Book of Acts is happening in our day. Even our Lord Jesus spoke of the reality and the blessing that He will give to those who suffer for the faith.

3 Warning Signs I’m Too Busy – A good quick read for personal reflection.

3 Ways Not To Share Jesus – If and when you have the opportunity to share Christ with a Millennial, here are three ways you should NOT answer the question, “So why should I believe in Jesus?”

4 Moments I’m Preparing Students To Face – As I listen to and observe the faith journeys of former students and young adults, I often see pivotal moments along the way that constitute “make or break” tests of their faith. Discipling my students, I am preparing them for these four moments.

We Produce What We Know – If we reproduce what we know, and we know that what is modeled before us is not working, then maybe it is time for something systemically different.

What Do I Use To Write In My Bible? – Some helpful thoughts for those like to take notes in their Bible.

Three German Students Surprise A Homeless Guy

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Is It Arrogant To Tell Other Christians To Imitate Your Example? Some great thoughts that help us to think about an aspect of discipleship we often forget about.

3 Reasons We Shouldn’t Reject Leadership Culture – Don’t get sick of leadership development. It’s important, and it’s biblical.

Jesus’ Absolute Calls To Discipleship – These are hard texts, but the are good news because they show that Jesus is God, and therefore worthy of all allegiance. For if Jesus is not God, he could not have called for absolute allegiance.

Five Ways To Flourish In Journaling – Good journaling is not just an exercise in introspection, but a pathway for joy — and a powerful tool in the hands of love.

What Loving The Unlovable Looks Like – You’ve likely never heard of her. She died a recluse in 1933. Having never married and living most of her life deaf and bedridden by a spinal problem, her name threatened to fall through the cracks of history.

You Only Need A One Question Test To Identify A Narcissist – To find a narcissist, just ask them all to stand up. According to a new study (based on 11 separate experiments), the 40-question diagnostic test for narcissism can often be skipped in favor of a single, blunt question.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. -Isaiah 64:8

 

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