Posts from 2019 (Page 3)
The Beauty of a Little Life
“Do we value little lives? Do we see them as beautiful? Perhaps not. It’s easy to find someone preaching to follow your dreams, to aim for the stars, to become somebody. It’s even easy to baptize the fear of obscurity with Christian lingo, so that the measure of a life’s worth becomes how “radical” it is. What’s not easy is to hear a little life, given to a little family in a little town, held up as desirable. So much…
The Five Things You Want Your Church to Be
“Let’s say there are five things you really want in a local church. Through reading good books and listening to helpful podcasts, you’ve drawn up a list of key qualities. You want deeply biblical expositional preaching, passionate zeal for evangelism, close-knit and sacrificially-minded small groups, worship that is both physically expressive and grounded in truth, and a congregation that displays all the diversity of the neighbourhood around. Those are good and noble desires. But this is the real world. So…
A Tree Between Two Mountains
“We must not fall into the trap of only seeing God on the mountain tops of life; falsely believing that if we soak enough of Him in in those moments it will sustain us until the next peak. God is in the valley also. God is in the dry and barren places. God meets us in the shadow of the Broom tree. There, as he does in all places, God sustains us with what is needed for the journey ahead.”…
Gospel Generosity
Have you ever been to a restaurant where the food is exquisite but there is almost none of it on the plate? The meal arrives and there is a lot of white plate, an elegant arrangement, the finest cuisine, but it is disappointingly small. Personally, I prefer a meal that is little less exotic and a whole lot more generous. I love it when the food is not only good but plentiful. A similar difference can be seen among people.…
But God Makes No Mistakes
“Nothing in this world is haphazard. There is nothing random or unplanned about the circumstances you are in right now, even if those circumstances seem very hard. Rather, God is leading you by the way he deems most appropriate, the way he has determined is most fitting for your spiritual growth. Just as one tree grows best in a sheltered valley and one by the edge of a gentle stream, another grows best on a bleak mountaintop where it is…
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Following a Parenting Method
“Some parents embark on the great task of raising a child already convinced of a particular parenting method. They’ve done the research, read the books, scoured the forums, and have made up their minds. Other parents embark on the great task of raising a child without having put any substantial thought into methodology. They haven’t completed the hours of research, haven’t read the books, haven’t scoured the forums, and basically intend to learn as they go. What’s remarkable to me…
How Can I Believe in God if I Can’t See Him?
“Many people have said to me before, “If I could just see Jesus I would believe in him.” In my braver moments I reply, “No you wouldn’t—if you saw Jesus, you would kill him!” Because that’s what people did. Thousands of people witnessed Jesus perform miracles impossible to man. And yet it was those same crowds that cried out for his crucifixion. Seeing is not believing: just look at those who saw Jesus and did not believe.” Read more…
God – where were you?
“God, where were you?” That’s the good version of the question, because you are still on speaking terms with the Lord. But if this question is left unresolved, over time it becomes, “Where was God when __________ happened [I was raped, my child died, I was fired because of someone’s lies…]? You are no longer talking to God, you are now talking about him. Later? Just silence. God, from your perspective, is no longer a player in everyday life. Read more…
Where do you park your car at church?
“When we meet together, everything we do has the purpose of pointing to Jesus in the loving service of others, because everything we do is shaped by who we were and who we now are in Christ as part of his body. There are no self-serve checkouts at church. We aren’t here for our shopping list, we’re here to serve everyone else. Since we are members of one body, we show devotion to one another. We love sincerely. We honour…
101 Small Ways to Share the Gospel
“Of all the things that are difficult in the life of a Christian, talking to someone else about the Gospel is probably one of the hardest. For most of us, we’re content to sit in our little church pews and sing some songs, while resisting the constant temptations that life tends to throw at us tends to take up the majority of our willpower. Evangelism? That’s only for super Christians. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be that difficult. One of…