God

Why Do We Need To Go To Church?

Bob Woods
10 Jan 2014
no comments

In this era of modern technology and innovations in communication, the question may be raised: do we really need to go to church? Why not stay home and watch it on the Internet, or catch a television service, whether on national TV, or our local service which may be televised. There are many good reasons why we need to be there in person, both from scriptural mandates and practical considerations. We are commanded to meet together Often when a preacher wants to reinforce the need for church attendance, he will quote the trustworthy scripture reference from Hebrews 10:24-25 about “not […]

-Read More

Progressing Downward

Tullian Tchividjian
no comments

Last month, I talked about Reader’s Digest Christianity, and how it reduced the Christian faith to pithy, easily-achievable goals that ensure our personal improvement. Today, I have a different (though depressingly similar) target: “LiveStrong” Christianity. LiveStrong bracelets are today even more popular than the infamous WWJD bracelets were 10 years ago, despite the public fall from grace of their namesake, Lance Armstrong. In the minds of many people inside the church, Livestrong is the essence and goal of Christianity. You hear this obsession in our lingo: We talk about someone having “strong faith,” about someone being a “strong Christian,” a […]

-Read More

Is This the Year?

Patricia Hartman
7 Jan 2014
one comments

Is 2014 the year that you are finally going to write that book, buy that house, become that professional or start that business you have been dreaming of? Do you have a dream? Perhaps a more important question is: Has God given you a calling for your life? “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God” (Ephesians 4:1). You’ve heard pastors describe being “called into the ministry.” But calling does not necessarily mean becoming a pastor or missionary. It may mean opening a […]

-Read More

Superhero Depression

Tye Riter
no comments

He had just defeated the enemy in the most spectacular way possible: a double-dog deity dare to prove which god was really true. The prophet Elijah succeeded in exposing Baal as a fraud and Jehovah as omnipotent. He killed 450 prophets of Baal and demonstrated his spiritual authority and power to the king and his people. What happened next? He ran for the hills, afraid of a girl. Of course, this was no ordinary girl. This was Queen Jezebel, the wicked Sidonian princess turned Queen of Israel, overseer of magic arts and the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. Still, after […]

-Read More

Reader’s Digest Christianity

Tullian Tchividjian
8 Dec 2013
no comments

For a while, my parents were getting Reader’s Digest every month while I was growing up. Because they were stored next to the toilet, they were widely read. In each and every issue there was an interview with some celebrity, usually an actor or an athlete. Reader’s Digest‘s favorite kind of celebrity was the “self-made” variety; someone who had come from nothing, preferably a broken home in which the single mother had to work multiple jobs to afford the windows that protected the family from the ceaseless gunfire outside. The interviewers inevitably ended their pieces by asking the celebrity something […]

-Read More

Homosexuality and the Gospel

Dr. John Hawkins
7 Dec 2013
one comments

Until recently, Christian ministry Exodus International spent decades both performing and heralding the benefits of reparative therapy, a controversial process that helps a homosexual person to change their sexual orientation to a heterosexual one via therapy. Earlier this year, Exodus International’s director Alan Chambers announced that the ministry was closing its doors and issued an apology to the gay community. An apology means a person feels they have done something wrong. If he felt this ministry was wrong, one could ask: “Is there a right way to minister to the homosexual community or a need to minister at all?” All […]

-Read More

God is like Jesus

Knox Seminary
2 Dec 2013
no comments

By: Dr. Jono Linebaugh During a battle on the European continent in 1944, a chaplain came upon a fatally wounded solider. The dying man only had enough life left to ask one question. Starring into the chaplain’s eyes in that final moment before his would forever close, he asked, “Father, is God like Jesus?” Before we rush to the obvious answer to this question, it’s worth pausing to ensure that we hear it at its proper pitch. The question is not simply an intellectual test, a pop quiz asking you to write “true” or “false” next to the statement “God […]

-Read More

Freedom in Letting Go

Rick Deal
13 Nov 2013
no comments

Do you ever feel like you need to hide your feelings from God? Have you ever gone to church feeling like you are having the worst week of your life, but put on a smile and acted like everything was fine? Or when something really upsets you, do you feel like you need to calm down and take care of it yourself before you bring it to God? Well, you are not alone. Although we don’t consciously intend it to be this way, when we behave in this manner we are acting on our own strength, and telling God “I […]

-Read More

Becoming Real

Knox Seminary
11 Nov 2013
no comments

Dr. Michael Allen Oftentimes we overlook the obvious. We search our houses for glasses we are already wearing. We scan what seems to be the whole cosmos for keys that were right where they should be. And, far more serious, in important discussions about the Christian life, we manage to avoid precisely those passages where the apostle Paul speaks most candidly about the Christian life. I suspect that for most evangelicals, Romans 12-16 is functionally inoperative – these are the missing chapters that we just can’t see (likely because they follow the soaring heights of the first eleven chapters, with […]

-Read More

Appreciation through Desperation

Dr. Tommy Boland
8 Nov 2013
no comments

As we enter into the Thanksgiving season, have you taken any time to examine your heart to see just how much you appreciate what God in Christ has done for you? We can be so busy working to get through the day that we can overlook and neglect to acknowledge what God has done, and is doing for us daily. As a pastor I have discovered, in coaching individuals from all walks of life over the years, that the degree of our appreciation will always reflect the degree of our previous desperation! Here is a wonderful example of this biblical […]

-Read More

appreciation