I remember channel surfing once when a show caught my attention: “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.” Although I’d heard about the show, this was my first (and last) time watching it. Overall, I fared better than the contestant, but then I didn’t have the pressure of a live audience and irksome host. I […]
We Live in a World That Thinks Bigger Is Better, but That’s Not Always True Our modern-day society evaluates things based on size. We celebrate magnitude, with bigger being better. Consider the opposite. For example, do you want to shrink your church? Of course not. You want to grow it. We often assume that bigger […]
The undercurrent to society’s willingness to cheat on just about anything goes back some thirty to forty years. It began with the assertion that there are no moral absolutes, that each person must decide for him or herself what is right and what is wrong. This opens the door for unrestrained cheating. Therefore, if it […]
Read the Holy Scriptures as a guidebook more so than a rulebook Though some people read the Bible out of a sense of obligation—and granted, sometimes we have seasons where we just need to push through—others read its words to inform their daily living, among other things. Yet, we must exercise care in how we […]
It seems that I’ve recently heard a lot of complaints about this “younger generation,” known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y (those born after 1984—or between 1980 and 2000—depending who’s doing the explaining). Employers moan that Millennials don’t want to work: they arrive late, lack motivation, and do not make good employees. Customers complain […]
What We May Perceive As a Lack of Love May Actually be the Embodiment of It In the book of Revelation, John shares a grand vision with an epic scope, far reaching and future focused. But before we get to that, God has some first-century messages for seven area churches. Three of these messages appear […]
I was talking with a 20-something friend and tossed out the phrase “postmodern.” His ears perked up and he asked what it meant. “You’re postmodern,” I spontaneously asserted. “I know; that’s what people tell me,” he replied,“but what’s it mean?” “First there is one aspect of postmodernity that doesn’t fit you,” I clarified. “Most postmoderns […]
Don’t Be a Slave to the Law or to Legalism, but Be Free to Accept Sunday As a Gift from God The fourth of God’s Ten Commandments tells us to not work on the seventh day of the week and to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8-11). Nowadays, some people make an attempt to follow this […]
My least favorite task is making collection calls, but it was again time to do so. Although it took less than an hour, I spent more than a day getting psyched up for this distasteful task. I find that I am quite adept at finding other things to do (which are decidedly more interesting and […]
We Can Receive Focus for Life Decisions from the Word of God The Bible offers much for us, assuming we bother to tap into its treasure-trove of knowledge. One of the Bible’s uses is to provide direction for our lives. To realize the Bible’s insight as applicable to our lives, however, we need to read […]