It’s critical to build our spiritual house on a strong foundation if it is to last We live in a day where people make up their own religion. It seems silly to state our present spiritual climate in those terms, but that’s what people do, even those who say they are Christians. For some this […]
By Giving to God We Demonstrate Our Love to Him Jesus says to give “to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” Luke 20:25, NIV. While the context of this relates to paying taxes, the ramifications go beyond money. The Roman government, in general, and its ruler (Caesar), specifically, have an array […]
Each Morning We Decide How We Will Live that Day be it For Ourselves or For a Greater Purpose In highschool a friend caught me off guard when she said with confidence that “once you’re saved you can’t lose your salvation.” I asked her where the Bible said that. She didn’t have an answer about […]
Knowing the Writing Style of the Bible Will Help Us Avoid Confusion When We Read It Since my days as a teenager, I’ve spent time most every day to read and study the Bible. I’m also a writer who writes every day. I like to share what I’ve learned about both subjects. Here goes: I […]
Studying Scripture Teaches Us about Classic Literature and Inform Our Literary Perspective My post “13 Reasons Why I Love the Bible” started out as a top ten list, but I couldn’t stop at a round number. I kept going and couldn’t pare my list down to just ten reasons. And if I had kept thinking […]
Don’t study books about the Bible, study the Bible. In college I was excited to take a class on C.S. Lewis. My enthusiasm, however, didn’t last long. I wrongly assumed we would study the writings of Lewis. Instead we focused on what scholars said about what he wrote. Yes, we did read one of C.S. […]
It’s Time to Reframe Our Idea of What it Means to be a Pastor I am not a trained minister, an educated member of the clergy, or a professional pastor. These titles all unnerve me. I am not a pastor, at least not in the traditional sense. About a decade ago a woman left me […]
The Root Cause of Conflict is Our Egos, Even When We Hide Our Agenda by Citing Scripture In Numbers 12 we see a story of sibling rivalry, one at a spiritual level. Moses, the leader of the Israelites, is confronted by his sister, Miriam, aided by his brother, Aaron. The two pair up to oppose […]
We Never Know Who Has a Deep Need for Prayer or How Much Our Words Could Help I volunteer at a parachurch organization that helps people in need and shows them the love of Jesus. After the participants had left, I poked my head into a classroom to wave goodbye to one of the leaders. […]
The Bible Says to Give to Caesar What is Caesar’s and to God What is God’s While there is no biblical command to give 10 percent of our income to the local church, that doesn’t mean we should ignore giving. Jesus’s detractors try to trick him into saying something condemnable about paying taxes. They figure […]