God Gives Us Options In the book of Hosea, God calls the young man, Hosea, to be his prophet—telling him to marry a prostitute, (see “Hosea Shows Us God’s Unconditional Love”). This is one of God’s most scandalous directives. What is...
Why I’m Against Seminary Training The first time someone said this to me, I was both excited and dismayed: “God’s calling me to full-time ministry—so I’m going to seminary.” Though I’ve now heard it many times since, my reaction is the same to...
We Must Avoid the Love of Money How We View and Handle Money Matters to God—and to Us Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, warning him that the love of money is the source of all manner of evil. An unhealthy preoccupation with wealth is especially...
A Husband and Wife Team (Visiting Church #13) The church has no website and its Facebook page is nothing more than a placeholder. Given this lack of presence on contemporary channels, our experience suggests they are a smaller, aging congregation...
When Is the Best Time to Do Good? Helping others is one of many ways to worship God I like the stories about Jesus helping people in need, such as by feeding them and especially by healing them. Even more I like it when Jesus confronts the...
We Must Give God All Our Heart Ten Things to Do Wholeheartedly for God In our post Go All in For Jesus, we talked about the importance of giving God our whole heart, all our heart. The Bible repeatedly tells us to do things with “all your heart.”...
Jesus Calls Us To Serve With Humility Living a life for Jesus is living contrary to our culture Jesus often warns his followers to not be hypocrites. As an example of who not to emulate, he usually singles out the religious leaders. This is a...
How and Where Do We Devote Ourselves to the Work of the Lord? When we do God’s work, our labor is not in vain As Paul winds down his first letter to the church in Corinth, he gives a simple command, followed by some encouragement. He says for...
Do You Have These Misconceptions about Church? Many people carry misconceptions about the purpose of church, and we need to set aside that thinking In my post “What is Church,” I suggested we are the church. Church isn’t a place we go—not really...
Is Being a Christian a Present Reality or a Future Hope? Our perspective on what it means to follow Jesus shapes how we think and act I’ve met people so fixated on heaven that they squander their time here on earth. Not only do they miss the...
