“What Goes Around, Comes Around” Karma is a concept found in many eastern religions that essentially says, “What goes around, comes around.” It is a sort of universal law of cause and effect. There is a seemingly karma-like verse in the Bible, which appears to paraphrase this idea. It says, “You reap what you sow.” […]
Some People Don’t Have Biological Offspring, but Everyone Can Have Spiritual Descendants Paul wraps up his letter to the church in Rome with a long list of people Most of these names stream past our eyes as unfamiliar. We’re tempted to skim. But slow down. Consider Rufus (Romans 16:13). That name only appears in one […]
I’m both excited and apprehensive about visiting our area’s largest church, a megachurch. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #51: 1. A sign at their drive tells first-time visitors to turn on their four-way flashers—because they want to give us VIP treatment. I don’t bother and follow the flow of cars, but it’s a […]
Strive to Build Meaningful Connections with Those Around You We know many more people on a casual level then we do in a deeper, more meaningful way. We can distinguish between them as acquaintances versus friends. Think of concentric circles, with yourself in the center. The innermost circle contains your friends, and the next circle […]
Align with Other Believers to Build Ourselves Up and Serve Others In my post about spiritual mastermind groups I talked about the benefit of aligning ourselves with other like-minded followers of Jesus to walk with on our spiritual journey. Now I’d like to look at the word cohort and apply that too. Let’s call this […]
Aligning with Like-Minded Peers Can Propel You Forward on Your Christian Walk A mastermind group is a peer-to-peer mentoring alliance where members work together to help one another solve problems, overcome roadblocks, and move forward. I’m part of two author mastermind groups. In them we encourage and support each other as writers, propelling us forward […]
We Can Impact Others by Being Intentional with Our Words Are we someone who others want to talk to about spiritual matters? Are we open to pursue a meaningful spiritual conversation? A Timely Phone Call As I made lunch, my phone rang. Few people have my number—only family and close friends—so I expected another scam […]
Be Intentional about Discussing Faith and Avoid Superficial Chatter After Jesus’s death and him overcoming death, he appears on the street headed to the city of Emmaus, traveling with two of his followers. But they don’t recognize him. He talks to them about God, the Scriptures, and faith. When they eventually realize who he is, […]
One of the Reasons We Learn about God Is So We Can Teach Others In the letter written to the Hebrew people who follow Jesus, there’s a short phrase that’s easy to skip over. The author, who I suspect is Paul, criticizes the people he’s writing to. He says they should be at a point […]
Every Day I Poke a Stick into a Hornet’s Nest. It’s Like Playing with Fire Not a real hornet’s nest, of course, but something far more dangerous: I confront people’s unexamined assumptions about God, the Bible, and church. I feel called to do this. It’s like whacking at a spiritual hornet’s nest. I know, I’m […]