I personally don’t like to spend much time being critical. (If I criticize, it’s usually in the context of contrasting one thing in order to try and communicate something better.) I’d much rather focus on what I perceive to be true, good, and right instead. My thought is if we focus on these things, the
Category: Christian Living
Is God Pleased With You?: How to Live the Christian Life
Frank Viola recently shared an audio recording of him teaching on Romans 7 and 8. I thought it was so good that I listened to it twice, which is saying something coming from me. I liked it so much that I wrote down some of what he said and want to share it here: You
Book Review: A Simple Guide To Hearing God
I recently reviewed a good book from Felicity Dale. Shortly afterward she announced that she had just released a new ebook titled “A Simple Guide to Hearing God“. I’ve been encountering this subject since a friend gave me a copy of John Eldredge‘s book, “Walking With God“. In part because I liked “An Army of
Book Review: Celebration of Discipline
I’d heard about it years ago but I just finally got around to reading the classic book, “Celebration of Discipline”. I admit, I had been scared off by the title. “Discipline” sounds very challenging and no fun. We find discipline especially difficult in our culture which runs on us trying to fulfill our every desire
Patriotism and Church (a.k.a. Hitting Two Sacred Cows With One Stone)
A year ago I attended an outdoor church service (read about it here). During communion, I noticed that among other “beauty” shots, they put a shot of a nearby American flag on the video screen. I was very disturbed by this. Jesus instituted communion as a time for his followers to collectively remember him. So
Dealing with Sin: The Context for Confession and Confrontation
I chose to look at these topics together since they are interrelated—they both regard dealing with sin. Confession is done by the sinner and confrontation by someone else. (Here I am discussing personal confession and not corporate confession.) It seems to me that many Christians, especially conservative evangelicals, are very interested in pointing out people’s
What Virtue is Primary?
Christianity is known in large part for belief in certain virtues. Among them are love, grace, mercy, honesty, truth, peace, integrity, purity, etc. (While many people may not think of these things when they think of Christians, they think these things are what Christianity is about. Many do not have positive opinion of Christians, precisely
Book Review: “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven”
Overview I recently read the book “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven” by Mark Cahill. I must admit, the title alone turned me off. It said to me that the author held to a common view of evangelism, one which I believe has some significant shortcomings. However, since a group I am a part
Spiritual Conduits
There are different ways we connect with God. Different people connect with God better through some means than others. Below are listed nine spiritual “conduits”, which is adapted from “Spiritual Pathways”1: Study (Intellectual): connecting with God through study, ideas and theological concepts. Exhortation (Activist): connecting with God through actively challenging people in the areas of
God and Country
Last week I was at an outdoor church service. They did communion and during this time, they put various “color” shots up on the video screen. (“Color” is lingo for camera shots of scenery, settings, objects, etc., which are nice backgrounds but aren’t the main programming.) During communion I noticed that they put up a