Let’s be clear. Your bible study must be practical. The bible exists to help you grow. God’s intent for you is that your life would look more and more like the life of Jesus. The bible is one of God’s primary tools to get that job done. Do you want to know God better? Do […]
Read the Bible more. That is it. I don’t have any stats, but I’d be willing to wager that to read the Bible more is the most common New Year’s resolution for followers of Jesus. But, here is my question “Why?” Why do you want to read the Bible more? Sometimes our motivation is the […]
I love the bible. I place a high value on the bible. My life has been changed by the bible. Yet, I pretty much stopped reading it recently. This isn’t uncommon. There is a long line of people who would tell you how important they believe the bible is, yet they hardly read it. I […]
Measuring spiritual maturity is a pretty tricky proposition. Some people point to the practice of rigorous spiritual disciplines. Some people point to the presence of certain spiritual gifts. Others point to their favorite character traits as the mark of maturity. Probably the most common mark of maturity in the church is knowledge. If you know […]
Sermons. If you are a follower of Jesus, you will hear a lot of them. Sometimes, sermons seem to have greater value as a punch line than as spiritual food. Yet, we keep preaching them. The reason is that the Word of God matters. It can change your life. We need to be in the […]
Spiritual disciplines are simply habits or spiritual practices that can help us grow. There is no official list. The bible gives us lots of examples but doesn’t necessarily label them as disciplines or command us to practice them all. Common spiritual disciplines include things like bible study, prayer, service, worship, solitude, simplicity, silence, journaling and […]
Everyone who drives has shared a common experience, getting lost. We set out with a destination in mind, but for a variety of reasons, we get off track and end up somewhere that we never intended. Life works like that too. We have goals and destinations in mind, but sometimes we take a few wrong […]
As I write, we are set for another week with sub-zero temperatures here in Northern Michigan. The good news is that by the end of the month, the forecast is calling for some temps in the 40’s and 50’s. I can’t even imagine how warm that will feel. I might break out the flip-flops and […]
According to analysts, yesterday was Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. A variety of factors converge making the misery scale peak. The holidays are over, your pants are too tight, you had to go back to work, it’s really cold, you probably spent too much on Christmas, your new years resolution is […]
