Cultivating Thankfulness

There's a lesson you learn on a farm, especially a "dry land" farm. I grew up on a farm where we were almost completely at the mercy of God for each year's crops. If it was a cold, snowy winter, that meant we were late in getting the crop planted. If we had a late …

Radical Generosity

Self-Control + Contentment + Thankfulness + Grace = Generosity It's November...well, almost. Today, we will live in excess. Tomorrow, our children - and, let's be honest, our adults - will wake up with a candy hangover. We will take down the Halloween decorations, throw away the rotten pumpkins that were carved, and incorporate the non-carved …

Is creation anti-science?

Yesterday at church, we had a speaker from Answers in Genesis whose 50-minute talk was titled: "Creation vs. Evolution: Why It Matters." He painted a picture of the decline of American Christianity, the lack of moral absolutes both outside and inside the Christian Church, and the moral decay of our nation. The direction of the …

Is God Reckless?

I am with our worship creative team at a conference this week (they call them "creatives" here, a new sub-species of homo sapien in the last generation of church work, though I would argue the church has always had "creatives"...but I digress). Yesterday, we had a morning debate about the theological accuracy of saying God's …

Writers I Like To Read

Here is a list of friends whose writing I like to read: Pastor Jeff Cloeter                sixthgen.com Pastor Carey Nieuwhof      careynieuwhof.com Mollie Hemingway               thefederalist.com/author/mzhemingway/ (more to add later)

I’m Learning to Listen to God: 4 Simple Ways

So you want to read your Bible. Well, maybe want to is too strong of a sentiment... So you know you should read your Bible. Not to mention, you feel guilty that you don't. And you feel guilty that you're a Christian who doesn't know enough. And you feel intimidated around other Christians who you're convinced know more. And you're …

A gift for my firstborn

This has been a long time coming. In the spring of 2007, I heard a keynote address by Dr. Leonard Sweet, where he shared about how the Bible he used for preaching and teaching was one he was preparing to give to his children. At the time, we were about a trimester into my wife's …

The day God rested

God created the universe in 6 days, and on day 7 He rested. Jesus paid for the sins of the world, and on day 7 of that week He rested. Eric thinks the world can't live without him and he needs to be connected 24/7 or he'll miss something. Two of these things are just …

Jesus and Fro-yo Fridays?

Every Friday when I pick the kids up from school, they have the same question: "Is it fro-yo Friday?!" The answer isn't always yes, but it is yes often enough that they know it's worth asking. Today was a fro-yo Friday. For a kid, it's the ultimate in luxury: a frozen yogurt base and more topics than …

Fast and pray.

Fasting is not about self-flagellation. That's what the monk, Silas, did in the Da Vinci Code books. But we like to self-flagellate, too, whether you call it that or not (and you probably don't). We like people to know what we're sacrificing, how we're suffering. We also like to beat ourselves up unnecessarily. Women self-flagellate. …