How To Fix The Church: The Kingdom of God (Part 4)
Category: General
Tags: Church, Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living
Topics: Following Jesus
God has leveraged everything on the Church loving like Jesus loved, as outlined in our previous posts in this series. “By this the world will know you are my disciples,” Jesus said, “by your love”…
The Only Thing That Matters Is Love: The Kingdom of God (Part 3)
Category: General
Tags: Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living, Living in Love, Love
Topics: Following Jesus
To say that living in Calvary-quality love is the most important thing in our life is to grossly understate its importance. This stands in distinction from how we typically define the Kingdom of God. But…
The Kingdom of God (Part 2)
Category: General
Tags: Action, Enemy Love, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Self-Sacrificial Love
Topics: Following Jesus
The Church is called to be nothing less than “the body of Christ,” a sort of corporate extension of Jesus’ incarnate body. We are called to replicate who Jesus was by manifesting who Jesus is….
What is the Kingdom of God (Part 1)
Category: General
Tags: Holiness, Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living, National Idolatry, Upside-Down Kingdom, War
Topics: Following Jesus
We all know what the Kingdom of God is, right? But this is precisely the problem. Since we are all to a large extent products of our culture, what seems obviously true and right to…
The Impossible Command of God
Category: General
Tags: Being Present, Practicing the Presence of God, Present Perfect
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer
Paul tells us we are to be “imitators of God” (Eph 5:1). The word for “imitate” (mimetai) literally means to “mimic” or to “shadow.” This means we are to do exactly what we see God…
The Spiritual Value of Doing Nothing
Category: General
Tags: Imaginative Prayer, Prayer, Rest
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer
It is only when we cease from our striving and rest in the unconditional love of Christ that our soul begins to be nourished and restored. It is only then that we can experience a…
Guest Post: Is Hell the Center of our Faith?
Category: General
Tags: Hell, India, Mercy, Missionary Work, Trudy Smith
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
My husband Andy and I had been living in the slums of North India for over a year by the time we returned to one of our sending churches for a visit. We met with…
The Call to a Cruciform Life
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Enemy Love, Kingdom Living
Topics: Following Jesus
Jesus repeatedly taught that following him meant that one had to be willing to “pick up their cross daily and follow [him]” (Lk 9:23; 14:27). Picking up our cross is the centerpiece of following Jesus…
Should Christians Recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
Category: Q&A
Tags: America, Myth of a Christian Nation, Myth of a Christian Religion, Nationalism, Politics
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
A number of years ago I attended a basketball game at a Christian school. Just before the game everyone was asked to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. So I stood, placed my hand…
Why Prayer Matters
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Prayer
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer
Two questions about prayer: What possible difference can prayer make to an all-good and all-powerful God? Why would an all-wise God leverage so much of his will being done on earth on whether or not…
What Does it Mean to be “Holy”?
Category: General
Tags: Holiness, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Love
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by much0 via Flickr People today frequently associate the word “holy” with a list “do’s” and “don’ts” that “godly” people are supposed to adhere to. The concept of “holiness” in the Bible, however, is not…
Political Solutions Won’t Save Us
Category: General
Tags: Government, Kingdom of this World, Politics
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Image by h.koppdelaney via Flickr Jesus followers must retain a healthy suspicion toward every version of the kingdom of the world. After all, on the authority of God’s Word, we know that however good a particular…
Trying to Acquire What You Already Have
Category: General
Tags: Adam and Eve, Character of God, Contentment, Judgment, Lies
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by Joshua Earle The lies Satan told to Eve in the garden made eating from the forbidden tree (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) look desirable. On the one hand, the lies caused…
Is Islam Inherently Violent? – Further Thoughts
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Christian Living, Islam, Love, Non-Violence, Violence
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Greg originally posted some thoughts on Islam here. In this video, he discusses some responses he received, and further thoughts on a Kingdom posture toward Muslims.
Burnout and Rest
Category: General
Tags: Benjamin L. Corey, Rest, Spiritual Care, Spiritual Formation
Topics: Following Jesus
Benjamin L. Corey posted consecutive blogs recently listing 5 reasons so many Christians are feeling burned out right now and 5 things you need to take a break from to avoid spiritual burnout. Lots of wisdom…
Does Prayer Really Change Things?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Change, God, Open Theism, Prayer
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Hearing God, Prayer
Many people operate out of a blueprint model where God is viewed as absolutely unchanging, and all that occurs in the world is the unfolding of an eternal divine plan. If this is the case,…
The Problem with Mixing Church & Government
Category: General
Tags: Church, Constantine, Government, Myth of a Christian Nation, Politics, Power
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Image by fusion-of-horizons via Flickr Some people insist that the only reason that neither Jesus nor anyone else in the first several centuries of the church tried to dominate the political system of their day was…
9 Things That Are True of Us When We’re Saved
Category: General
Tags: Gifts, Identity in Christ, Jesus, New Humanity, Salvation
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by rAmmoRRison via Flickr The New Testament has many amazing things to say about who we are as believers because of what Christ has done for us. When the Lord saves us, he doesn’t just…
Love OR Judgment – You Can’t Have Both
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Living in Love, Love, Repenting of Religion
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by Morgan Sessions We cannot judge others because it is not our place as humans to function as the center—because God is that center—and judge other people. In addition, we cannot judge others because we…
Repent! … From the Sin of Religion
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Living in Love, Love, Religion, Religious Idolatry, Repenting of Religion, Servant
Topics: Following Jesus
People often think that being Christian is about “being religious,” but loving others in the way that Christ instructs us is about as far removed from religion as anything could be. Religion, as I use…