Church Life
-
Perfect Speech
Would you like to never say anything wrong again? No, seriously – would you like to never say anything out of turn again? Would you like to never sin or fall short of righteousness in your speech again? Would you like to never make a mistake in your relationships with God, others, or yourself ever again by way of words? Would you like to go the rest of your life saying everything 100% correctly? Think about how much nicer life would be if that were true! You’d never have to worry about unintentionally hurting someone through what you would say. You’d never have to worry about falling short in your…
-
Restoration is Ongoing
[NOTE: Today’s post is the full script of a sermon I preached at Central recently. Since it is written more in “essay” form, I thought it might encourage our readers. –Adam] Tonight’s lesson is a little different in style. Even my notes look different. Typically, when I write a sermon, there is an introduction, body–with 3 or 4 points–and a conclusion. This lesson, though, is written more in essay style and, I hope, you will see why. I want to say that the idea for this lesson is not original to me, but the content is. The idea comes from a small portion of a lesson that Kirk Brothers gave…
-
Just Because
Well, summer break is almost over. We’ve had a lot of great moments as a youth group this summer. Camp was great, Horizons at FHU was great (the best year we’ve ever been to, according to several who came), our Youth and Family Day was a success, and almost all of the smaller events in between have gone off without a hitch. However, there is one moment that has been my favorite of the summer, and it certainly wasn’t on my planned schedule. A couple of weeks ago, the kids in my youth group gave me a gift that I wasn’t expecting. It was genuinely a surprise to me, which…
-
Only One
As I type these words, there are still news reports about a group of people in Cincinnati who participated in what was described as a “beatdown.” One headline that I saw was: 5 charged in horrifying viral Cincinnati brawl that left woman knocked out cold One interesting (and disturbing) report I saw indicated that there were about one hundred people who were at least in that area when this happened and that one of them called 9-1-1. My immediate thought when I heard this was – only one? That news story reminded me of something that was still somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind. I was almost certain that a…
-
Don’t Post It…Yet
One thing that is both a blessing and a curse about social media is that you can react to whatever you want. Your opinions can be shared. You can “like” and show support for anything. That can be a good thing. But a lot of people–me included–need to slow down before we post. In fact, my article today is a total redo. I had a post ready to go. What it says, I think, is right. I read it more than once and, while it could always be better, I think it told the truth about something that needs to be said. However, I also realized it could have been…
-
The Whole Counsel of God
I’m going to do something with this article that I don’t normally do. I’m not good at it, and it rarely works out when I try to do it. Nevertheless, I have a purpose in making the attempt this time, despite the weighty obstacle that this is for me. I’m going to try to do math. First, some context: I am in the process of reading the whole Bible in two and a half months. I know, I know – that’s a ton of reading (don’t worry, we’ll come back to that statement). Again, however, I have a purpose in doing so. For our fall quarter, I am teaching a…
-
The Silent (or Overlooked) Sufferers
I am typing these words just a couple of days after a big “kiss cam story” broke. By the time you read this post, that story may be forgotten by most people. There is a good chance that something else may have captured the short attention span of most people by then. There are some things about all of that which bother me. The first of those things is the reaction of some people to this story. You may remember that two married people were shown on the “crowd camera” at a concert. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves. That is, they were enjoying themselves until they saw themselves…
-
Sin Isn’t Funny
By now, it is about 99.99% certain that you have seen the news story of a CEO getting caught at a concert hugging and swaying to music with an HR director of his company. The images and videos have bounced around the internet like crazy. It was shameful that, not only were these two not married, but they were both married to other people. Their sin found them out in a public and truly embarrassing way. And it’s been sad to watch Christians laugh at it. The way in which they got caught might be odd and a bit crazy; there’s no doubt about that. But I have seen scores…
-
Getting Up
This article was inspired by a lesson given at Horizons this year by my friend and brother Joe Wells. This thought was not his main point, but it was one he mentioned that I had never picked up on in this text before. Joe, if you’re reading this, thank you. The Book of Acts is full of conversion stories, but perhaps the most well known of them all is the conversion of the man who at that time was known as Saul of Tarsus. Saul was one of the most passionate persecutors of Christians at the time (Acts 9:1-2), which made it truly unbelievable to many of his former comrades…
-
Make It Easy On Yourself
Have you ever heard of John Maus, Noel Scott Engel, or Gary Leeds? If, like me, you are a fan of the music of the 1960’s you probably have heard at least one of their songs. “Make It Easy On Yourself” was recorded in 1962 by Jerry Butler, but the version of that song that is more well known was recorded by a group known as The Walker Brothers in 1965. Until recently, I assumed that The Walker Brothers were similar to the Osmond Brothers, The Jackson Five, The Cowsills, The Carpenters, and some other similar groups whose members were actually all from the same family. I’ve just recently learned…
