Blog: February 2022

Last Sunday I mentioned that I just finished a terrific new book by Dean Inserra, Pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Florida.  It’s called, Getting Over Yourself:  Trading Believe-in-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity. Here are a few key thoughts: There’s a popular message supposedly aligning with Christianity, but which seeks little more than motivation, empowerment, and personal fulfillment.  “These ambitions have become a central focus for many North American Christians” (p. 20).  This new teaching is centered on “the ...

In our staff meeting this week we focused on how Jesus viewed “the crowds,” the wider public, the great mass of humanity. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:36-38). Jesus uses two different metaphors to convey his heart for the lost:  sheep-shepherd; and ...

Any of us categorize sins, whether we intend to or not. There are the major sins—the really bad ones like murder that are clearly wrong. Thankfully, few of us are prone to commit these sins, so we are pretty safe from them. Then there are the significant sins, like getting angry or lying. We know these are harmful, but we don’t see them on the same level as the major ones. These are the sins that trip us up. If it weren’t for these sins, we would be such good people. Then there are the little sins, like jaywalking or taking some paper ...

This Valentine’s Day, if you’re looking for enrichment in your marriage, check out Tim & Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (2013).  They strike a wise balance between naïve dreams of sheer “wedded bliss” and a bubble-bursting realism that dashes all hope. The Kellers ask what marriage is for.  “It is a way for two spirit­ual friends to help each other on the journey to become the persons God designed them to be” (p. 9).  Notice they do not say it’s for “bearing children” or “finding companionship” or “sexual fulfill­ment.”  Now they’d ...

In both our staff meeting this week and the Wednesday evening prayer gathering, Hebrews 11 was our text—the faith chapter. So what is faith?  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).  If we’re only attentive to what we can see, and touch, and manage, and control, we’re not living by faith. Of course, we do need to operate in the realm of the visible.  It’s not wrong to value concrete, measurable, physical realities; it’s not wrong to track finances, health metrics, and time allocation in ...