I know this will come as a shock to you, but the people you see in church every Sunday are not perfect. Are you shocked? I didn’t think so. You know that your Christian friends and family make mistakes. They are not immune to temptation, doubt, or apathy. They need to hear about Jesus just…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Posts from 2015 (Page 13)
Why Jesus? This question will function as the theme for the Lutheran Student Fellowship – Region 12 Spring Retreat. They were silly enough to ask me to present and lead them through a process of answering this question for themselves. The question “Why Jesus?” makes me immediately think, “Why any God or gods?” Why is…
The Israelites were, in a word, terrified. Moses describes the scene: “As soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. And you said, … ‘If we hear the voice…
In Mark 1, Jesus is calling his first disciples. “Passing along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ And immediately they left their…
There’s been a lot of talk recently about “Christian cleavage.” Should Christian women wear modest clothing so they don’t encourage men to lust? Or should the responsibility be put on Christian men to control their lustful thoughts around women? That’s the debate. There was a similar debate going on in Corinth. Some Christians were eating…
After Jesus called his first disciples, “they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching” (Mark 1:21). This wasn’t out of the ordinary, except for one thing. My Lutheran Study Bible footnote on verse 21 says this: “Jesus never used the prophetic formula ‘thus says the Lord.’ In…
What do you do when the answer you’re looking for isn’t in the Bible? For example, if the question is whether or not to break up with your boyfriend, you probably won’t find a verse that says, “Yes, break up with him; it’s the right thing to do.” Or if the question is what career…
Have you ever been asked to give a testimony? Sometimes it’s telling your life story; sometimes it can be giving a small, significant snippet. In any case, giving your testimony generally has two purposes. It describes how God has changed your life and demonstrates how he can change yours, too. In Psalm 62, David is…
Three frogs sat on a log. One frog decided to jump off. How many frogs were left? I heard this story problem at the Emergent Leadership training that I went to last week. The answer, counterintuitively, is “3”. Three frogs were left on the log because “deciding to” do something and doing something are different.…
There are some things we want God to forget. For example, perhaps he’s called you to minister to the homeless, but that makes you very uncomfortable. Or maybe he’s called you to minister to your brother who has fallen away from the church, but broaching the topic is always awkward. You wouldn’t mind if God…