Category: Level: Intermediate

racism and Jesus

Jesus, Racism and President Trump – Issues From Charlottesville – Part 2

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Last week (see Part 1 here) we looked at problems with President Trump’s comments about the Charlottesville demonstrations. We explained why his comments about the racists were disappointing. This week we look at responding to President Trump and what we say to others. In spite of Trump’s character issues, some Christians supported his nomination, though most Christians supported other candidates. (In the general election Christians didn’t have much choice – Trump’s opponent was not concerned about declining religious freedom so what could Christians do?). But why would a Christian who cared about the virtue of America vote to nominate someone who lacked virtue? How could someone without character bring character back to America? His lack of character includes owning casinos, starting a strip club, his multiple marriages, justifying looking into a room of beauty contestants who were dressing, sexualization of women, habitual disrespectful comments, habitual glory-seeking, boastfulness, habitual distortion of Continue Reading →

listening, contemplation

God Wants To Bless You In Receptive Prayer

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I’ve read that in conversations we should find ourselves listening as much as talking. Of course, this just makes sense – it would be selfish if we were in the habit of listening 30% of the time and talking 70% of the time. But does this apply to our conversations (i. e. prayer) with God? Sure. God wants to do good things for us. He wants to speak his words in his way. He wants to continuously transform us into the image of Christ. So wouldn’t God want us to spend time listening for him, or at least being in a receptive mode so we could receive anything he might want to do? That’s why the image for this post is someone listening to headphones: they are in receptive, listening mode. It is common to think of prayer time as a time when we talk the whole time. We thank Continue Reading →

candy spiritual sweet tooth

Do You Have A Spiritual Sweet Tooth?

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We all love to feel the presence of God. We love times when we feel his love or joy welling up inside us. We feel free and light or just tremendous peace. But what about the rest of the time when we don’t feel God’s presence or power? Do we find ourselves making every effort to reclaim the spiritual sweetness we had? Seeking spiritual sweetness is okay to an extent. God wants us to feel good and He wants us to feel joy and peace. He wants to be with us as much as we want to be with Him. But there is some things that are more important than spiritual sweetness in the Christian life. Two come to mind. First, submission to God’s will. If we truly want to be in Christ then we should find ourselves seeking God’s will more than seeking spiritual sweetness. God may not want Continue Reading →

spiritual growth

Four Stages Of Christian Maturity – Considering Where We Are

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Over the centuries many Christian teachers have outlined what it looks like to become a mature Christian. These outlines, or guides, are helpful because they help us see what we are “aiming” for in our Christian life. In other words, they tell us what it means to become a mature Christian. The New Testament speaks many times about what it means to be “mature” or “complete” (sometimes the word “perfect” is used but it means complete in the Greek.) This idea that Christians grow spiritually and that we can describe what this looks like along the way is referred to as “stages of growth”. We could also refer to these stages as phases or processes. These stages are supposed to encourage us because they describe the good that is ahead for us. In other words, we know what to look forward to. The clearest descriptions in Scripture of some stages Continue Reading →

spiritual friend

Spiritual Friendship And Spiritual Advisers – Should We Admonish?

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Bruce and Tom (or Linda and Rachel) are spiritual friends and have edifying conversations on a regular basis. They encourage one another and each one feels stronger because of the friendship. Bruce starts to notice that Tom makes little joking putdowns of others in his conversations with people. Of course, this isn’t a cardinal sin but it is definitely not godly speech. What should Bruce do? Being a spiritual friend to someone is a huge blessing, for you as well as them. Believers are recognizing they need spiritual help and so life coaching and spiritual direction are more popular now than in the past. But how can we be a spiritual friend who actually makes a difference in someone’s life? How can we be God’s channel for transformation? One of the keys to being a good spiritual friend is saying the hard things that you don’t want to say. In Continue Reading →