While we may be foolhardy and fumble footed in our efforts to bear fruit, God wants to step into our weed-infested lives and dilapidated dreams to grow something in us! And if God can make a wrinkly 99 year old on viagra exceedingly fruitful, then imagine what kind of a beautiful garden he can make out of your life? … More Exceedingly Fruitful
Our tour bus pulled into the parking lot and joined other groups from around the world. Were we souls on pilgrimage or shoppers on holiday? We were at the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized and we could be too – if we could find our way through the gift shops, concession stands, and observation decks to the river below. … More Tour Buses in the Jordan Wilderness
Imagine returning home from a night out when traffic suddenly halts. Your eyes are drawn upward to a magic door descending from the heavens, suspended over the city. The mayor and fire department scratch their heads as crowds slowly gather. Soon the entire city is gathered around that mysterious door. It’s cracked a bit, and strange light is piercing the cool evening air. … More Magic Doors & Open Houses
Paul’s strange and even disturbing instructions to believers in Corinth beg explanation. For Paul, every molecule in the universe had been shifted by the Christ Event, and the imminent return of Jesus placed a question mark next to all ordinary things of life. Pastor Paul’s words likely jolted his first hearers awake and raised many questions–questions we do well to ponder again today. … More The End is Nigh (Sort Of)
I saw an ad today inviting leaders, content creators, and influencers to learn how to make their faith go viral. What if we instead focus on helping Jesus’ faith and ethics go viral? … More Viral Jesus For an Infected Church
Who is Amanda?” The reader might be wondering. Amanda is indeed a fictional character I created. Yet, a bit of Amanda lives in most of us. Let me try to describe her a bit more. … More Who is Amanda, really?
My friend John Phelps shared a powerful sermonette in Israel that brought many to tears. Standing in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, “This is my first time standing in this place, and yet I’ve been here many times.” He shared wisdom on how to face our own suffering, and now he’s battling brain cancer and practicing what he preached. … More Facing Your Own Gethsemane
In Episode 4 Simon Peter comes to the end of himself. He reckons with a debt he cannot pay, and has dug himself into a hole that he cannot get out of on his own. Peter grapples with a “I-can-fix-it-myself Syndrome” and it takes his wife Eden’s truth-speaking to wake him up. … More Chosen 4 – The False Gospel of Self Help
Many today are deconstructing their faith, the faith of their parents, the faith of their church, the faith of public evangelicalism. I have observed what I will call here three “phases” of this deconstruction. … More Beyond Deconstructing Faith
Keri and my oldest son, Peter, planted a garden this summer. Unfortunately, our garden is 500 feet away from our water spigot! By the time the water travels all that distance, it has lost most of its pressure. … More Water Buckets & Extension Hoses
As a dad of 3 curious children, these faith films offer great pathways into discussions about Easter and the story of Jesus. This past week we enjoyed two in particular that I thought I would recommend to others. … More Easter Movie Recommendations
From Walter Kim, President, National Association of Evangelicals Dear friends, For U.S. citizens, the next couple weeks have many of us focused on one of the fundamental responsibilities of our citizenship: to vote, electing our governmental leaders. The right to vote is a significant responsibility – one not available to all people in our world … More Voting as Faithful Stewardship
Sometimes God calms the storm, but other times the ship goes down. We need to represent Christ in either case. … More Shipwrecked 1: Hymenaeus and Alexander
I went to the polling place to cast my votes, and ended up casting non-partisan prayers for all the candidates. As I stood over that ballot with pen in hand, looking at all the names and offices, tears dropped down indiscriminately on the ovals below. I turned that little space into a prayer closet and portal to the King of Kings. … More Prayers & Tears at the Poll
Faith isn’t a blind leap into the dark, but the confidence that the shoreline lies on the other side of this thick and momentary fog. … More Daily Spark: “The Fog” (Jeremy)
We don’t need to wait until our final hours to place our life and death into God’s hands. … More Last Words 7: Into His Hands
How can we creatively and compassionately carry one another in times of need? … More Daily Spark: “Carry Each Other” (Jeremy)
As the Coronavirus spreads across the globe and with it the contagion of fear, I want to take up the shepherd’s pen and follow in a long line of letter writing pastors who sought to guide and encourage their sheep in times of trial and testing. … More Letters in Uncertain Times
If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. … More C. S. Lewis, Coronavirus and the Atomic Bomb
The scandal of the Christian message is that Heaven put on a hard-hat and headlamp and came down in search of you and me—and often meets us halfway in the middle of the deepest, darkest place. No matter how twisty and snakelike our path, the Light of Salvation will always meet us where we need Him. … More The Tunneling Tenacity of Heaven’s Light
Start talking about a pandemic and you’ll see the true color and substance of people’s faith. … More Jiffy Lube, Coronavirus & the Spread of Christianity
“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” —Oswald Chambers … More WOW – Oswald Chambers
LECTIONARY REFLECTION | 17th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST LUKE 17:5-10 One of the hardest things to keep in balance is the fact that Jesus Christ is both “lover of our soul” and “Lord of the universe.” He’s beloved friend and coming King. One moment he is wooing us with his tender compassion and the next he … More Genies & Masters
Repost from 2018. -JB “Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, TEACHING in the synagogues…and he HEALED every kind of disease and illness” (Matt 9:35). My sermon text for this Sunday is Mark 1:29-39 which displays Jesus’ powerful healing ministry, first with Simon’s mother-in-law, and then “the whole city was gathered … More Q&A: Why do prayers go unanswered?
Source: The text below is the full story, from around 160 AD, of the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of the church in Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor (modern Izmir in Turkey) devoted to Roman worship. The account is in the form of a letter from eye-witnesses to other churches in the area. It … More The Martyrdom of Polycarp (155AD)
Jeremy L. Berg 