What Jesus demonstrates here to the disciples is that it isn't our job to police the world in His name. If others are glorifying Christ - if others are doing good works in His name - Jesus' response is "Don't stop them." Don't hold people back. Don't intervene. Even if you think you can do it better. Even if you don't get it. Even if it's irritating. [Click title to read more.]
Tag: faith and growth
How To Be A Christian Online
As Christians, we tend to talk a lot about the Internet - what should and should not be accessible on it and how we should or should not handle that - but not about who we are on the Internet. In what ways does our faith inform our technology? Or, more to the point: how do we behave like Christians on the internet? [Click title to read more.]
Christian Self-Image and the Internet
If you spend much time on social media without the necessary brain-filters - as younger people do - you start to feel inadequate. It's inevitable. Everyone is prettier than you. They're going to more exciting places than you. Their talents are better than yours and what they're eating looks better than what you just ate. Their boyfriends and girlfriends smile, flawless, in pictures. Their material possessions, sometimes literally, sit in piles on their beds to be envied. [Click title to read more.]
The “I’m Doing It Right” Myth
The fact that you're happy, healthy, and doing well does not necessarily indicate that your relationship with God is going well.
The Phrase I Want To Banish: “I Was Saved”
I'm not sure I like how limited the phrase "I was saved" can be, that it refers to salvation in the past tense. When I hear the phrase "I got saved" I always picture Jesus scooping up someone from the "nonbeliever" box and then dropping them in the "believer" box. Poof. There you go. Finis. The transformation is complete! It isn't. But sometimes we act as though it is. [Click title to read more.]
It’s Okay For Us To Be Wrong
We want to have the "right" answers all the time. We want to look like we know what we're doing. We hate the idea of "looking bad" in front of the world. We like to focus on the positive. But we're human. [Click title to read more.]
Knock-Down Days
A knock-down day is not a tragedy, not a disaster, but is made of the tiny little griefs and irritations that eventually topple you. [Click title to read more]
Cultivating A Sense Of Wonder Is A Christian Act
Wonder is a quality that we must embrace and cultivate as believers. We live in an often-cynical world, heavy with pessimism. Unironic enthusiasm and delight sometimes seems out of style, and out of step. But as Christians, wonder is part and parcel of our experience. [Click title to read more.]
Weekly Round-Up
Happy Friday! Wow, it was a productive week for me. Hope it was for you too. This week we talked about drive-by evangelism, how we talk about sin, embracing the beautiful mystery of God's invitation, and one reason children raised in the church tend to leave it behind as adults. There's also the most recent … Continue reading Weekly Round-Up
Embracing the Beautiful Mystery
The story that we see in the Bible is only one side of a coin; on the other side exists God's work in the cosmic realm, His shaping of the universe, of us, of our souls. [Click title to read more.]
Samaritan's Song 