Does something about this blog’s title sound wrong to you? Maybe it even caused an eyebrow raise? Comfort seems like the wrong word. The Bible is clear that sin should be confronted. You don’t sweep it under the rug. You don’t ignore it. You don’t just hope it goes away. You confront it, but how?
I’m feeling ambitious, again. I realize summer time is usually not synonymous with ambition, but every summer I feel the urge to set out an audacious reading goal. The problem is that I have never actually made it through a single summer reading list, ever. Maybe that’s simply because my summer reading lists have been
Last week I wrote a few words about spiritual discipline that is far too often overlooked: neglect. It’s not often talked about as a spiritual discipline, but it’s something that Christians must strategically embrace for the sake of their souls. But neglect is only part of the equation. You could say it’s the defensive posture
Something needs to be said, so I’m gonna say it. I am sorry. It’s been four weeks since my last post. My goal is to get at least one post up on the blog each week, but there are some weeks that just don’t allow for that. I want to write. I enjoy it. It’s
Unbelief cannot go unchecked; it must be battled. Jesus gives us seven specific promises to equip us for this fight. Promise 1: God’s Ability is Greater than Your Need “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you
Few people can legitimately claim to be good listeners. We are far better at waiting our turn to be heard and even better at giving our opinion. But, what comes from this simple yet difficult discipline is well worth the effort. I love what Bonhoeffer says as he provokes us to reengage in the ministry
The most important day on the Christian calendar, and I would argue any calendar, is only a few short days away. Easter, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, stands as the most pivotal event in all of human history. Take it away and cut the heart out of Christian worship and Christian living. I say living,
Have you ever known someone who loved living dangerously? One of my best friends in high school never missed an opportunity to do something crazy. This produced a ton of great stories, but it also meant that he was almost always in some kind of trouble. He never seemed to mind; he liked it that
I always appreciate an author that can say more with less. Let’s be honest, it looks really impressive to walk around carrying a 1,500 page theology text book, but if you want to finish a book within the next decade, it’s probably best if you strive for a more manageable goal. The great news is,
Sometimes you need to press the ‘reset’ button. Strike that, sometimes the ‘reset’ just gets pressed. Life gets busy. New challenges require more substantial investments of time and energy, priorities shift and mature, and deep desires exist only to lie dormant. We all like to feel that our lives have forward momentum. We like to
“… altars are usually built on broken things. Ancient altars were built of rocks and stone, which prompts reflecting on the geological process by which they occur. Cracked open under the stress of heat or cold, or the shattered remnants from volcanic explosions or violent shaking, rocks are “hard things” that we encounter—small parts of
Prayer brings with it, as food does, a new sense of power and health… The life of every organism is but the constant victory of a higher energy, constantly fed, over lower and more elementary forces. Prayer is the assimilation of a holy God’s moral strength. We must work for this living. To feed the
Hands down, John Webster’s little book, Holiness, is the best book I’ve read in a while. Clocking in at 105 pages, it’s short but profound. Through the fall, as I marked, highlighted and underlined my way through it’s chapters, I was again and again called to worship and wondered (which should be the ultimate aim
The following is a guest post by Micah Cartee. Micah Cartee is a Biblical Studies student at Evangel University. He is married and has two children. Additionally, he works full time. It’s fair to say he is a pretty busy guy. You can follow him on Twitter here. I greatly appreciate Micah’s passion, and I
I love that when I read this prayer, I can feel it. There is a palatable sense of longing and brutal honesty about self. O’Connor is painfully aware that the battle of life is fought on the battlefield of our loves, and what we love most will eclipse everything else. “effort at artistry in this
Not all invitations are created equal. Some invitations are just not that enticing—“Hey, you wanna help me move my kids’ ginormous swing set?” See what I mean? (And yes, that’s an actual invitation I have extended.) Then there are invitations you are so desperately excited to accept you have to fake hesitancy. You get offered
I like to eat, but sometimes not eating is better. This summer our church family (James River Church) fasted together on Wednesdays. Each Wednesday breaking our fast together around the Table of the Lord during our Prayer Service. It was beautiful. The impetus for our fast was a collective desperation to see God move mightily
One of the principal points that James K. A. Smith drives home near the center of his book, Desiring the Kingdom, is that our humanity is not primarily formed by the worldview we adopt or the doctrine we espouse but by practice. This is why “lived worship” is so indispensable to what it means to
I like how Richard Bauckham couches the thrust of Revelation in terms of its intended impact on the imagination and the way Christians are to see beyond the facades that fill our world. The final pages of the New Testament not only invite us to look beyond the temporal to the eternal but call us
Too many Christians tend to think about communion with God in a way that could be predominantly characterized as abstract, detached and even impersonal. So, it is no surprise that we often view prayer as difficult and daunting, because we feel as though every time we try to pray, we are overcoming a distance that
David serves as the Campus Ministries Director and West Campus pastor at James River Church in Springfield, Missouri. He has theology degrees from Evangel University (BA) and Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM). David has written for Christianity Today and currently writes for James River Church’s blog. He is married to Becky and they have three children: Owen, Elliot, and Henley. You can follow him on Twitter @davidlindell