As the AI arms race heats up and companies bombard us with commercials, how should we view this emerging technology?
Have you noticed people are becoming more and more inconsiderate out in public? If not, can I come live where you live?
An argument for why Christians should strongly consider not voting in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Multiple times, Jesus was asked to “Go Away” in his ministry. Let’s look at why.
In the last couple of years, conversations about race in America have gotten louder and more inflamed than they have ever been since my adulthood (I was 14 when the LA riots happened in the aftermath of the LAPD-Rodney King incident).
From Trayvon to Ferguson to Eric Garner to Freddie Gray, the conversation has been growing, especially on social media.
Hoodies. Hands up, don't shoot. I can't breathe. Black Lives Matter.
As a white man living in a suburb, what am I supposed to do with all this? Anyone who isn't white may be disheartened to hear this, but It would be pretty easy for me to ignore all this.
Well, I didn't win the $1.5 billion Powerball.
You can tell because I'm not writing this from my new gold plated space shuttle.
I know some people will have a problem with this, but I bought a ticket. I never for a minute thought I would actually win. The reason I bought it was so that my family could enjoy the entertainment of the 'what would we do with it' conversations.
I’m not too disappointed that I did not win, because the thing is - that much money would probably ruin my life.
Forgiving is hard. Jesus wouldn't lead us to do this just because he wanted us to be miserable. If Jesus calls us to do something hard, it's because it is the path to something better - the path to a fuller life
Forgiving people who have wronged or harmed you or a loved one is difficult, but life giving.
Let's look at the reasons why you should forgive someone who harms you.
Breaking News: we have a presidential election occurring here in the US later this year.
You may have missed it, or perhaps you noticed a web article about it.
Or newspaper article. Or magazine article. Or a TV commercial. Or news coverage. Or trending twitter topics. Or one of the debates. Or a billboard. Or a robo-call to your phone. Or unending posts about it on your Facebook feed.
It’s hard to miss, is what I’m getting at here.
My question is this: in the midst of often 'spirited' debates, how can Christians debate and discuss who to vote for and retain our identity as the Body of Christ?
I recently got the chance to do a radio interview on a show called The Forum with George Penk on Life FM in New Zealand. It was a lot of fun talking with George and getting a chance to interact around some ideas which I have written about recently!
The topic from our first broadcasted conversation is around 'Loving Your Enemy'.
On this Valentine's Day, when we celebrate love, let's also remember that Jesus challenges us to be WAY more loving than any of us would choose if left to our own ways and means.
Check it out!
On Valentine's Day, kids give and receive cards to one another. Restaurants are filled with couples. Those of us who are in relationships (and wish to remain in them) purchase cards, candy, flowers, etc and give them to those who we love.
It is a celebration of love, as evidenced by all the hearts and cherubs adorning the seasonal aisle in our local stores.
I'm not here to complain about the holiday. Love is a wonderful concept for us to celebrate, and the opportunity to give nice notes and gifts to others (even at a huge markup) is a good thing.
But love is more than red hearts and naked baby angels. It's more than spending quality time with a special someone.
In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul tells us just how much more:
Today is the start of Lent. If you've never engaged in a longer fast, it's quite the physical and mental challenge. Here's a pictorial representation of what you may experience...
In the year 325 AD, the council at Nicea decreed that the 40 days leading up to Easter would be a time for fasting (not including Sundays, which means Lent technically lasts 46 days).
For me, lent is a time to set my living personal faith upon the shoulders of brothers and sisters in the faith who came before me. Inviting tradition into my faith as a guide which lends strength and guidance.
Engaging in a traditional faith observation like Lent is a frame in which your faith can stretch out and grow as you pray and consider scripture over 40 days.
Deciding what religion (if any) to adhere to seems like a risky proposition.
I mean, what if you don’t pick the right one? If you pick the wrong one, does everyone else basically get to hear the losing horn from “Price is Right” in the afterlife — if there is one?
I happen to be a follower of Jesus, and I really do believe the things He says about God and the nature of reality. I have found a fullness of life which I simply didn’t have before making the choice to believe in Jesus. I’m never going back.
But if you are not currently a follower of Jesus, I can totally understand why you might hesitate to make a commitment. So allow me to consider what it means if people who take Jesus at His word are just flat out wrong.
Around the New Year, many of us probably jump in on a Bible reading plan. Reading through the Bible in one year is a great goal. Challenging, but not impossible, builds a positive habit, and seems like it will have some good results associate with it. But once the exciting days of Genesis and Exodus are behind you, you find yourself moving into Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and oh man I don't know if this was such a good idea.
From animal sacrifices to genocide to prophets warning of doom and gloom, you start to wonder if there's any value in reading this content.
1. We are called to be people of conviction, not conformity; of moral nobility, not social respectability. Our goal as Christ followers is....wait for it....to follow Christ. There is no other scorecard which should guide our lives - not money or popularity or anything other than whether we are being faithful to what God has called us to do. Jesus told us that if we gain the whole world and lose our soul in the process, we've missed the point entirely. He also told us that following him is not a good way to arrive at popularity.
2. The hardhearted person lacks the capacity for genuine compassion...He gives dollar to a worthwhile charity, but he gives not of his spirit.
In Toxic Charity, Robert Lupton argues that the last thing we should give to a charity is money. Prayer and volunteer hours require a much greater investment, and will therefore impact both us and those who we serve to a greater degree. We are never called to outsource our love for people to others. Giving money without giving of ourselves smacks of Paul's warning that undertaking the noblest of actions without love simply doesn't fulfill the call of the Gospel in our lives.
According to recent research, 8 out of 10 churches in America are made up, predominantly, from only one people/racial group. 11am on Sunday, it seems, is still the most segregated hour in America.
Unfortunately, that's not all the research found.
The report also found that two thirds of church communities felt they were 'doing enough' to be ethnically diverse, and over half felt that no further diversity was needed in their congregation.
On Christmas Eve, Sarah Silverman posted a tweet about Jesus being gender fluid.
Now, as a follower of Jesus, how am I supposed to react to this?
Should I get angry? Should I try to 'educate' people about the subject being posted? Do I ignore it?
Personally, I'm always interested in ways to get into a conversation about faith. This seems like a great conversation starter.
I used to have this problem.
I would remember something selfish or stupid I did when I was younger and the memory would hurt. Literally. I don’t know if it was actual physical pain or just pain in my mind, but it would hurt.
I would be eating dinner or taking a shower and I would feel the memory approaching like a tidal wave. There was no way I could stop it. All I could do was brace myself and wait until the memory would go away.
In the aftermath of the Parisian attacks last month, French President Francois Hollande vowed a "merciless" responseagainst ISIS.Within days, France had bombed an ISIS target in Syria and performed numerous raids within France itself, killing and capturing several terror suspects.
We can all understand this response. Terrorist attacks against civilians are horrifying. In an effort to seek justice for the slaughtered and to prevent future attacks, we turn to violence in our response.
As a Christian, should I have a problem with this?
I don't know about you, but I have the tendency to get myself into ruts. I find myself eating at the same 2 or 3 restaurants on a weekly basis, or I realize that I've been checking the same handful of websites over and over throughout the day.
The most problematic rut I get into involves the snooze alarm function on my phone.
When it goes off, I snooze a few times. To counteract this, I set the alarm earlier, which leads to more snoozing, which leads to an earlier start time.
After a while, my alarm is going off an hour and half before I actually need to get up, but being snoozed 8 or 9 times before I actually get up.
Every couple of years, it gets to a point where I declare alarm clock bankruptcy. I set the alarm to go off when I actually need to get up. It works for a few weeks or months before I decide to back it up a few minutes to accommodate the snoozing that inevitably follows.
Your ruts probably don't look exactly like mine, but we can all find ourselves stuck in a repeating, unthinking cycle.
