Online Discipleship

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen , living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father , through the sanctifying work of the Spirit , to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ . May grace and peace be multiplied to you."  1 Peter 1:1–2 (CSB) There is something that happens at my house that I wonder if you can relate to. When we get back from grocery shopping, we will unload the groceries where they need to go and then my wife will point at something in the fridge (usually something like bacon, or some other meat product that goes well with breakfast) and say "Please don't use this, it is for one of the meals I have planned for this week". This is a routine we have developed because when we first got married, we would put groceries away, and I would cheerily use items in the fridge that I didn't know were already marked for a sp...

  What do we do when we see moral failure in a Christian, especially a Christian leader? Maybe you have seen news come out recently about Philip Yancey, a Christian author and speaker who has influenced Christian thought and teaching through his writing that spans from 1982 to the last few years. Yancey recently confessed to a recent affair that lasted 8 years with a married woman. He stated that he has confessed before God and his wife that he has sinned and that he has withdrawn himself from further ministry. He has started counseling and is focusing the rest of his time on working on his marriage. His wife also made the statement of her hurt and her loss of trust in her husband and her commitment to working through this with Philip because of her vows to him that were made 55 years earlier. She said she knows that Christ's blood has made Philip's forgiveness possible and that she is praying for God to help her reach a place of forgiveness as well. I don't bri...

  Psalm 3:5 "I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the LORD sustains me." Have you ever been asked, "If God is good, where is He?"  This is something I have been thinking through lately. I have family and friends who have recently gone through cancer diagnoses and treatments, the loss of loved ones, and other hardships that can be encountered as one navigates life. Two of my friends are reflecting on Psalm 3:5 as they are navigating their difficult circumstances. A natural reaction to unexpected hardship is to ask the question, "If God is good, where is He when life isn't good?" At its core, I understand this struggle. Watching someone you care about hurt is hard to reconcile with a belief in a God who claims to love. Seeing violence and disasters on the news makes it difficult to believe that God is in complete control. Even just the simple struggle of wondering why God doesn't just appear in the sky to remove any doubt, instead of wanting us...

1 Samuel 3:10 (NIV) 10The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “ Speak, for your servant is listening .” I am really bad at silence. Like, just awful at it. I grew up in a family that couldn't stand silence. Music had to be on constantly, or a movie had to be playing in the background, or someone had to be talking. For the most part, peace wasn't about being quiet as much as it was about not being in conflict. I didn't realize this about me until my wife, Tristan, and I started dating. A few weeks in, and I had talked about pretty much everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. I shared my embarrassing stories, my funny experiences, and discussed everything that was on my mind. I was desperate. I thought she was going to be bored with me if I couldn't come up with new material. Surely there was going to be someone more interesting who would come along if I didn't come up with something soon. Finally, as we drove back to ...

 The Bible: Who is it About and How Do We Read it?     The Bible is a book that has made major impacts throughout history. This is true whether you believe it is more than just an old book or not. For those who believe that it is truly God's inspired word, we need to ensure we are reading it well.       When it comes to reading the Bible, we can tend to run into some serious issues. We might try and make the Bible about us or we might use a verse to justify a decision that we are making (even if that verse has absolutely nothing to do with that decision), but if we do not approach the Bible in the way it was meant to be approached then we will be robbed of the beauty of God's story.  Who is the Bible About?      Here is the main thing we need to understand about the Bible, It is not about us! Yes, it is for us and because of this we can learn a lot from it, but once we try and put ourselves as the central point of scripture then we ...