My Wife Doesn’t Like Bacon!

Posted on June 26, 2019 by John Chester

It is true, my wife doesn’t like bacon (I know it is pretty shocking). She doesn’t like green (lime?) dots either. Or Jazz. Or Mel Brooks movies. Or wool socks. All things I love. But that in no way make her less than me, just different than me.

Usually I do the cooking at home. And the shopping. She picks out the furniture and the décor. That doesn’t make me less than my wife, I just do different things in the home.

On Sunday at church, I preach and she prays for me while I preach and sometimes mans the soundboard. … Continue reading

True or False Faith? Jesus Makes it Clear!

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Greg Peterson

The past few weeks in my youth group I have had a few young men in their 20s who gave their first sermon. They had been taking a class our pastor offered on “How to Study the Bible So As To Teach” for the weeks previous and I wanted to give them real world experience. I assigned them texts from 1 John & Matthew 7. They did a great job (especially for it being their first time to teach), and I was once again struck by the truth in these two texts. Both Jesus & the apostle John are harping on the same truth: is your faith a true faith or are you a false “believer”?… Continue reading

Food, Fat, Faith, and the Gospel: Reflections of an Overweight Christian

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Zach Putthoff

I have long “struggled with my weight,” as they say. For as long as I can remember, adjectives like fat or overweight or husky or big boned have accompanied the way I have thought about myself. Even in my more athletic days when I played sports year-round and could jog a couple of miles without feeling any pain in my knees and shins and lower back, I was still a big guy; chubby even. A chubby, more-or-less athletic guy, who loved to eat, and was highly self-conscious about the results that eating had on his physical body.

Additionally, for as long as I’ve thought of myself as an overweight person, I have also thought of myself as a Christian.… Continue reading

Gospel Loving: God’s Perspective

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Jason Vaughn

“Husbands, love your wife, just like Christ loves the church” (Eph 5:25).

That’s a tall order. It is a rather difficult task for a believer and a rather impossible one for someone who doesn’t know Christ. Husbands have a large task. Looking beyond the walls of Ephesians, John records a broader command addressed to all believers, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Obviously no believer is without excuse. God calls each of us to love others. Now, how do we define love? What does love look like?

If you’re like me, you want to define this in such a way to where it’s the natural by-product of my life.… Continue reading

Reprise: Charismatic Resources?

Posted on June 12, 2019 by John Chester

I honestly had something else planned for today, but this post speaks directly to a question I was asked on Sunday and that I have answered several times in recent months. And so I think it is worth revisiting.

We all need to be very cautious about who we allow to teach our families, and this extends not just to where you attend church, but also to what books you read (and allow your family to read) and what religious broadcasts you listen to and watch. But what about charismatic authors and pastors, are they all bad? Or can charismatic resources be helpful and edifying?… Continue reading