This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
When Church is Boring: 3 Problems and 2 Solutions There no getting around the fact. Church can be boring. Why is this? It cannot be because God is boring. There is nothing boring in God. He is the fountainhead of every pleasure. He is the ultimate story-maker who amazes us with the unexpected all the time. Every good thing comes down from the Father of lights. So where...
Keep ReadingBy: Emily Lickey Recently as I raided the cheap school supplies at Walmart for markers, which my four young children rarely actually use up...it is often just a lost lid issue, my cart entered seasonal shopping warp speed when I rounded the corner and met the endcap of Christmas dcor. We shake our heads about this every year. The aisle swap outs for Christmas produc...
Keep ReadingDon't you get tired of the swinging pendulum? It seems that everywhere you turn you find some out-in-left-field teaching, and before you know it there is a reactionary swing to the other side that creates its own rat's nest of problems. This very thing has happened with the concept of love. We shouldn't be surprised. Love is an essential biblical teaching, a key att...
Keep ReadingOne of the primary drivers behind the charismatic movement is the desire for an experience with God. While we should always pray for and seek God's power in our midst, we have to be careful what we mean when we speak of these things. Do we mean watching God change lives, illuminate his Word, meet needs, and providentially orchestrate details? Or do we mean visions, dre...
Keep ReadingPrayer can be powerful. As Spurgeon said, it can be "the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence." But prayer can also be impotent and not get past your ceiling! We need to know the difference between the two because there will be times when we have to wait. In that waiting time, how do you we know if we are actually waiting for God's working to become manifes...
Keep ReadingAre you concerned you will turn away from the Lord in tragedy but confident you will grow if you have all your needs met? Do you fear adversity and hope for security? This kind of thinking is prevalent in many people, and is perpetuated by governments, businesses, and even churches. This thinking is flawed at the core, but since it is wrapped in logic it is easy to s...
Keep ReadingThe health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a well-established and growing segment of the church worldwide. Though there are countless reasons why the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a prostitution of the truth, it just keeps raking in the followers. Why is this? Because there are two powerful forces at work: people are incurably religious and incurably self-ce...
Keep ReadingThe health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a well-established and growing segment of the church worldwide. Though there are countless reasons why the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a prostitution of the truth, it just keeps raking in the followers. Why is this? Because there are two powerful forces at work: people are incurably religious and incurably sel...
Keep ReadingI once heard a story of an Asian Christian who was getting a tour of all the grand churches and ministries in a particular part of America. After seeing it all he was asked what he thought. He said, "It is truly amazing what you have been able to do without God." It is a stinging rebuke that touches on a reality that is a constant problem in American Christianity....
Keep ReadingCan I kill this? How do you answer such a question? Scott Klusendorf, a wonderfully skilled anti-abortion apologist, rightly points out that you have to ask another question. That question is: What is it you want to kill? A roach: Yes, kill it now. A wild Turkey: Yes, but only during turkey season. A Bald Eagle: No, it is legally protected. A human baby: ????????...
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