Results tagged “christian living”
Well-Rested (11/16/09 - 9 Comments)
A few days ago I was talking to some friends about fatigue. It is a popular topic when you're in the stage of life that includes young children (though, from what I've overheard, it also seems to be a popular topic as you begin to hit old age). I got to thinking about the topic and found something I had written about fatigue a couple of years ago, apparently after a particularly tough night. *****...
To Love Him Is To Know Him (11/04/09 - 15 Comments)
How many times have you heard a person claim that he has "accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior?" Have you ever asked him what it means that Jesus is his Lord? Have you ever asked him how Jesus is his Savior? What makes him his Savior? And what does it mean that he is his personal Lord and Savior? How many times have you heard a person open a prayer with the words...
Sexual Detox: Recommended Resources (10/31/09 - 10 Comments)
Having wrapped up the Sexual Detox series, I thought it would be useful to provide a list of recommended resources for those who wish to do reading on a particular topic. Pretty much every author who has written more than, say, ten books has written one on the Lord's Prayer and one on either sex or marriage (or perhaps both). It seems to be some kind of rite of passage. I assume I'll get a...
Sexual Detox V: Freedom (10/30/09 - 20 Comments)
Note (11/08/09) - This complete series is now available for free download. Click here to learn more. This is the final entry in a series of articles about sex and, in particular, about sexual detoxification. First I wrote about Pornifying the Marriage Bed, then about Breaking Free and A Theology of Sex. The fourth article dealt with Detoxification. The series was written specifically to target young men--those who are newly married or nearly married or...
Sexual Detox III: A Theology of Sex (10/28/09 - 31 Comments)
Note (11/08/09) - This complete series is now available for free download. Click here to learn more. This is the third article in a series targeted specifically at young men but applying, I am learning, to all of us. So far I have written about Pornifying the Marriage Bed and about Breaking Free. What did God create first: hunger or food? Did God make man hungry and then invent food to fill the need? Or...
Sexual Detox II: Breaking Free (10/27/09 - 23 Comments)
Note (11/08/09) - This complete series is now available for free download. Click here to learn more. This is the second entry in a series dealing with sex and, in particular, challenging young men with the notion that their consumption of pornography has so shaped their perception of sex that they need to detox if they are going to be suitable husbands to their wives. In the first part of the series I wrote about...
Applying the Heat (10/05/09 - 17 Comments)
In my experience there is usually one of the spouses in a marriage that handles the majority of the doctoring and nursing duties. There is one who has the medical knowledge and who knows what to do when a child or spouse is injured or maybe just plain under the weather. There is one who can clean up vomit without adding to the mess themselves. For my marriage, this person is most definitely Aileen. She...
On Visiting Saddleback Church (09/16/09 - 46 Comments)
Last week I met Rick Warren. I was in Los Angeles to speak at the Christian Web Conference (where my topic was "Tweeting Truth With Love: Grace in an Age of Instant Communication") and at the conference I bumped into David Chrzan, Warren's Chief of Staff. He and I spoke for quite some time--an hour at least--and chatted about some of the critiques I've made in the past regarding Warren and his books. With ministries...
Familiarity and Contempt (09/09/09 - 15 Comments)
When I need to travel by plane, I often catch a shuttle to the airport. This is one of those little buses that will pick me up at my door and drop me at the terminal. The service is a little bit expensive (and getting more so), at least compared to having Aileen drive me, but the cost is well worth it when compared to waking the family at 5 AM and bundling them into...
The Companion of Fools (08/31/09 - 7 Comments)
The Bible tells us repeatedly that we will eventually and inevitably begin to resemble the people we spend time with. If we walk with the wise we will become wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm (Proverbs 13:20). Much of the book of Proverbs deals with this very theme, warning the young and foolish to avoid similarly foolish companions. Such proverbs cannot always be taken too woodenly or literally, yet they do point...
Will We Be His Servants? (07/20/09 - 15 Comments)
I am on vacation this week--at home but taking a break from the web design that keeps me busy day after day. Sometimes I relax by writing; other times I relax by not writing. I don't know yet whether this vacation will see more of the former or the latter. My plans for today involve taking my son to swimming lessons, heading to Ikea to look at some living room furniture to replace the now-tattered...
There's Treasure Everywhere (07/15/09 - 14 Comments)
I've always loved Calvin & Hobbes. My friend Brian first introduced me to the comic strip back when I was a young teen and I immediately fell in love with it. (Here is a must-have for any true fan: The Complete Calvin & Hobbes). The strip works on at least two levels. There is the philosophical level where Calvin and his tiger discuss topics of science, philosophy and religion that are clearly far beyond...
Your Suffering Does Not Just Belong to You (07/06/09 - 11 Comments)
The more I grow in my knowledge of the Lord (through my knowledge of his Word) the more I see the utter centrality of the church, the local church, in his plan for his people. The more I learn of him, the more I see what a jewel the church is--what a blessing, what an honor it is to be part of something so amazing, so other-worldly. This is something that has been brought home...
Pleasing People (06/15/09 - 7 Comments)
If you've never read Lou Priolo's Pleasing People, well, it's a good thing to add to your list of things to do. The book takes aim at the human desire to orient our lives around pleasing people instead of first and foremost pleasing God. In one of the chapters, Priolo looks at clothing ourselves in humility and here he offers some wisdom on the subject of forgiveness. As the father of three young children, and...
The One Who Looks (06/08/09 - 18 Comments)
I was skimming headlines and noticed a story about some activists on a college campus who were planning to cover all of the school's mirrors for a day. I did not read long enough to see why they wanted to do this, but I assume it was somehow meant to draw attention to a problem the school or government was covering up. You know how these college-aged activists are, always thinking they are so clever...
Addicted to Entertainment (II) (06/04/09 - 13 Comments)
Yesterday I looked briefly at entertainment addiction and attempted to propose a definition of entertainment. I said that entertainment is an escape or distraction from normal life. Perhaps I should have added that it is an "enjoyable" escape or distraction. While this is an imperfect definition, I think it is useful, at the least. We seek entertainment to take our minds off the stresses and strains and reality of life. Today I want to offer...
Addicted to Entertainment (06/03/09 - 25 Comments)
A few days ago John Piper answered a question about addiction to entertainment. He expressed his concern with our need today to be entertained and to be entertained near-constantly. He then offered a few pointers on escape this addiction. This little article got me thinking and I wanted to offer just a couple of thoughts on the topic. First, I want to try to define entertainment. The best I can do, at least for now,...
Little Evils, Little Sins (06/02/09 - 20 Comments)
The Pacific Campaign of the Second World War has always fascinated me. In many ways, it seemed like a nonsensical series of battles between the United States and Japan. As the Americans sought to curtail Japanese aggression in the East, they fought their way across the Pacific Ocean, moving slowly and deliberately from island to island. Tiny, seemingly insignificant pieces of rock, jutting from the midst of a boundless ocean, hundreds of miles, thousands...
The Practice of Confession (05/27/09 - 18 Comments)
Some time ago I was reading the site of a Roman Catholic apologist and read a statement that showed a misunderstanding of Protestant theology. And there may be good reason for this error. The author said simply, "Protestants do not believe in confession." The statement is correct only insofar as Protestants do not practice auricular confession (confessing ones' sins to a priest in order to receive forgiveness). That statement along with others I have heard...
We Really Did It! (05/07/09 - 8 Comments)
When I was a child my father would occasionally take me to work with him. Dad did not work in an office so this was not a typical "take your child to work" situation. Dad was a landscaper and a day with dad was a day in the hot sun. It was a day of hard work, hauling, digging, planting, watering, tending. As a child I would grow discouraged at how little I could do...