The story of Jesus and the “sinful woman” (as Luke describers her in Luke 7) teaches us five big lessons about self-righteousness: 1. You will never know if self-righteousness lurks in your heart until you see someone you regard as “sinful” audaciously loving Jesus. How you react to that situation will uncover what’s deep within your heart. 2. Self-righteousness will disqualify you from the kingdom of God. Serving God, as Simon performed his entire life, doesn’t score brownie points with… Read more

All throughout the Gospel, Jesus Christ is shown to be “the friend (and defender) of sinners” who “ate and drank.” (See Luke 7:34). In this story, we find Him to be eating, drinking, and befriending a female sinner. Jesus welcomed the tax collectors, the thieves, the prostitutes, and the adulterers into His kingdom. For this reason, the Lord consistently violated social taboos to reach out to those who the culture marginalized (Luke 7:1–10), economically (Luke 7:11–17), religiously (Luke 7:24–34), and… Read more

Trials, adversity, pain, suffering, loss, persecution, attacks, and downright onslaught are part of the lives of all who put their hands to the plow and served the Lord. Both past and present. But there’s a great tragedy when a servant of the Lord waste’s their sufferings. There’s no artful way of saying it, but the trick is to learn how to be broken but not destroyed. If you’re looking for a footnote, read 2 Corinthians Chapter 4. That chapter is… Read more

Amy Simpson has written an interesting new book. It’s called Blessed Are the Unsatisifed. I caught up with Amy recently to discuss her new book. Enjoy! What did you write Unsatisfied and who is it written for? Blessed Are the Unsatisfied is written for Christians who have frequently heard that they should feel satisfied because they’re in relationship with Jesus, but who are aware that they don’t actually feel that way all the time. In particular, it’s written for people… Read more

There are two kinds of Christianity. 1. The Christian “religion.” 2. The Christianity we find in the New Testament. The Christian religion is built on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Christian religion can be studied using the same categories of thought used to study any other world religion. It can be analyzed just as Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism are analyzed. The difficulty with the Christian religion (like all religions) is that it makes its adherents think… Read more

Today’s world is incredibly complicated. So much so that most of us are seeking ways to simplify our lives amid the blizzard of busyness. The trick to simplifying your life is to look at what you do in a given month. Then analyze what needs to be done from what can be removed or trimmed back. As an example, here are five ways that I’ve simplified my life in 2015. Perhaps some of them will inspire you and ignite your own ideas…. Read more

The 123rd episode of the “Christ is All” podcast is available. It’s called Changing the Calculus of the Culture War.  You can listen to the episode in the following venues: iTunes Subscribe (for Apple devices) Beyond Pod (for non-Apple devices) If you don’t use a smart phone, then click here to see the complete list of episodes on one page, including this episode     Read more

Ever meet a fellow Christian for the first time? There’s always that thing. That thing they are jazzed about. That thing that drives them. That thing that turns them on and sets them aglow. That thing that manifests itself quickly after they start speaking. Here are some of the many “things” that the Christians I’ve met throughout the years were stuck on, obsessed with, fascinated by, and well, just plain in love with. Evangelism. Theology. Pacifism (war, guns, the military,… Read more

In case you’ve not heard, a recent Pew Study revealed that Millenials are leaving the institutional church in large numbers. CNN built on it with a leading article called Millennials are Leaving the Church in Droves. Many of you who are subscribed to this blog are Millennials (20s to mid-30s). As I’ve traveled the country and spoken in conferences mostly populated with this age group, Millennials have told me the same things when it comes to the reasons why they… Read more

As a subscriber of this blog, you’re clearly interested in growing in Jesus Christ. But how do you measure if you’re really growing and making spiritual progress? Let me tell you emphatically that it’s not by how much knowledge you’ve gained. Indeed, an increasing knowledge of the Lord is certainly a basis for spiritual growth. But knowledge that’s not applied is little more than arm-chair philosophy and bloodless theory. That said, there are a number of indicators by which to… Read more