Most Christians know the feeling. You sit down to read the Bible and pray, wanting to enjoy a passionate experience of God, but,…crickets. You struggle to focus on the text, and what you grasp seems irrelevant to your pressing concerns. Your prayer time is dry, and your burdens don’t feel any lighter afterwards. You wonder, “What was the point? Did I just waste 30 minutes of my life?” You’ve probably walked away from a church service with the same feeling. Neither the songs nor the sermon seemed relevant to the issues weighing on your mind. You didn’t love the songs, and the sermon was dry. Again, you wonder, “Did I just waste 75 minutes of my life? How did any of that help me address my problems?” How should we respond these discouragements?...
Appropriate spiritual care varies from situation to situation. Some people need direct, strong confrontation while others need gentle compassion. We must evaluate people, and we must tailor ministry to the need of the moment. Otherwise, we may do more harm than good. All of us can improve our ministry by building good instincts for spiritual care. By this I mean we can become increasingly adept at reading people and situations and at responding appropriately to them....
When we endure trials and temptations, we often despair because we believe things like, “I’m the only one who has ever faced this,” “This is the worst thing ever,” or “My trial will never end.” Satan wants to isolate us in our hardship and overwhelm our perspective. If he succeeds, we spiral into despair, apathy, and bitterness. However, the Bible teaches that evil always resists God’s work. Therefore, our pain is not unique, and we are not alone, especially when we walk alongside fellow Christians....
Life Point is transitioning to using the NASB as our pulpit translation. Find out why we are making the transition and how it will affect our life as a church....
The birthrate in the United States is declining sharply, and a major force behind the decline is the shifting values of our culture. What does the Bible say about these shifting values, and how should Christians think about family as they plan their lives?...
I am increasingly concerned that Christians are following the culture’s lead as it spirals toward emotionalism and nonsense. However, Christianity is a religion of truth; therefore, no one should be more committed to truth, logic, and rational thinking than Christians....
One of the greatest ministry challenges we all face is how to effectively reach people who come from a very different world than our own. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 provides important counsel for overcoming these walls and also a timely challenge for how we view people in divisive times such as we are facing today....
I will never forget Wednesday, March 11, 2020. That Wednesday, our country began aggressively shutting down. The next 11 weeks were probably the most draining season of ministry I have ever experienced. By Wednesday, May 27, when we published our plans for restarting services, I felt as worn down as I have in a long time. The world is far from being “back to normal,” but now that I’ve had some time to reflect, I’d like to give thanks to the Lord for some important lessons/reminders that he taught me during quarantine....
The world right now wants to make you decide between justice and authority, but that is a false dichotomy. God says that both are important, and both are fulfilled in the person of Christ....
Last week I wrote a blog post entitled, “Human Authorities and the Present Moment.” My thesis was, “Obedience to God-ordained authorities ranks very high in the priorities of a biblical ethic; therefore, the threshold for disobeying authorities must also be high.” In this post I want to explore what type of things meet this threshold....
I watched a documentary recently about one of the best rock climbers in the world. One thing that stood out to me about this rock climber was his commitment to personal growth in his sport. And one symbol of his commitment was his climbing journal, in which he meticulously tracks his performance. I wonder if we as Christians could learn from his example as it relates to tr...
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As evangelists, we often struggle to merge the free grace of the gospel with the demands of discipleship. This is because we don't always understand that Christ is the primary gift of the gospel, and everything else flows from him. In this post, I will demonstrate the primacy of Christ and how every other gift of the gospel stems from him....
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We often assume that discipleship requires an arrangement between a disciple maker and a disciple. But is this the only way discipleship happens?...
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We would all agree that taking God’s name in vain is a sin (Ex 20:7). But is it a sin to watch movies in which His name is misused? How should we think through this issue, and what should be the heart behind our decisions?...
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How do you respond when your children rub up agains the differing convictions of other Christian families? It's important that we respond well in these moments and use them to prepare our kids to be discerning and to relate well to fellow believers. ...
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Ephesians 6:18 tells us to “pray in the Spirit.” But what does that mean? It’s a command, so we better figure out!...
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Three years ago, I began an epic journey. I started reading through the Bible every year....
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This spring, I taught a class on parenting at our church. In preparation for the class, I interacted with a number of different parenting resources. Here are five of the resources I found most helpful....
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I don’t like sorrow. You might respond, “Of course, who does?” But I really don’t like sorrow. My natural instinct is to flush it out as quickly and aggressively as possible. I don’t want to think about what is wrong, and I especially don’t want to talk about what is wrong. I want to smash my pain into a tiny ball and launch it into outer space. But the longer ...
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Wednesday night is one of the most exciting times of the week at Life Point Baptist Church. Apart from the Sunday morning worship time, there is more energy and enthusiasm in the building from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings than at any other time during the week. On any given Wednesday night, you will find the building bustling with seventy to seventy-five children, ...
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