Culture
How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? (Job 26:14) In today’s world, people often place the utmost confidence in that which can be quantified and understood through scientific methods. We trust hard data, statistics, and research, all of which can be perfectly helpful as far as they go. But that’s the thing: when you worship the God of the Bible, you realize that such things can only take you so far. There comes a point where you must stop trying to quantify the world around you and recognize its Creator, whose glory is
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February 28, 2018 // 0 Comments
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121) Psalm 121 is what’s called a “Song Of
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August 30, 2017 // 0 Comments
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10) What Our Search Histories Say About Us I have to confess, I’m a total podcast junkie. I’m always on the hunt for something interesting to listen to. Knowing this, a friend recently recommended I listen to an episode of a podcast produced by NPR. In it, a former data scientist for Google named Seth Stephens-Davidowitz was interviewed.
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June 14, 2017 // 0 Comments
So then . . . you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:19) A Strong Sense Of Family Ties According to Barna, the majority of Americans say that family is an essential part of their identity. When asked the question, “How much does family make up your personal identity?,” 62% of those surveyed responded, “A lot.” Thus Barna concluded that “People rank family as more central to their identity than any other surveyed factor,” including faith, nationality, ethnicity, or career. Based on these findings, we must
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May 31, 2017 // 0 Comments
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) The Culture Of Epic Recently I went to the movies with some friends to see a long-anticipated film on its opening
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February 1, 2017 // 0 Comments
“Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10) Could We Set The Bar Any Lower? The church finds itself in a unique cultural moment—one where the best thing you can do for someone, we are told, is to tolerate them. In fact, I would go so far as to say that tolerance is the new golden rule of our culture. You see, we’ve largely adopted a policy of “do no harm,” meaning that if you can steer clear of anything that might be perceived as a micro-aggression, there will be no cause for grievance and you will not be the object of anyone’s outrage.
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November 2, 2016 // 2 Comments
“Judge me, O Lord.” (Psalm 7:8) Making God More Palatable In twenty-first century America, we despise the notion of judgment. For us, being judged by anyone for any reason is absolutely insufferable. The defectors—those judgmental types—are viewed as unsightly pimples upon the chin of an otherwise decent society. And this reality, built into the very fabric of our culture, shapes our daily lives more than we realize. Take interpersonal relationships, for instance. We tend to surround ourselves with people who won’t scrutinize our decisions or critique our
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October 19, 2016 // 0 Comments
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…” (Ephesians 4:11-14) “Who Has Time to Think?” Recently I came across this paragraph by an author named Os Guinness:
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September 28, 2016 // 0 Comments
…and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21) Once again, we’ll be learning a new song together at LifePoint’s gathering this Sunday. The featured song is actually a hymn entitled Speak O Lord, performed by modern hymn writers Keith & Kristyn Getty. Directly below you’ll find a video which features a recording of the song. Also below are lyrics, an explanation of why we’ve chosen this song for corporate worship, and a link for download from iTunes. I pray you will use these resources to make the most of the
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June 1, 2016 // 0 Comments
“Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21) Constructing Reality It was French philosopher René Descartes who famously said, “I think therefore I am.” As father of modern philosophy, Descartes concluded that the only thing we as rational creatures can be certain of, the only thing we shouldn’t doubt, is our ability to doubt. He chipped away at reality by doubting until all that was left was the doubter himself. And from that, he developed his understanding of reality. We bring this rationale with us to church
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January 27, 2016 // 2 Comments
