No one likes to feel on the outs or be pushed to the margins of the social circle.
We all want to be insiders. (more…)
The things on our list may be similar to yours. Things like our relationship with God. How close we are relationally to our grown children and how much fun we’re having these days with all of them. Our home and community. If I went for the long list it would fill several pages and would include many more large blessings ie. health, friendships etc. and smaller things like my iPad, guitars and so on. But there would be a lot.
I’m not even saying that these two common images are biblically accurate, but many find themselves stuck personally or in their attempts to get their churches onboard with discipleship. (more…)
Good friends of mine, Greg and Mary, came to faith and become part of our community a few years back. They pretty immediately began to loop others into this life with us as they learned to live as full-time missionaries. One of the very first families that Greg and his wife Mary began to invite into their lives was a 16-year-old girl named Kirstan and her widowed mother, Julianna. They had a pretty rough story. (more…)
But regardless of your methods and motives, one universal reason that many (most) people don’t seem to share their faith very often or in meaningful ways is fear of rejection.
My friend and author Tim Chester shared this with a group of us and it forever changed my view of sin.
“Sinful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief–behind every sin is a lie. The root of all our behavior and emotions is the heart, what it trusts and what it treasures. People are given over to sinful desires because ‘they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”
