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What’s Missing in Discipleship?
Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly alarmed at the actions of Christians as they engage with various cultural and political issues. Social media has revealed that too many of us lack concern for truth, treat others unbiblically or believe arrogantly that we have a monopoly on biblical truth. Fear seems to be motivating too many of us to act in ways unbecoming to Christians, especially to our brothers and sisters who disagree on non-essential beliefs or political answers to the country’s problems. Hopefully you don’t spend much time on Twitter, which seems to reveal the worst of us. I’ve certainly been guilty of labelling people without understanding, arrogantly…
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The Last Christian
I just finished another novel by one of my favorite authors, David Gregory. I really enjoyed The Last Christian for several reasons, including the creation of characters I truly cared about, but there are two big reasons that I find myself continuing to think about. The book is set in 2088. Abby Caldwell, who grew up as the daughter of missionaries in Papua New Guinea in a tribe cut off from the rest of the world, comes back to the U.S. and learns that Christianity has died out. She is “the last Christian.” Her grandparents had left her a message sixteen years before telling her that God had impressed on…
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Are You a Pickle?
A pickle used to be a cucumber, but when it sits in a brine solution of vinegar and spices, it absorbs the flavors of the brine and turns into a pickle. That’s fine for cucumbers, but it’s terrible for people. When we live immersed in the “brine” of our culture, we can easily absorb its values and philosophies. Instead of thinking and living like Jesus, we look and sound and live just like the rest of the surrounding culture. Alarmingly, this is true of the church as well. The divorce rate of evangelicals is no different from that of our culture. The number of our men struggling with a secret…
