A lot of us, I’m sure, have heard how important it is to make a good first impression, which is true. But at the same time, people are complicated. It takes time to see who they really are, why they act the way they do.
When Tamice Spencer first encountered InterVarsity as a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, she wasn’t interested in Christianity. She had other interests.
I understand why many who share evangelical theological commitments are reluctant to speak or have considered abandoning the term and the identity as meaningless. But I still have hope for evangelicalism.
“Why did you just walk in, an hour late to this lecture?” the instructor asked the two students who paused at the door of the Friday night EMT training at Amherst College.
In a contentious and divided culture, abounding in fruit and abiding in Jesus are as important as ever. Here are four practices that can help us do both in the coming year.
As a kid, I always played it safe. When my uncle wanted to take me around the block on his motorcycle, I said no. When I was doing a report on airplanes and had the chance to take a free plane ride, I said no. And when a family from church invited me on their trip to Disney World—you guessed it—I said no.
It’s easy to sing carols and praise God for sending Jesus on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, with candles glowing and people you love around you. It is harder (at least for me) to look ahead at a brand new untouched year and praise him for what he will do in that year. To do that, we have to ask if we really believe that he can only, ever, work for the good of those he loves.
