One of my favorite parts of Paul’s epistles is when Paul transparently shares what he prays for. Paul doesn’t just write to the churches in order to correct and instruct, but also to encourage and to remind them that he cares.
I know the lyrics to all six verses of "American Pie." I can recite every word that Sandra Bullock yells after Peter Gallagher when he tells her “Merry Christmas” in While You Were Sleeping. I’ve read some texts so many times that there’s no point in saving them. I can sing, note for note, the guitar solo from “Hotel California.”
The Kingdom of God always seems to catch me off guard. What I mean by that is: I never seem to ‘get used’ to it. It's so completely different from conventional thinking and ‘common sense.’
My neighborhood’s the type of place InterVarsity students might visit for an Urban Project. It’s the type of place people lock their car doors as they drive through. Quite frankly, it’s the type of place young people don’t return to after college.
This is how you know that Eugene Peterson—pastor, professor, and bestselling author of the Bible paraphrase The Message— is stone-cold cool.
The Complete 180
“Last November, I went to the hospital. I began reevaluating what I was doing and why.”
I have received direct word from God about his will for your life. You can put away the college major guidebooks, career counseling sessions, and eharmony profiles. I know what he wants from you. Ready? Joy, prayer, and thankfulness. “Oh, come on! That’s not his will.
It's summertime. The weather is beautiful. Your high school and childhood friends are home from their respective schools. You hang out with your favorite brother or sister. You have that summer job. And most of all, you have no school work.
In 7thgrade, I was obsessed with Civil War history. During lunch I would sneak off to the library and read cheesy historical fiction about one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history. Some kids knew a lot about getting girlfriends; I knew a lot about Gettysburg.