Savedthroughfaith.com

God loves me. These three words are a serious cause for pause. They are a time for reflection and delight. However, if you are like me you may find yourself chasing this sweet taste of divine benevolence with other theological tonics, as if we are feeling guilty or something. I think this is a problem. THEOLOGICAL FLINCHING Let’s make it practical. You are talking with a friend about what you’ve been reading in your devotions. You ta...

So it turns out the economy is wreaking havoc on the tooth fairy as well. According to THIS article… The average amount given to sweet, adorable children by the Tooth Fairy last year was a mere $2.10. That’s down 17% from the year before, representing one of the largest declines in spending for the tightwad sprite since 1998. What gives? We’ve always given our kids a dollar for a lost tooth if they lose it naturally. If your brothe...

In many sectors of the church, elders/pastors and financial benefits seem to go hand-in-hand. In fact, until a few years ago, I had never heard of a church that did not fall into one of the following categories: 1) already employed one or more people as elders/pastors, 2) actively looking for one or more people to employ as elders/pastors, or 3) could not afford to hire someone as elder/pastor but was working towa...

What happens if they come to our churches? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters. With all the talk about the Reason Rally, one complaint that has come from the atheists is the complaint of if they would want us to be coming to their church services. When I heard about this question, one thought popped into my mind. “Do you promise to?” You see, unlike the attendees at the Reason Rally, I actually would love to see opposition sho...

Have you ever looked back at your life (perhaps to the recent past) and realized that you missed an opportunity that God had given you to serve someone? Unfortunately, that happens to me often. Many times, I try to justify the missed opportunity, but in reality it is just that: a missed opportunity. I thought about many of those missed opportunities when I read a post by Bobby at “Deconstructing Neverland...

Hope you guys had a great weekend. Today I just had to share a blog post with you written by my friend Annie. Annie is an incredible writer (she wrote THIS BOOK) and amazing volunteer at our Cross Point Downtown campus which primarily reaches college students. She wrote about an experience she had last week while sitting in on a panel about relationships. Check this out… Last Sunday night, Cross Point Downtown campus did something awesome-...

One of my first jobs was selling shoes. This was a good fit for me because I played a lot of basketball and bought a lot of sneakers. One of my early practices was evaluating people based upon their shoes. Some of this was a necessity as you would try to match them up with their current tastes and needs. However, the practice, which became a game, also became a habit. A habit that continues to this day. I still find myself sizing up runners, bal...

In the church today, it seems that elders/pastors and money go hand-in-hand. I’ve written several blog posts and series related to financial benefits and church leaders, especially for those who are hired as pastors, elders, or other positions among the church. Personally, I do not believe that Scripture justifies paying someone a salary in order for them to be an elder/pastor. (For a summary of my view, see...

I’ll never forget the impact my youth pastor had on my life. Rodney Syler was a part time youth pastor who gave up what little free time he had to invest in a group of us who were trying to make sense of what it really meant to follow Jesus. I know how important student ministry is. At Cross Point I can’t tell you how proud I am of the men and women who invest in our young people week in and week out. Knowing how important it is to re...

What’s been the response to posting on the Reason Rally? Let’s talk about it tonight at Deeper Waters. Last week, several of us in conjunction with truereason.org blogged about the upcoming Reason Rally. What an amazing response we had! What was amazing was the amount of atheist responses and how it was the same thing over and over. For all the talk I hear about free-thinkers, atheists I meet on the internet seem to think exactly alik...