I used to love to ride my bike when I was a kid. It was something I would do nearly everyday. My favorite thing to do — find the biggest hills my neighborhood and race down them with my friends. The only catch was that at a certain point we would stop pedaling and just coast. Man, we would fly. We would go faster and faster until we reached our top speed at the bottom of the hill. We’d maintain momentum going up the hill from which we just came down, but we could never, as hard as we tried, coast all the way to the top. There would always come a point at which we would have to pedal and push forward to make it up the hill. Either that or we’d turn around and roll back down the hill only to come to an eventual stop at the lowest point.
Too many Christians are coasting. They’re not pedaling, pushing ahead with intentionality. Instead, they’re content with letting yesterday’s successes sustain today’s movement. Coasting in nothing more than mediocrity covered with the guise of forward motion. (more…)
I have to say that I had a great time writing last week’s post about the “Five Reasons I Hate Dating Christians.” I find it a bit indicting that, as a Christian myself, it was that easy to come up with things that we do wrong when it comes to dating, and even relationships in general. Not surprisingly a lot of people — some Christian, some not — agreed with the points. My goal wasn’t to say that, as a Christian, you shouldn’t be dating Christians, but rather to bring some attention to the things to avoid in your relationships. For those who read that aren’t Christians, well, do you. Having never been in a relationship without being a Christian, so I can’t speak to your situation.
So in order to offer some redemption to last week’s post, and balance things out, here are the three reasons I love dating Christians (as a Christian — because, honestly, if I wasn’t a Christian, I don’t know that I’d date one). (more…)
Filed under: Relationships | Tags: church, dating, men, Relationships, women
Generally speaking, Christians are great people in a lot of ways. But sometimes, for some reason, they end up being less Christ-like and more crazy-like. The realm of dating and male-female relationships is one of these areas. It seems that when conversations concerning the opposite sex come into the picture, Christians immediately make things more complicated than they should be and thus bring undue tension, drama, and stress into the picture.
I have devised a list of the five reasons that I hate dating Christians, or more accurately, the five things that annoying me most when dating Christians. And for all those super saved folks that think this is blasphemous, and will comment about how Christians should only date Christians (which I’ll agree with) please know that I’ll come back with another list next week, just to even things out, so go ahead relax. It’s ok. So, here we go… in no particular order: (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: E3, Joshua Yarbrough, missions, transforming communities
Joshua, the last two days we have heard about two important experiences that shaped your thinking about our responsibility as Christians, concerning the poor, and the necessity for community development in rescuing people from the horrible affects of extreme poverty. You mentioned that we have a responsibility to get involved. However, these problems seem way to big to wrap my head around. I can’t imagine how someone like me can make much of a difference. You seem to believe that I can. Will you share more about this with us?
JOSHUA: First, I would encourage everyone to try focusing on their personal responsibility to share love and spread compassion to others around them and to the regions of the world that most need it. It isn’t our responsibility to single handedly change the world. That is much too big a task for any one person, one organization, or even one government to achieve. God has commanded us to love our neighbor. As I have wrestled with what it means to love my neighbor I have learned that there is transformational power in baby steps. We take small achievable steps to do what we should and trust that God holds the bigger picture, causing us even unknowingly at times to do the necessary things that will result in the world He desires. The beautiful truth in all of this is that God loves us, has our best intentions at heart, and even though this world will never be perfect He desires to use us to build a world that is ultimately for our benefit. (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: communities, E3, Joshua Yarbrough, Ministry, transformation
Yesterday, we talked about a fundraising event for Josh Yarbrough, coming up on Saturday, November 7th, as well as Josh’s personal experiences and how he began walking down this particular path in ministry.
Now, Josh, in yesterday’s post, you mentioned that there were other experiences that also shaped your thinking in regards to community development. Can you elaborate on that? Tell us about one of those experiences and why you feel, especially for those who are Christians, why the work of transforming communities is so important?
JOSHUA: Like I mentioned yesterday, my experience in Belize exposed me to poverty for the first time and it had a profound impact on me. However, even after coming to Christ it took me a little time to realize the seriousness of our responsibility as Christians to the poor and how much of Scripture is dedicated to them. I have found that our personal experiences can cause us to discover themes in the Bible we didn’t see before. I think that is what happened to me on a mission trip I took to Peru five years ago. (more…)
Filed under: Relationships | Tags: dating, friends, men, Relationships, women
It seems that there are entirely too many stipulations and rules when it comes to dating and male-female friendships these days. Case in point: who should pay for what, when to call, who can call, and the like. And I, for one, can’t stand it. Is it really that complicated? Ok, it is that complicated, but should it be? No.
The main thing I don’t understand is this concept that some people have that says the man must pay for everything. Where does that come from?
I know men feel the need to provide. I understand it — I am, after all, a man — and that’s great, but does that mean that your girl can’t take you out to dinner every now and again? Does that mean that if you’re hanging out with a female friend that she can’t pick up the tab for dinner? Doesn’t she make money too? Wasn’t she all gung-ho about being i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t before you met and started dating? She bought and paid for all her own stuff then, right? So clearly she’s capable of paying for things… but why doesn’t she? What’s changed? (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: communities, E3, Joshua Yarbrough, Ministry, missions
Joshua sharing the Gospel in Rwanda
For those of you who don’t know, my friend Joshua Yarbrough is a great friend of mine and a very cool guy. He’s also committed to transforming communities for the glory of God and making a tangible and positive impact there. As some of you may have heard, he and his wife, Monique, are hosting an event on Saturday, November 7th. From what I’ve heard, this is going to be an incredible event with live jazz, food (which you know I love), and plenty of cool people. There’s been a lot of talk circulating about it that I thought it would be a good idea to have Joshua share with us what this event is all about, so, I have asked him to do three posts over the next three days. I’ll be asking him some questions that I thought people would be curious about.
Having said that, Josh, what can you tell us about the purpose of this event on November 7th?
JOSHUA: First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share with your readers what we are doing. My wife and I have been working hard since March of this year preparing to launch a global initiative for an organization called e3 Partners (www.e3partners.org). They are a church planting organization that is currently operating in 44 countries and in hundreds of cities. I will be serving as their Director of Community Development Strategies which means its my job to build this new division that will empower thousands of churches to address issues such as poverty, education, healthcare, justice, and reconciliation. The event on November 7th is a celebration of this new initiative to transform communities all over the world for God’s glory. And, as you can imagine, a vision this large will require an army of people doing all kinds of things to get this moving forward. We will share a little how people can get involved as well. (more…)
It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I use Twitter and Facebook as my relationship therapist on occasion. I tell them — more-so Twitter than Facebook, because, well, sometimes Facebook gets more in my business than I prefer — about a date I’ve gone on, or am going on, or perhaps about a young lady that I might have just met, or have a particular interest in. They give me advice when I’m confused about an issue and what ramifications a decision might have, as well as the best way to resolve conflict. They’re really great.
Yet I have recently encountered a problem. The problem is this: there has been a transition, in at least a few cases, where the females that I would want to talk about are on Twitter (and follow me) and are perhaps on Facebook as well, thus making it more awkward for me to talk about them like I don’t know that they’ll see everything I right. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized
There are entirely too many dumb Christians on the loose today. Entirely too many. Yes, on the loose. Running around, causing problems.
Dumb Christians? Yes. There are Christians that, not only don’t know what they believe, but don’t know how to rationalize or defend their beliefs with anything other than scriptures or what they heard at church. And this is a problem. Because it makes Christians, as a whole, and our faith, look incredibly foolish and baseless when in fact, the very opposite is true. Christian faith can be easily and logically be explained, even without using Scripture. There are, obviously, a few exceptions, but the basic truths and principles for living can be articulated without reading directly from the Word. (more…)
