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I’m Too Busy To Pray
When you get busy, things start to slip. Library books don’t get returned on time. Plants don’t get watered. Blog posts don’t get written… *cough* Somedays, you just look at your to-do list and just give up. There is no physical way that everything can get done. The lowest priorities are the first to get the axe. Sure, I care about my plants. I don’t want them to turn into crispy twigs. But they’ve gone this long without water, so they can wait until I finish this assignment. I certainly want to write blog posts, but when I finally get a break from school, I just want to read a…
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Give Unto Him: What Jesus Actually Wants From You (Guest Post by CoCo Ashley)
Have you ever wondered if it is wrong to drink? Play violent video games? Skip church every now and then? What about swearing? I think it’s safe to say a lot of Christian teenagers have questioned right and wrong at some point in their lives. We just want to know we’re on God’s “good side” so we go to heaven. Truth be told, I think a lot of us just want to know we’re avoiding the obvious sins so we can feel good about ourselves. However, God doesn’t always give us the answers we want to hear. In Matthew 22, we find the Pharisees wanting to “trap” Jesus by asking…
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Consider the Lilies
Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. Luke 12:27 A few weeks ago, I made a collage in art class. The assignment asked me to make it around a Biblical theme of my choice, so I chose “trusting in God.” I ripped up some old clothing catalogues and created this: I’m really happy with how it turned out. And I love my hidden symbolism with the clothing catalogue, since not even Solomon had as fine clothing as the flowers do. Anyway, we aren’t here to talk about art…
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Imitate Jesus
Imitation is in our DNA. As babies, we imitated our parents and spoke our first words. As kids, we dressed up like our favorite superheroes and tried to be just like them. As teenagers, we tried to follow the latest trends and remain “cool.” As adults, we copy characteristics of people we admire, hoping to one day be like them. Imitation is good. But it can also be dangerous. If we are imitating the wrong thing, we are harming ourselves. Because acting like someone else is powerful. It can change the very fabric of who you are. Paul says in 1 Corinthians: Be imitators of me, as I am of…
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What if Easter Never Happened?
Here we are. The day between Good Friday and Easter. Yesterday, we might have attended a Good Friday service and meditated on Jesus’ sacrifice. Tomorrow, we will celebrate His resurrection. But for today, we forget the story of redemption in the bustle of life. It’s just another Saturday. But what if Easter never happened? What if the story ended at Good Friday? What would we do then? Without the resurrection, Good Friday would simply be another Memorial Day. A time to place flowers on a grave and remember times gone by. But more than that, it would be a day of grieving. Without the resurrection, we would still be in…
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Come As You Are, But Don’t Stay As You Are
Have you ever had a life-changing experience? You know, one of those events where you go in as one person and leave as another? Once it’s over, you can’t stop thinking about it. Your whole life has been changed. It’s probably the biggest topic of conversation when you get together with friends. It permeates everything. The most life-changing event as Christians is the day we were saved. Now, I know some of us don’t remember a distinct salvation moment and that’s not what I’m talking about. When we are saved, our lives are drastically changed. Paul says we are a “new creation.” Unfortunately, we don’t always live changed lives. We…
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The Spurgeon Collection Pt. 3
It’s been far too long since we’ve had a Spurgeon post! If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know the drill. Spurgeon’s quotes are in italics and my thoughts are in regular text beneath. If He could grow weary of me, He would have been tired of me long before now. We all give our loved ones reasons to be tired of us. And we get tired of them. You know what I mean. After about ten minutes (if that) of listening to your eccentric uncle talk about conspiracy theories, you just want to escape. But all the annoying habits of our friends and family don’t compare…
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Guest Post From Rachel Leitch: How Digory Kirke Reminded Me To Hope
Before we get started, in the spirit of honesty—I haven’t read all the Narnia books. I did, however, listen to all the audios. The Magician’s Nephew was one I listened to over and over. While I’m not quite sure what drew me to it back then, writing this post made me turn back to my family’s battered copy of the novel. And it was even better than I remembered. One of the things that drew me in the most was the character of Digory Kirke. At first, it was just his snark. (Read those first couple chapters and try to tell me he doesn’t have snark.) Then it was that…
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Whatever It Takes
If you’ve been around me in the past few months (or have read my articles on Kingdom Pen), there’s a good chance you have noticed my recent obsession with Marvel. Their stories are so good and the characters… You guys, Marvel’s characters are amazing! One of my favorite scenes is in Avengers: Endgame. The heroes have gathered together one last time before their life-or-death mission. After his epic speech, Captain America says, “Whatever it takes.” Just thinking about that scene makes me happy. But this post isn’t going to be me fangirling over movies. It’s actually about a very serious topic: sin. I want you to think back to that…
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Why God Uses the Weak
Out of all the people Gandalf could have chosen to take the Ring of Power to Mordor, he chose a handful of helpless hobbits. To be honest, it seems a little ridiculous. Why didn’t he pick someone more powerful? Someone brave and courageous? Someone able to handle the task on their own? He had no shortage of formidable characters that could have easily taken the Ring. Aragorn certainly was a good option. Or Legolas, Boromir, or Gimli. Gandalf himself could have handled the Ring. So why did he choose short, neighborly hobbits whose main concerns involve who is stealing their prized soup spoons and when they can eat second breakfast? …
