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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? …
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Be Bold, Be Kind, And Defend Truth
We live in a world where absolute truth is no longer accepted. Belief in God is mocked. And some people treat Christianity as a fantasy. The world loves to bombard us with lies. Sometimes these lies are blunt and obvious from miles away. But they can also be cleverly disguised and we unwittingly accept them. Have you ever tried to hide a pill from your dog by covering it in peanut butter? Or maybe you’ve tried those “pill pocket” treats. Most dogs figure out this trick and spit the pill out, eating only the good stuff. The world likes to hide its “pills” in peanut butter too—deceitful philosophies show up…
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New Year, Same God
Everything changes. That’s one thing we can all agree on. Some changes we celebrate, like graduations and weddings. Some changes we mourn, like death and divorce. I’m guessing many of you breathed a sigh of relief when the clock struck midnight on December 31. After what felt like years, 2020 is over. But there doesn’t seem to be a change yet. If anything, it seems to be getting worse. We long for change. Yet we also desire things to remain the same. We want improvements, not disadvantages. However, nothing on this earth will remain the same. People pass on. Pictures fade. Rocks erode. Forests die. And yet there is one…
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How We Should Live In 2021
What if 2021 is just like 2020? What if all the disappointments from this year are simply compounded? What if we have to go another year without that conference, concert, vacation, or graduation party? What if 2021 isn’t everything we hope it will be? I’ve talked about contentment before. We keep trying to find satisfaction in the wrong things. The only place we can find true contentment is in Jesus. But what does that look like? And how can we be content if we have to endure another year of disappointments? No More Complaining Paul says in Philippians 2:14-15 that as believers we are to “[do] everything without grumbling or…
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Prepare Him Room
Joy to the world! The Lord has come Let Earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing And heaven and nature sing And heaven, and heaven and nature sing! Every year at Christmas, we are reminded to not let Jesus’ incarnation get lost in the shuffle. And so we try and maybe find a few moments to reflect on His advent before diving into the wrapping paper and cookies. Of course, it’s important this time of year to prepare our hearts to focus on Christ, but we need to do this year-round. Let’s face it. Life is busy. We have deadlines to meet.…
