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http://womenandbusiness.co.za/services-5/ When I was attending Christ Seminary in South Africa, I had a professor who used to state, "everything preaches." What he meant was, that whatever you're interacting with in life is pushing you toward thinking a certain way. It is informing you of its creator's worldview and asking you to align with it. Today that "everything" is a continually growing category. It entails movies, tv, music, books, video games, teachers, textbooks, billboards, advertisements, magazines, facebook, instagram, and many others forms of media including this very blog post. =) Typically, as Christians we have two possible responses to this. On the one hand we may recognize this about the movies, music, and many other such things we or our kids listen to and decide it isn't worth the risk and we will simply not partake of those sort of things. On the other hand, we may instead belittle the effects the messages have on us and our th...

                                                              http://www.zazzle.com/fool_4_jesus_inspirational_t_shirt There are two kinds of fools in the Bible. The first fool is found in Proverbs, and is characterized as one who lacks discernment, discipline, and is for the most part unteachable. From God’s perspective this person has no hope and is headed for trouble, difficulties, and eventual judgment. Proverbs admonishes us to do everything we can to avoid being labeled this kind of fool. But there’s another kind of fool that God esteems. I’m speaking of the person that the world labels a “fool” because of their commitment to the Gospel. I Corinthians  3:18 , says this: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.” In...

from Crosswalk.com I have heard many speak recently to what it is like to “suffer well”. I will be teaching more on this  on Monday  night,  Jan. 16th  from  6:00-8:30 p.m.  at the church building for the Gospel Institute, but below are some thoughts for you to consider. This Monday is TRY IT NIGHT at the Gospel Institute, so please come join us with no strings attached. All are welcome to join us.  Ten reasons why human beings suffer: 1. Satan – God has given Satan limited rulership of this world, limited in time and in his ability to wreak havoc. Satan can do nothing that God does not allow him to do. (see Job  1:10 ; 2:1; 1 Cor. 15) 2. The Fall has brought exhaustive entropy. The universe is running down. We live in a world of deterioration>decay>destruction>death. 3. The world system is ruled by Satan; a fallen system of ideals, beliefs, etc. 4. Personal Entropy –...

image from http://www.geekpause.com/ Pastor Ben here. For my turn on the pastors' blog, I've asked a guest blogger to share! And she's a good one. My wife, Casey, shares thoughts from her recent message she shared at beREAL, our church's monthly women's meeting. Both men and women will be blessed to read this! --- How do we deal with our emotions of happiness, worry, discontentment, pride, compassion, sadness, anger, despair, joy, anxiety, and numerous others?  Adapted from Feelings and Faith by Brian Borgman (all quotes from the book unless otherwise noted), here are some principles we can use to biblically handle our emotions.   1) How can our emotions sometimes be dangerous? Emotions have been given to us by God. They are a reflection of God himself. As we read our Bible we learn that God reveals his character using different emotions: love, compassion, delight, anger, sadness (Zeph 3, Gen 6, Psalm 95, Psalm 103). In the garden, Adam and Eve had the perfe...