D.L. Moody, the Father
Dwight Moody’s deepest desire for his son was that he be a man of the scriptures.
Dwight Moody’s deepest desire for his son was that he be a man of the scriptures.
Home was part of a flourishing life and a proper expectation of heaven.
The more rooted I become in the Scriptures and the community of faith, the more peace I feel despite such “slandering tongues.”
If questions really are important framers and re-framers of reality, Christians must strive to ask theological questions.
We reflect God’s glory by rightly ordering our own passions and concerns.
When we don’t address the small things in person as we go, we risk allowing bigger problems in the future.
With all that we are doing, how much of it are we doing without God?
Discipleship helps us to understand why following God is crucial for those in the body of Christ.
History reminds us that we are not the first to face challenges, to be less than faithful in some ways, and to stand strong for Christ in others.
A unifying dialogue is one in which participants don’t represent to “know” something when in fact, it is not possible or too soon to “know.”
Christians seem all too eager to use the weapons of the world as they seek to shape God’s Kingdom with (or perhaps for) Him.
We all have moments where we opt for convenience over following Christ … that’s a problem.
Having a home is not something Christians can take for granted.
We cannot allow our discomfort to drive us away from Christ; it must drive us toward Him.
Prayer is a crucial part of the work that we do as Christians.
I have come to understand more deeply just what it means for God to be with us.
Our role as members of Christ’s body is to face life’s challenges in God’s strength.
What is standing in our way as we attempt to accomplish the work God has gifted us to do?
Let’s pray that even in the midst of challenging times that we will find it in ourselves to have hearts of gratitude.
We “do little things” because we recognize that God has given us the little things to do.
While telling the truth is important, identifying the truth is also important.
“Cleaning out the cupboards” applies to more than weight loss. It also applies to Christian thought.
When greed becomes our way of being in the world, we forget that when we serve the God of the scriptures, we have the time to be patient and discerning.
The key to contentment is not the elimination of desire but a realignment of desire so that what we want more than anything is to be of service to God.
God is not constrained by our competence and capacities…we are challenged to live with His endless capacity in mind.
If discipleship is our way of being in the world, we must understand how to speak and act in a “discipled” manner.
Christian discernment is governed by God’s word and nested in discipleship.
Our commitment to an academic discipline can be a bane and a blessing as the boundaries of our deep expertise can create the illusion that we know more than we actually do.
As Christians, we are to immerse ourselves in the scriptures and in the life of the church so that we learn to resist the ideas and practices that might hinder us from becoming faithful disciples.
We must recognize that often discipleship needs to be “challenging, but doable.”
For obedience to be our strategy, we don’t pick and choose when to listen to Christ and when to chart our own course.
One of my favorite cooking shows is Chopped. Four contestants, usually highly trained chefs, are given a “mystery basket” filled with odd ingredients to make an appetizer, main course, and dessert. If the mystery basket is filled with gummy worms, jerky, pita bread, and pretzel sticks, the contestants have to head to the pantry and make […]
Through his work and the Moody Center, James Spencer recognized the character of D.L. Moody as a man who followed Christ.
If Christians only point fingers or advocate for one political solution or another, will we not miss opportunities to point the lost to the cross of Christ?
What might it look like to clear our minds of the many pseudo-obligations of the holiday season so that we can enjoy being in God’s presence?
We would do well to remember God’s desire for impartiality as we read, speak, write, post, or tweet.
Still, we are the only people capable of proclaiming Christ to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel and see it worked out in a broken world.
Ignoring any outside perspective to avoid harsh criticism and uninformed opinion isolates you from bad and good ideas.
Simply gaining knowledge, however, is not the goal.
God uses us despite our failings and, at times, because of them.
Nations will fall, yet all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ belong to a “kingdom that cannot be shaken”
We will begin to see that there are often more possibilities available to us than those who tell stories today might like us to think.
When we are too rigid in our theological thought, we run the risk of limiting God.
The study of God’s word and theology has always come more naturally to me than prayer.
The way we speak says something about our hearts.
We can humbly and eagerly approach God with anything we are battling.
Love for others springs from love for God. It isn’t complicated, nor is it easy.
It would seem right for us to learn what it means to “outdo one another in showing honor.”
Whenever you lead, you will encounter criticism.
There are times when initiatives are advanced in Christian organizations by sheer force of personality.
That deep yearning and desire for something we lack … can only be filled by Christ.
Faith is not simply an intellectual decision, but an act.
Time, I have often assumed, is short, and matters urgent. Nothing can be dropped or ignored.
We are a community that has already dedicated all we are and have to Him.
We can’t become more spiritually fit while leaving certain sorts of Christian content in our “cupboards.”
When we accept Christ, we become members of his body and commit ourselves to contribute to the corporate witness of Christ’s body.
There is a way that seems wise to humankind … and sometimes we need to ignore it.
It seems to me that we are living in a moment in which we need to find signals in the midst of the noise.
After years of pushing myself beyond my own personal limits, it finally became clear
that I needed to stop chasing performance and start getting comfortable with who I am.
When we can’t or are unable to ask new questions or consider new answers, we limit our field of vision.
In doing so, we run the risk of missing the possibilities God provides…of confusing our partial story of God with one that is complete.
While we may not know God’s will for every page of our life story, we do know the Author of our story;
God promises that He is with us always and that every turn of the page has a purpose.
Generous speech is not naive. It doesn’t deny evidence or shy away from discussing bad acts.
Generous speech does, however, exercise restraint.
Outcomes, whether positive or negative, and the situations that arise from them offer fresh opportunities for God’s people to be faithful.
It seems to me that we are living in a moment in which we need to find signals in the midst of the noise. We need to master the art of driving in the rain.
We are free to walk obediently with our God even when we don’t understand where He is taking us.
It can be tempting to think that the first step in inspiring change is vision.
To put it in terms of debt, we seem content to continue spending on credit while our knowledge debt continues to grow.
When you are driving in a heavy rainstorm, the rain is a distraction. It obscures our normal field of vision and forces us to look for new signs.
As Christians, I believe we need to commit to do the hard work of discerning how to engage the opinions of others.
We are a community that knows Christ defeated sin and death. We are a community prepared to follow Christ in the midst of storms.
Ultimately, it felt like the train was moving too quickly to stop, so I let the inertia carry me into doctoral studies.
This group of young professionals expressed excitement about the pressure their leadership put on their department to be creative and to innovate.
The way we think and act in the world is rooted in the questions we ask ourselves.
As we sit in our homes allowing the systems and structures put in place to flatten the curve, we would do well to use our time in quarantine to exert some “moral effort.”