I preached the third part of my "Them vs. Us" series this past weekend. I titled it "Natural Enemies" after this brilliant quote from the theologian Donald Carson:
“Ideally… the church itself is not made up of natural ‘friends.’ It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not c
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Some passages we come across in the Bible seem pretty obvious. But that doesn't make them any less troubling. Take for example a passage like Deuteronomy 23:6 "As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.” Wow, God really didn't like these p...
This past weekend I began a five-week sermon series at a church in Phoenix. I'm super excited to do this as I haven't had the chance to write a new series in a few years. The series is called "Them vs. Us" and is about how quickly we draw lines between ourselves and others. Yet as we see repeated...
We are halfway through 2023. I'm writing this in one of my last days in Oregon as I prepare to enter back into the tortures of the Arizona summer.
Below you can see the 56 books I've read so far this year with my rating for them (5 being the best) and a brief review. The author or publisher has giv...
One of the books I've read a few times is called Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I appreciate how he helps you narrow down your life or work into the things that matter most. When it comes to how to implement these ideas, McKeown offers the following list:
"To discern what is truly essential we nee
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One of the people I follow online is Dr. James DiNicolantonio. His name may be a lot to pronounce, but I really appreciate how he talks about holistically having a healthier lifestyle. He's worth the follow.
He posts lots of different ways to improve your life, and recently he posted the following...
In our final chapter of the book of Romans, we interviewed Kevin Garcia on the Forest and Trees podcast (see: Maybe Paul Wasn't so Bad). Kevin used a phrase that I've been thinking about on repeat. As he described his own journey, he said it's been "less of a deconstruction and more of an evoluti...
We’ve wrapped up our podcast The Forest and the Trees going through each chapter of the book of Romans. The podcast is a chance for me and a friend who no longer believes in Christianity to read and discuss the nuances of Christianity and each week's text. We previously went through the book of Hebr...
Today I turn forty. That number sounds like it belongs more to my parents than to me, but here we are. I'm not sad about it... in fact I feel like I'm the best version of myself yet. This seems to be the goal of aging. To celebrate my birthday with all of you, I decided to share forty things I've le...
If you thought I was done talking about the movie Pig, you were wrong (see: Pig or the Counterpoint to John Wick). In fact, when I was assigned James chapter three for my sermon last weekend and read about the role of peacemakers, I decided it was time to share this gem with the world. Which also...
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