While we are busy looking in the mirror at ourselves, Christ creates a new image of us. He works on that picture, and when it is finished, we will be conformed into His image. Christ has already seen the finished work in us. In contrast, we tend to look only at the hurts, pain, anger, wrinkles, hair, and every blemish, but God’s work isn’t done. The portrait is not finished yet as God’s photo lab must put on the finishing touches. Christ works on us every day to get us cleaned, polished, and st
My boyfriend finally turned back to look at me, and I was able to breathe again. What did he see in these other girls anyway? What did they have that I didn’t?
Oh, right. They were thinner. Prettier. Better outfits. Better hair. Basically, they had everything I thought I didn’t.
And that’s why I stayed with him—with this man who flirted with the waitresses on our date nights, who checked out every pretty girl we passed, who seemed to forget about me when we were in a crowd and only be interes
Christian Phan is the founder and senior pastor of Agape Baptist Church in Renton, Wash., and former president of the Vietnamese Baptist Fellowship in the U.S and Canada.
Spreading the Gospel is a special call.
In Romans 1, Paul the apostle said he was redeemed by Jesus to preach the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Himself called Paul to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God.
This was Paul’s experience when he was going to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus (Acts 9). He became a ser
God intended for women to watch over the ways of their homes. How exactly does a woman do that, however? Here are four practical ways:
Be a gatekeeper of the influences that come into your home.
Moms can be faithful to watch over their homes well by keeping watch over what influences are allowed to enter its doors. What media is your child taking in, what are your kids accessing on the internet, as well as yourself, and what is going on in the areas of phones and entertainment? What are your ki
1. Do you feel heard by me, and do I feel heard by you?
Few things make a relationship as difficult as one spouse ignoring the other’s feelings, thoughts and concerns. You want to be with someone who really listens to you, someone who seriously cares about what you feel and think on any given issue. If you don’t feel heard or if you feel like your opinion isn’t important to your boyfriend, that’s something you need to talk about with him.
2. How do you spend your money?
It’s crucial to talk a
Game of Thrones ended Sunday night after eight seasons. It was broadcast in 207 countries and territories and was one of the most popular series on television.
Because of its pornographic sexual content and extreme violence, I did not watch the show. But I believe culture-changing Christians can learn something important from it.
Game of Thrones filmed in ten countries. The series used 12,986 extras and two thousand crew members in Northern Ireland alone. It incl
By Stephen Altrogge
Sleep and bedtime prayers before sleep present a unique opportunity for us to connect with God.
Maybe we had a good day. Maybe we had a bad day. Either way, bedtime prayer is an opportunity for us to reset, in a sense. To freshly connect with God. To properly align our hearts with God’s will before we go to sleep.
But sometimes we don’t know what to pray when it comes to bedtime prayer. Should we pray the Lord’s prayer? That’s certainly one solid option. But there are numero
By Eric Geiger
There are questions that are not really questions, but statements masked as questions. For example, when Kaye has said to me, “Are you going to wear that?” it has not really been a question. When you are at lunch with an ultra-healthy friend and you order a double patty burger and they order a kale salad and ask, “Are you going to eat that?” it is not really a question. The apostle Paul used this tactic, as he wrote Romans 8, to build the case that believers in Christ are never
By Dale Hudson
The Bible truths we speak into a child’s life have the potential to change their life forever. When a child grabs hold of a truth from God’s Word and internalizes it, it has the power to alter the trajectory of their life.
Here are 20 Bible truths that you can give to parents to speak into their children’s lives and that you can plant in kids’ lives at church.
#1 – God loves you. Unconditionally. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you any less or more. (Galatians 2:20)
Four passages in particular are incredibly helpful when facing life’s hard seasons:
Verses 11-18 go on to tell us of all the pieces of the armor God has given us by which we can successfully fight against all enemy attack. What’s beautiful about this passage is that, rather than looking at the vastness of our problems, we are encouraged to look to the vastness of God’s strength. It doesn’t matter how big your p
The guy who plays games is not the kind of guy worth waiting for, and he’s not the kind of guy God wants for you. Read on to see why.
Insincerity Is Not of God
Game-playing, for both guys and girls, is, in essence, insincerity. Someone who acts as if they’re into another person when they’re actually not is being deceitful, selfish and unloving. While game-playing may seem harmless, it reveals the state of the player’s heart. He doesn’t actually care about people; he only cares about what peo
When I was growing up, it was second nature for me to squirm in frustration when my parents told me what to do, quick to shirk any rule I didn’t particularly like. Why? Because I thought I knew better than they did. I wanted to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted – I thought that either my parents didn’t actually know best or else they were just out to steal my fun. It turns out that neither stance was true!
Becoming a mom has now not only changed how I view my parents and thei
The articles are everywhere: “Top Trends in Worship”, “Ten Ways to Draw New Congregants”, “How to be Relevant in Today’s Culture”. They are well-intentioned, sometimes helpful and even necessary. But is our focus on being relevant to today’s culture – working so hard to “draw in” unbelievers and engage checked-out Christians – misplaced?
It’s a question we need to ask as increasing numbers of millennial Christians leave (or never enter) the church. Bending over backwards to make worship cool
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods that people used to eat in countries like Italy and Greece and the Middle East.
Researchers noted that these people were exceptionally healthy compared to Americans and had a low risk of many killer diseases.
Numerous studies have now shown that the Mediterranean diet c
