Simply Gospel

May my steps be worship. May my thoughts be praise.

  • The Back Burner

    A few posts back, a visitor left a comment that I seemed like a committed Christian, and I responded to him that I felt rather uncommitted because of the lack of updates to this site. And now I’ve gone almost two months without a real post. It makes me think of something a friend of mine was saying in the pulpit back in January: I was driving to work one day when it hit me that I would be caught by surprised if the Lord was to return at that moment. My focus was so far away from God that I was… Continue reading

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  • Follow

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWCaXXKcHWE This is a video created by Igniter Media that tells the story of Jesus through Twitter. It’s very well done. Continue reading

  • Generalizing

    Most people I know would not be happy if they heard something like… Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites. White people think they’re better than everyone else. Women think with their hearts not with their minds. Republicans don’t care about anything but their money. I can almost feel you getting upset from over here. Or is that just the unseasonably warm weather? It’s hard to tell sometimes. Still, chances are, if you read this blog regularly, you may fall into one or more of the categories above, and chances are that you wouldn’t like any of those things said about you.… Continue reading

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  • Renewal

    I didn’t feel any different when I woke up yesterday morning, but it was on the dawn of a new year. The outside looked the same as always, if not a little bit windier than usual. My home and family all looked the same. My congregation was still in the same place with worship times the same as always and the same members, though we were a bit slim in numbers thanks to holiday travel. Still, it was a new year. The calendar had moved up one incremental unit; our world had completed another orbit on its timeless circuit around… Continue reading

  • Celebrating…What Exactly?

    The last couple of years, I’ve found myself very pensive about what the holiday season means to me and what it should possibly mean for other members of the Lord’s body. I don’t have to give much evidence that – like many Christian traditions and practices – the Christmas holiday has devolved into a symbol of Western materialism and misplaced priorities. I don’t have to do much to demonstrate that it’s become more hype than substance, and I don’t have to look far to find all manners of ugly behaviors, misplaced priorities, and outright greed connected with a holiday supposedly celebrating one… Continue reading

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  • 18,000 Light Years

    I once heard an astronomer explain that we can’t help but live in the past – in a very literal sense. Every point of light we see in the sky happened in the past. If we are looking at a star that’s 18,000 light years away, then we are looking at light that began to travel from its point of origin 18,000 years ago. If we were closer to the star, it might look different. It might not even exist at all anymore, but we won’t know about any of those changes for 18,000 years. All light takes time to… Continue reading

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  • Grateful Living

    We have much to be thankful for, but being a truly thankful Christian goes beyond words. We may acknowledge our thanks in prayer. We may sing hymns of thanksgiving. We may post online about our thankfulness to God for all of His blessings, but words are empty without actions to back them up. If we are truly grateful to our God, then we will live lives that reflect gratitude and contentment. Unfortunately, many influences around us teach us ingratitude – whether we’re talking about marketers who want us to look for the Next Big Thing™ or personalities who will panic… Continue reading

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  • Little Distractions

    A couple of months ago, my congregation was studying about what it means to be living sacrifices. The series was called Worship 24 x 7, and I even had the privilege of delivering a lesson in the series about our Christian lives at school. Being a living sacrifice is a large undertaking. Numerous passages in the Old Testament – like Exodus 12:5, Exodus 29:1, Leviticus 1:3, Leviticus 3:6, and many more – require those ancient sacrifices to be without stain or blemish. We’re the same. Romans 12:1-2 calls us us to completely transform ourselves, removing ourselves from conforming with the world, and… Continue reading

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  • The Single Best Invention of Life

    Much has been said and written about the passing of Steve Jobs, and, as a longtime Apple customer, even I posted a few thoughts on my personal blog. He was an interesting individual. I’m sure many readers of this blog would be quick to point out that he was not a Christian, and I hear our friends (and I use that term loosely) at Westboro were even planning to picket a public funeral that wasn’t going to happen. Regardless of spiritual standing, however, there are always lessons we can take from a life lived fully. One of the best talks… Continue reading

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  • Knock Knock

    I saw this performance the other day: As someone who teaches in a low income, urban setting, I can’t even begin to describe what this poem means to me. As someone who still thinks racism is alive and well, as someone who wants better for the next generation, as someone who sees the struggle Mr. Beaty describes unfold every day – words fail me. But I also started thinking about our own spiritual imprisonment and the freedom we have in Christ, so I thought I’d share those thoughts, at least. One of the hardest things to overcome is the past.… Continue reading

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