Ryan NelsonA lot of Christians think they aren’t cut out to be a youth leader. But if you love Jesus and you care about kids, everything else falls into place. In my five years working with middle school students I’ve met multiple 80 year olds who...
Ray Deck IIIWhat is a devotional? That’s not easy to answer. A devotional can be many things. It can be a Bible reading plan. It can be a series of meditations. It can be a liturgical exercise. It can be a daily selection of verses, accompanied by a...
The events of the Bible happened in real places, with real people. Today, you can take a virtual journey across the biblical landscape. See the cities where Jesus and the Apostles walked, lived, and changed the world. Logos Bible Software sent...
Faithlife StaffWho wrote the Apostles’ Creed? Why is it important? Keep reading! This article from the free Lexham Bible Dictionary gives those answers (and many, many more). Apostles’ Creed (Symbolum Apostolorum): A statement of Christian belief that...
The Bible is a big book. So big that fully understanding it remains a lifelong goal. Rather than trying to read it through in a few sittings, like most of us do with many smaller books, many people instead read a small amount every day. The slow-and...
In Every Square Inch, Dr. Bruce Riley Ashford surveys a variety of perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and culture. According to Ashford, the conversation boils down to these three main views: 1. Christianity against culture This...
Robert ElmerTwenty years ago this month, singer-songwriter Rich Mullins lost his life in a car accident on his way to a benefit concert in Kansas. We remember him from hit songs like “Awesome God” and “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.” At the peak of his career...
Every week, churches use an ancient technology to collect contact information and track attendance: paper bulletins. In addition to supporting the recycling and waste management services in your community, those paper bulletins create a lot of...
At the heart of Randy Alcorn’s book, Happiness, is the simple belief that Christians, having a direct relationship with the source of all happiness, should be happy. This isn’t a call for delusional ignorance of the terrible things that...
Providing separate ministries for children, teens, and young adults is how churches lean into knowledge of childhood development and adolescence. It’s how the body of Christ walks beside parents to teach kids to embrace and live out the gospel...
In a culture that doesn’t sacrifice animals on altars when we make mistakes, it’s sometimes tough to explain how and why Jesus’ death on the cross atones for our sins. Without a system for understanding sin, sacrifice, and...
What if taking the Bible “literally” doesn’t mean what you think it means? In The Lost World of Genesis One, Dr. John Walton of Wheaton college affirms that Genesis 1 is talking about a literal seven days of creation—but he also...
The church’s emphasis on abstinence in dating sometimes leaves people feeling as if the Bible says that sex itself is bad. Not only is that not what the Bible says . . . it’s not even close. Sex was designed to be good. Within the...
If your work place embraces holiday festivities, take a look at how we transformed the place we work every day into a fun holiday retreat. For the last couple of weeks, Faithlife’s offices have been full of subtle (and not so subtle reminders)...
One of the hardest things for me to wrap my brain around as a Christian is how a God who defines himself as love (1 John 4:8) and defines the greatest form of love as laying down your life for someone else (John 15:13) could lead Israel on a...
The Bible is constantly revealing how big, how wise, how powerful, and how awesome God is. Psalm 139 is one of the many passages where God’s omniscience is put on display—but here, God’s omniscience is a powerful reminder that nothing...
I was talking with a friend recently about how I’d been spending a lot of time reading books about the Bible, but less time reading the Bible itself. The spaces between my personal reflections on Scripture were growing wider. I still felt like...
Is swearing inherently sinful? As I read Tattoos on the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle, this question crossed my mind. Scattered throughout Boyle’s inspiring narrative of his more than 20 years of working with gangs in Los Angeles were numerous...
After 40 years of marriage, John and Noël Piper wrote This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence, where they share many of the insights they’ve gained over decades of pursuing Christ together, and offer biblical insight into the purpose...
Guest AuthorThis guest post is by Prayson Daniel. Prayson, who blogs at With All I Am, has been using Faithlife Groups since 2012, and created the Natural Theology group. Prayson is from Tanzania, and he earned his BA at Harvest Bible College. He is currently...
Today’s guest post is by Jon Ng, ministry director of Rising Hope Street Ministry. Rising Hope seeks to address the immediate and long-term needs of homelessness through hunger-relief, authentic community, friendship, and care. In 2014, Jon...
Today’s guest post is by Randy Brown, creator of BibleBuyingGuide.com. Randy reviews Bibles in all price ranges to help people make the best choice for their budget. His mission is to promote Bible reading and study, and to share quality...
We use a lot of big words when we talk about God. Omnipotent. Omnipresent. Omniscient. He is all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing. If a word means “all encompassing,” it’s probably been used to talk about God. Where do these...
The Bible doesn’t promise us that life with Jesus is easier. The difference is that when life gets hard, we have somewhere to turn for strength, courage, hope, and peace. When times are tough, these verses are tougher. Here are seven Bible...
In the Bible, Jesus performed a lot of miracles. He healed people. He had power over nature. He even overcame death. But what about the miracles he didn’t do? Here are three instances in the Bible where Jesus chose not to do the miraculous...
Homelessness is one of the most widely recognized faces of poverty. Wherever you live and whatever your socioeconomic status, chances are you’ve encountered homeless people. Maybe you avoid them out of fear that someone desperate enough to ask...
We’ve compiled 10 quotes on faith to give you a quick source of inspiration. Pick your favorites, then share them with your friends and loved ones for a dose of encouragement. Click to tweet | Share on Facebook “Faith does not eliminate...
Jimi Hendrix. Heath Ledger. Whitney Houston. Cory Monteith. Philip Seymour Hoffman. And countless others. The drug culture that so often surrounds celebrities is tragic from every angle, and too often deadly. These men and women live in the...
In Scripture, God makes a lot of promises. He keeps them all, but there are a few things he never promised that might surprise you. Here are three; can you think of others? Justice on earth God keeps score. He promises to heal the wounded, reward...
All Scripture is important. All Scripture is true, but not all Scripture is meant to be read in the same way. Different kinds of literature have different expectations. You wouldn’t read The Raven and angrily reply, “No, the Raven did NOT say that!”...