We all have ugly inside whether we want to admit it or not. Anger, greed, lust, jealousy, and a host of other qualities plague us all. While admitting our ugly to others often initially triggers hurt feelings, acknowledging our ugly to Jesus leads to a very different response.…
“Of course we’re Jesus-centered, right? We’re a church youth group. Doesn’t that automatically make it about Jesus?” That’s an actual response of a small-church youth leader when I asked about his program’s focus. Eventually, he admitted he didn’t know what it meant to “make a beeline to Jesus” in all he did.…
Teenagers have mastered the art of the excuse—they can give you creative reasons why their homework isn’t done and their chores didn’t get done and why it’s okay to hate their Algebra teacher. And, it turns out, they have lots of plausible-sounding reasons why they don’t read the Bible.…
On Pentecost Sunday Calebe Silva, a teenager in New Jersey, opened his church’s Zoom church service with a short reading from Isaiah, followed by a piercing lament over the grief and pain the African-American community is experiencing right now (in the wake of the protests over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police).…
I’m just imagining the first followers of Jesus taking a “discipleship assessment” just after his death and resurrection. Would a single one of them make the grade as a “fully formed disciple” by today’s youth ministry standards? If the model Jesus himself used produced the kind of results that would get most of us a poor performance review, maybe there’s a problem with the way we think about discipleship.…
Some of us are more than a month into quarantine and “normal” life may seem like a distant memory. Now that we’re living in the “awkward in-between,” how can Jesus’ time after his Resurrection help guide us through these uncertain times?…
Wouldn’t it be nice if the difficult things we faced in life really turned out to be easy? Unfortunately, living a Jesus-centered life isn’t a free pass from difficulty. In fact, following Jesus often leads us into challenge and sacrifice. Join Rick and Becky as they dive into the story of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19), focusing on how Jesus asks him to do something seemingly impossible.…
Genesis 3 Now presenting…The Taste of Regret, by Eve. The woman who lived to regret disobeying God’s one rule… Welcome to the Eyewitness Podcast where each surprising episode brings you face-to-face with one of God’s friends from the Bible. You’ll hear stories told from the perspective of the famous people in the Bible.…
Genesis 1-2 A First Time For Everything, told by Adam. The very first human being God spoke into his amazingly complex creation… Welcome to the Eyewitness Podcast where each surprising episode brings you face-to-face with one of God’s friends from the Bible.…
It’s time to start swinging for the fences! Settling… Attainable… Reasonable… These are all innocent word, but they are also all wolves in sheep’s clothing. Twenty pounds when I have 50 to lose? Well, the 20 is attainable. And I end up losing six and applaud the effort.…
