Category Archives: Spiritual Nuggets

Blessed Sticky Notes A great friend of mine keeps sticky notes with prayer requests on a bathroom mirror. They serve as a reminder of the needs of others. This friend never seems to have an “off day” or feel sad … Continue reading →

Through Despair Sometimes we go through dark periods in our lives where the misery feels never-ending. Trial hits, pain hits, and just when we think life might get “back to normal,” we are hit by yet another difficulty. At times … Continue reading →

Math: Maybe Not a Mystic Language After All In a world of metrics, it’s easy to become obsessed with statistics and start to quantify every aspect of our lives. Stats can even become a type of scorekeeping between churches or … Continue reading →

A Longsuffering God God is longsuffering, but sometimes we take this for granted. How often have we given into temptation, expecting to be obedient at a later date? Psalm 85 gives a testimony of God’s faithfulness in the past: “O … Continue reading →

Longing and Being The general sense of what worship “is” is widely known, but the specifics of what it means are a little vague. Aside from obedience (in other words, avoiding sin and following what God asks of us), there … Continue reading →

On a Mission “We’re on a mission from God.” Whenever the Blues Brothers delivered this line, they were met with a less-than-enthusiastic reception. While they had a different “mission” in mind, their famous line summarizes Paul’s ministry, and their reception … Continue reading →

Fear: The Fight Against It Fear is poisonous. When it drives our decisions, it will slowly destroy us—causing us to make moves that are against God’s will and detrimental to ourselves and others. The antidote to fear is complete reliance … Continue reading →

Motive Is Everything It’s not often that we take an honest look at our motivations. But it’s important to reevaluate them regularly. When our sight is not fixed on God, we might become entranced with goals that conflict with godliness. … Continue reading →

The Power of Words Gossip kills churches. And gossip is always painful, especially when disguised as concern. A request to “pray for so-and-so because of this thing they did” is not asking for prayer; it’s gossiping. If you know some … Continue reading →

From Concept to Caution to Cause Some things in the Bible are downright surprising, including several passages in Paul’s letters. Sometimes his words are so personal or they’re addressed to such a specific person our group, that it’s hard to … Continue reading →

Outline for Honor In most Western cultures today, we’ve lost our connection with the elderly. With one grandparent living halfway across the country and the others having died before I was born, I wasn’t around older people until I met … Continue reading →

A Higher Calling It’s easy to get self-absorbed when we’re criticized—or when we think others are criticizing us. Because of our real or imagined defects, we start to believe other people don’t take us seriously. It’s easy to get off … Continue reading →

Connecting Historical Dots Biblical lists can be annoying, but they’re also a testament to God’s faithfulness. It’s a true gift when someone in a faith community records the history of the group and their work—particularly when God has answered prayers. … Continue reading →

Dysfunctional Problem-Solving When I locate a problem, I often fixate on it. I think that if I analyze it enough, I can solve it. This is a problem when I come to difficult issues that require someone else’s expertise. Stubbornly, … Continue reading →

Small Starts In Paul’s qualifications for overseers, he mentions a necessary trait for anyone who wants to lead in a community: “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not … Continue reading →

A Sense of History When I was in sixth grade, my teacher assigned our class a family genealogy and history project. At first it was frustrating. It seemed like unnecessary work. But eventually I became obsessive over it as I … Continue reading →

Shipwrecked “I am setting before you this instruction, Timothy my child, in accordance with the prophecies spoken long ago about you, in order that by them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience, which some, … Continue reading →

The Bible in the Developed World In our developed world, we don’t consider famines very often. If there were a famine in our lands, we could navigate through it because of our importing infrastructure. This isn’t the case for the … Continue reading →

Being Good at What Matters Though prayer is important, it’s an area of our faith lives that we often neglect. But people of great faith in the Bible relied on prayer—and not just for difficult situations. From general direction to … Continue reading →

Old, Wise, and Desperately in Need of God Sometimes we expect that we’ll naturally grow in faith as we grow older. We tend to see elderly people as those who have been molded and shaped by life—rock-solid in their faith … Continue reading →