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Yeah, me too.  All of us fall into the hypocrite category because we say one thing and do another. Scott Sauls has an excellent chapter in Jesus Outside the Lines on this topic.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the chapter: It reminds me that God's relentless grip on me, not my relentless grip on God, keeps me in his love. Shouldn't we evaluate Jesus on his own merits rather than the flaws of his followers? There is something incredibly attractive and inviting about people who stop pointing fingers and posing and pretending to be totally good and totally right, and instead start taking themselves less seriously and openly and freely admit that they are not yet what they should be. The Bible helps us see how: it is the loveliness of Jesus, and only the loveliness of Jesus, that can make hypocrites lovely. Humbled by our own hypocrisy and drawn to how the loveliness of Jesus can transform us, we must preoccupy ourselves less with trying to be l...

A few weeks ago, I finished Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges.  I loved most of the book.  I disagreed with Bridges view on suffering and adversity.  However, I would recommend the book to people because of his great explanation of grace through all of life. I have posted previously on the book so I have picked several quotes from the second half of the book. We are responsible to clothe ourselves with Christlike character, but we are dependent on God's Spirit to produce with us His "fruit." We cannot make one inch of progress in sanctification apart from the powerful working of the Spirit in us. Instead, we have developed another brand of legalism, a brand that is concerned, not with salvation, but with how we live the Christian life. I call this "evangelical legalism." They (fences) begin as a sincere effort to deal with real sin issues. But very often we begin to focus on the fence we've built instead of the sin it was designed to guard ag...

Here is my final post on Gospel by J.D. Greear.  I recommend you picking up this book.  The following quotes are from the final chapters of the book. The more we taste the gospel, the more we love it. And the more we learn to love the things of God, the more time we'll spend doing those things, less by discipline and more by desire. We enter into a self-reproducing cycle of life. We are sowing to the Spirit, and from the Spirit reaping life everlasting. The gospel isn't about work, after all; it's about resting in God's work on your behalf. When we grasp how much God has given to us in grace, and we see how great the needs of the world are, we will want to work for God. gospel-centered people offer themselves to God, joyfully, and then do whatever He directs them to do, knowing that only what He empowers them to do will do any real good.  We simply carry out orders; He provides the resources. the only thing that brings true spiritual g...

Our Wednesday night ministries begin again tonight after the Christmas Break.  Hesston MB seeks to provide opportunities for children and youth to grow in their relationships with God and with one another.  If you do not have a church and would like a good ministry for your 4 year olds through high school students, check us out.  Here are the details: Hide N Seek -4 year olds through 4th grade at Hesston MB Church (610 W. Randall) fuzion -5th/6th graders at Hesston Middle School (across from bus barn) LIFE- 7th/8th graders at Hesston Middle School gym Hesston Youth- High School students meet at Northlawn at Hesston College

Tullian Tchividjian closes his book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything with two great chapters, but I wanted to share some thoughts specifically from Chapter 11.  In this chapter, he challenges us not to just know this information, but live it.  I again recommend this book to all of you.  Here are my final quotes from this book: "It's one thing to affirm the gospel; it's something altogether different to experience its power where the rubber meets the road of life." "my passion, as a preacher and a pastor and a Christian, is to show others how the gospel of grace really speaks with practical hope into everything that fallen people will face in this broken world." "Paul doesn't pray that the Colossians will find something they don't have; rather he prays they'll grow in their awareness and understanding of what they already have." "Bad behavior happens when we fail to believe that everything we need, in Christ we already have; it...

Last night was Step Up Night at our church.  Step Up Night is when 4th, 6th, & 8th graders move up to the ministry they will be a part of next school year.  This night always includes excitement and apprehension.  Excitement because of it being new and apprehension because of the uncertainty and a different group to get to know.  Pizza, ice cream sundaes, and other goodies help to make it a night of fun. These promotion-like events started me thinking about adulthood.  Do we have opportunities in our spiritual growth to "step up" as adults?  We tend to get in a Sunday School class and then stick with it for the rest of our lives.  How do we know we are progressing in our faith?  Do we need this?  I appreciate Brian Haynes Legacy Milestones because it gives these "steps" from birth through adulthood.  We can be checking how we are doing by evaluating our life based on Milestone 7.  See his website here .  I also am excit...

This was one of my favorite posts of 2011 by Steven Furtick of Elevation Church.  You can visit his website  here . One of the things that really troubles me about the church today is the phenomenon of church hopping and church shopping . It’s a consumeristic mindset towards the body of Christ that grieves the heart of God. It’s time for us to stop the hop. This isn’t Christianity. Jesus didn’t die so we could sample different churches like varieties of meat on a party platter. Jesus died to establish His church as the most powerful entity on the planet. We are alive at the greatest time in history for the advance of the gospel. We have so much going for us. We have the ability. We have the resources. We have the people. What we don’t have is them committed to a place where they can actually be used for their God-ordained purpose. If this generation doesn’t make the impact it should, it won’t be because it didn’t have the resources. Or even the passion. I...