All resources in the category "Discipleship and lifestyle"

From about age 9 until my early teen years I remember looking forward to camping in the woods of New England with my church's youth group. We would pack our provisions and drive several hours to set up our camp with the basics - shelter, food, and fire. We learned essential wilderness survival skills, knots, safe food storage, and water purification. The older ones taught the younger ones, and everyone learned and grew together. We were far from the comforts of running water, furnaces, air conditioning, and home cooking. We were in the wilderness.

Yet all of us knew...

In our day, some parts of the church are experiencing a resurgence of interest in the book of the Song of Solomon. Instead of bearing the stigma of an obscure book about love and marriage from the Old Testament, the book is increasingly being understood as an allegory between Jesus and His bride. Though this was probably not the primary reason for its inclusion in the canon of Scripture, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is evidently seen in its resurgence as it undergirds the New Testament truths of Jesus as a bridegroom and His body as His bride (...

I am becoming more and more aware of how much "Christian-ese" fills our conversation, song, and writing. We have held phrases in our rhetoric for so long that they have lost virtually all of their meaning - sometimes in writing, but especially when spoken or sung. Modern Christian conversation is becoming at best only peppered with phrases from the Bible rather than being saturated with the precious words of Jesus, the wisdom of the psalmists, or the warnings of the prophets. When Biblical phrases are used, they are often oriented around man and his need, rather than God and His glory...

Growing in the knowledge of God and in passion for Jesus is not mysterious, though for many believers the process remains vague, ambiguous, and ethereal. If the full disclosure of God is seen in the person of Jesus, the most natural way to grow in the knowledge of God is to look at the life of Jesus.

The four gospels give every Christian entrance into His life, which is the foundational substance of our relationship and intimacy with Him. Jesus is not an object to acquire information about, but rather a Person to be known.

In this teaching, Josh discusses the necessity...