faith

Middle school students in Tennessee are experiencing an outpouring on campus following an unplanned worship service last Friday that resulted in students gathering in prayer, offering repentance and issuing professions of faith.

The more we seek to know Christ, the more we become like Christ. In fact, one practical way to know how fully we know Christ is to examine how fully we exhibit him to the world.

"For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'" (Is. 57:15-16).

In this amazing passage, it's clear that if we prepare the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, God will bring the fires of revival. It's a great reminder that His Word always comes to pass. As the lyrics in a popular contemporary worship song attest, "When all hope is gone, and Your Word is all I've got, I have to believe You still bring water from the rock" (Spirit Lead Me).

Disney star Joshua Bassett of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series was baptized at Bethel Church in Redding, California, on Sunday after recently declaring his faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus made all of that when he made you. What’s more, his omniscience and omnipotence are available to all who seek his wisdom and strength. This is because, unlike every other figure of history, the living Lord Jesus can be known personally by any who make him their Savior and Lord.

Buddhists do not claim that they can know the Buddha; Muslims do not claim to know Muhammad. But Jesus assured us, “I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). We can “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Paul’s life purpose was to “know him” (Philippians 3:10). Here’s the problem: we all too often settle for knowing about Jesus when we can know Jesus.

While history may highlight the big movements and leaders that made an outsized difference, the most important work was often done by those who remain anonymous to everyone but the Lord.

Last month, according to the Congolese military, a militant group attacked a Pentecostal church, killing at least 10 and wounding scores of others. Though incidents like this are hardly new, they rarely make the news. Many in the Western world simply don’t realize how prevalent Christianity and Christian persecution are outside of Europe and North America. Plus, the creeping influence of “the critical theory mood” leaves the impression that because Christianity has been so influential in Western history, Christians must always be villains and can never be victims.

This caricature of Christianity as a sort-of tribal faith of Westerners is flawed at the core.

Every day, you and I face a binary choice with eternal consequences: we can seek to be like God’s Son, or we can seek to be our own God. As fallen human beings, if we are not intentionally seeking the former, we are by default choosing the latter.

According to a Pew Research study, a small portion of parents believes it is important to pass their faith down to their children.

In our culture, religion is to be kept separate from public life. It is viewed as a personal hobby, nothing more. As such, it is to be given no more weight or warrant in public life than any other hobby. My purpose today is less to critique secular society for treating our faith like a hobby than it is to warn Christians that we must not follow suit.