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Prepare your heart for Easter and draw closer to our Savior with the new series of FREE Easter devotionals you can receive throughout this joyous season! These free Easter devotionals will be delivered via email to help yougain a greater understanding of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

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More than a simple retelling of the Easter story, this Easter devotional eBook will walk your through the Gospel accounts on the life of Jesus, and the difficult road he walked during the final weeks before his crucifixion.

Gain immediate access to our new FREE eBook,10 Answers to your Questions about Heavenby Billy Graham. This resource is full of deep, insightful, and Biblical answers to the most common questions asked about Heaven written by one of Christianitys most beloved evangelists, Billy Graham!

Gods Word says Heaven awaits all the saints of His kingdom, but how many of us really know what Heaven will be like?

Billy Graham answers your most common questions about heaven, such as:

• What is Heaven?
• What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do with Heaven?
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Get thefree downloadof THE PROMISE OF CHRISTMAS IS JESUS by Jack Countryman the entire 80-page devotional eBook!This one-of-a-kind Christmas booklet will take readers on a voyage as they explore Gods promises for Christmasfrom Genesis throughout eternitythat the Savior, Jesus, would come and that He will be with us forever.

More than a simple retelling of the Christmas story, this Advent devotional reveals the broad and miraculous scope of Christs birth in a manger.

 

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about material possessions recently. In the Bible there’s a spectrum of wealth that ranges from the destitute (think the prophet out in the wilderness) to the opulent (think the kings). Both find favor in God, yet they live in vastly different economic conditions.

There do seem to be certain guidelines for giving that we have in our churches. But beyond that, what are we to do with our money? Should we give everything beyond our basic necessities to the church or charity (credit michele here)? Or is there room in a Biblical view of money for buying something outside of what we need to survive?

Share your thoughts!

With tax day right around the corner, it’s not surprising that finances—and in particular, tithing—is on people’s minds. Out of Ur is talking about this important, but often awkward to discuss, topic. In particular, they wonder if the notion of the traditional Christian tithe is due to be re-thought. The discussion springs from a CNN report that suggests that tithing is seen as increasingly optional in many churches:

There are a lot of different, related questions lurking beneath the simple “Is tithing mandatory for Christians?” The Bible clearly and repeatedly stresses the importance of generosity—but what does that mean in practical terms? Here are a few questions to mull over as you consider the issue of tithing:

Do you think the 10%-of-your-income tithing ratio is mandated by Scripture? If not, is there another formula mandated?

Should we consider outside-of-church giving to be separate from our tithe to church, or are they all part of the Biblical tithe?

Have you ever been torn between tithing to church and giving to other worthy, but non-church, causes?

How seriously does your church take tithing? If you went a month without giving anything to church, would your church take notice (by humphries at dress head)? Would they leave that entirely to your own discretion, treat it as a matter of church discipline, or something in between?

What formula or style of giving feels most appropriate and Biblical to you?

That’s a lot of questions, and I’d like to unpack some of them in future posts. But for now, watch the CNN video above and stop by Out of Ur to follow the discussion there.

The pastor at my church has been carving out a few minutes at the end of his sermons for the past few weeks in order to walk us through meditating on a specific parable from the Bible. He slowly reads and rereads the passage out loud and walks us through a process of deeply reflecting on the individual components of the story. It’s a new practice for much of the congregation, and one that many are finding extremely spiritually enriching.

Have you ever purposefully meditated on a part of scripture? If so, what verses or passages have you found to be good for meditation?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

Over at The Gospel Coalition, Ben Stevens has written a thoroughly practical guide on getting to know your neighbors. His point—and it’s a good one—is that you must get to know your neighbors before you can love them as Jesus has called us to do:

You cannot love your neighbor if you do not know that neighbor. Time spent with neighbors that does not result in conversions, does not result in spiritual conversation, or does not result in any greater appreciation of the work of Christ, is not a net loss. Let us be resolved to undertake this kind of work confident that it is a legitimate end unto itself, that our culture deserves our attention, and that God will call us to account for the time spent serving neighbors.

[…]

I would like to make a radical suggestion. The suggestion is not that knowing the neighbors should be important to Christians. The radical thesis I would like to present is: actually get it on your calendar for next month, and make that a habit.

Head over to the Gospel Coalition to read the rest of the post, including six steps to take to make the gathering successful.

How have you successfully reached out to your neighbors? Is there anything from Ben’s post that you’d like to try?

I’ve always appreciated pastors who are willing to share their struggles and foibles with the congregation. By modeling humility they create an ethos of openness in the congregation.

What about you? What traits have you admired in your pastors?

Share your thoughts!

Are you considering a charitable donation to help relief and recovery efforts in Japan? Good for you—but while you do so, take a few minutes to think about where your donation will do the most good. That’s the message from the Givewell Blog, which cautions donors to be careful about donating to just any charity that calls for donations for disaster relief in Japan.

It’s not that other charities are necessarily frauds or that your money won’t do any good. But as the blog post lays out, the specific needs of post-tsunami Japan are quite different than those of (for example) post-earthquake Haiti. In Japan, for instance, money may be a less pressing need than specialized relief teams.

The Givewell blog recommends Doctors Without Borders and the Japanese Red Cross as worthwhile causes. You might agree or disagree with those recommendations; but their reasoning seems pretty compelling. Perhaps you know of (and may have donated to) other organizations working in Japan. What charities would you recommend for somebody looking to help? When disaster strikes and you want to donate, do you give to the same organization each time, or do you tailor your donations specifically to the immediate need?

Up here in Michigan, the sun is finally starting to appear with a modicum of regularity. We’re sure to get hit with another snowfall—three years of living here has tempered my weather-based optimism—but until then, I plan to enjoy seeing all the friendly, happy faces out on the streets.

With Spring on people’s minds, I think it’s a good time to ask a simple question: what’s your favorite part of God’s Creation? Is it trees? Mountains? Lakes? Or something else?

Share your thoughts in the comments!