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Studies show that 85% of all Christians sever relationships with outsiders after a year and a half. Somehow, we have bought into the lie that to follow Jesus, we have to sever relationships. But nowhere in the Bible does it say for us to sever relationships with those who need God. As Christians, many times it’s easier to sever relationships with people from our past. Investing in relationships wi...

God wants to grow our faith. He wants to grow our faith as individuals. God knows that the way we most please Him is by having a big faith (Hebrews 11:6). When we have a big faith in a Big God, God will do start to do big things with us and through us—just like He did in the story of Barnabas. But God also wants us to grow our faith as a church. When a church has unity and generosity, synergy happ...

“I’m not smart enough.” “I don’t know the Bible that well.” “I have a checkered past.” All of us make excuses why God could not use us. But the story throughout the Bible is that God will use anyone and everyone who is connected to Him.

How people respond to what we communicate depends a lot on how we communicate. Approach matters. We can say the right things and have the wrong approach, and people will ignore the message. Our goal is to present Scripture in a way that is so helpful and compelling that the audience leaves wanting to engage the scriptures more, and try it out in their lives.

Most people don't have a problem with God. After all, plenty of people show up for church on Christmas and Easter. But unfortunately people do have a problem with the church. Over the centuries Christians have made Christianity so complex that people simply write it off as irrelevant and confusing.

We are very good at calling ourselves names...the things that we have heard from others in the past, our past failures, and our general discontent with our own performance or place in life creates a negative self talk that is hard to bear AND that ultimately damages us in ways that God never intended. The old childhood adage, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" doesn...

Sometimes what holds us back from our past is our own failures in life. Whether it’s something we’ve done that was bad, something we should have done but didn’t, or just not living up to the standards placed upon us—our failures can feel final if we let them. By looking at the life of Paul the Apostle, we will see that everyone has a past full of failures. But our failures don’t have to define us...

Sometimes what holds us back from our past is what we have done to someone else that is unresolved or unaddressed. We can feel guilty or ashamed, or there can be tension and hostility that is holding us back. Jesus says that His followers are people who take the initiative to go and make things right with others when we have wronged them. We need to be people who apologize without making excuses,...

We all wear labels. Many of the labels we wear were placed on us by others—parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches, or coworkers. But what if we’re carrying around the wrong labels? Who has the right to label you? Who are you going to allow to label you? Who knows best how to label you? Labels create expectations, and expectations influence the direction of our lives.

Today, we associate Rome with the Catholic Church, but if you could go back in time and tell 1st century Christians living in Rome that their city would one day be full of ornate crosses celebrating Jesus, they wouldn’t believe you. They lived in an environment hostile to their faith. People around them considered them members of a strange cult. They faced intense persecution. The emperor Nero fal...

Ask ten different people and you’ll probably get ten different answers: someone who goes to church every Sunday; someone who was born into a Christian family; someone who believes Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead three days later; someone who celebrates Christmas and Easter; someone who doesn’t drink, smoke, or use profanity. Others take a darker view. They’d say Christians are judgmenta...

xcuses. We all have them. “It’s not the right time.” “My family wouldn’t understand.” “When my children get bigger, I’ll then I will get involved.” “When I get out of debt, I’ll start giving.” But when we give excuses, we are saying yes to a lesser life and no to the bigger life Jesus wants us to live. So what areas in your life are you giving excuses to God?

I believe there is something—Someone—inside us who tells us there is more to life than sitting in the boat. You were made for something more than merely avoiding failure. There is something inside you that wants to walk on the water—to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon yourself to the high adventure of following God. If you want to walk on the water, you've got to get out of the b...

Who has had the most influence in your life? A parent? A coach? A friend at work? A spouse? If you are like most people, you can’t tell your life story without referencing people who played significant roles along the way. The same is true of your faith story. There are all kinds of people that play a part in our lives, in our stories. And some of these people have played a part in how you see God...

When people talk about their spiritual journeys, a typical comment from them revolves around their initial exposure to someone who taught the Bible in a practical, life-impacting way. “For the first time,” they'll frequently say, “I understood what the Bible means, and I understood what I was supposed to do.” They began to actually apply Scripture to their lives—to their families, finances, work,...

The Bible, quiet times spent with God, prayer—these are things we need when we embark on a relationship with God. We desire to connect with God, but there are so many things that get in the way or discourage us. Our schedules are jam‐packed and it seems impossible to squeeze God in. Everywhere we turn, there is someone vying for our attention or needing something. But, what trips us up the most is...

Your faith in God matters to God. In fact, God is most honored through your living, active, death-defying, out-of-the-box faith. That being the case, He’s committed to growing it. Big. Imagine how differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and was planning to leverage it for good. But in order for all of tha...

Most of us want to be generous. We want to give to God. We want to help meet other people’s needs. We have good intentions. But fear keeps us from actually turning our intentions into actions. Fear of what might happen. Fear of what might break and need repair. Fear that we won’t be able to pay the bills. We allow our fear—not our faith—to dictate what we do. But when we give, we are actually givi...

Sticky notes are one of man’s greatest inventions. They allow us to capture thoughts and jot down important details. On a 3-inch by 3-inch yellow sheet of paper, you have a convenient, tangible, visible reminder of what needs to get done. But one of the sticky notes’ greatest functions is their ability to remind us of things that slip our minds. The heart behind this study is to remind ourselves o...

Physical affairs are rarely a sexual problem. Affairs come about because of the absence of communication and romance. The communication and romance have been slowly eliminated over time from the relationship, and your love life is as dry as kindling. So when an innocent spark happens with someone of the opposite sex, the forbidden flame of infatuation can burn down a family and a future. There are...

So many of us struggle in marriage as a result of ineffective communication. We muddle through misunderstandings and assumptions with our spouse and often fail to resolve conflicts in healthy ways. With these questions, we will bring clarity to the confusion of marital communication. Chris presents some strategies will help us better love and communicate with our spouse.

All families fight. We just fight about and for different things, and we fight in different ways. Some families are very vocal; others quietly stuff their frustrations inside. But regardless of how families fight, every family decides what they are going to fight over. Fighting about rules and issues will always drive us apart, but there is another way. What if we began to fight for the relationsh...

“Help me God!” How often have you said these words? Our prayers take on a completely new dimension when we’re experiencing hardships or difficulties. And there’s nothing wrong with that; God invites us to call out to Him and ask Him for help. But if we’re only involving Him when things go bad, we’re using Him like a vending machine. He becomes a last resort—a last priority—receiving only the lefto...