Practical Faith

The center for religious life has always been the home.  Unfortunately, many Christians believe it is God’s purpose that the Church function as the main formative influence in the spiritual development of the family.  But nothing in God’s plan [not even the Church] was ever intended to replace the home as bearing primary responsibility for imparting Christian values and insuring Godly nourishment...

1/6th of the American population attends public school.  If God is calling you to missions in America, there is a 15.7% chance that He may be calling you to teach (and maybe coach?) at a public school near you.

Nick discusses the influence and impact of Richard Stephens, a man who lived faithfully and led with Christ-centered integrity for 50 years in the automobile industry.

Dianna Cash provides some simple instructions on how to practice listening prayer in your daily time alone with God.

Special guest, Dianna Cash, shares about learning how to listen to God in prayer.

Last time on “Practical Faith”, I discussed the hardships of life in community, and this time, I want to talk about the tremendous beauty and joy and growth that only life in community can produce.

Community life is hard.   Life is easier and less complicated when we are insulated from community.  Community life means we all share in the hardships and difficulties of our common community life, together.  And it’s hard!  But it is also more beautiful and valuable than we could have ever imagined before we experienced it..

Philippians 2:12 is an interesting Bible verse.  It says, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.  Today, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into the meaning of this verse and how it applies to our everyday lives as followers of Jesus.

Spiritual formation is not just an individual pursuit, but it is something we do together.  You are not just an assistant in my journey, and I in yours.  We are co-journeyers – we are traveling companions as fellow followers of Jesus!

The message of the Bible about the Christian life is that it is OURS more than it is just "mine" and "yours."  Our spiritual formation, our journey of discipleship.  Together.   The reality that the Bible is more addressed to “you all” than to the individual “you” will forever change the way I view “my” spiritual growth versus “yours."

In the past, I have mistakenly viewed discipleship as a primarily individual pursuit.  Until now.  The writers of the New Testament emphasized the communal nature of spiritual formation: most of Paul’s references to “you” in his writings were not to an individual or singular “you”, but to the corporate and plural form of “you."

I wonder: how many precious and wonderful moments have I missed out on personally experiencing because I was too busy “sharing” them for the world to see?  Instead of being a fully-engaged participant in the moment itself, I’m merely an observer of the experience... But every so often (or maybe even more frequently) there are things that God wants us to cherish as a sacred and special moment in ou...

Jesus taught His disciples to keep prayer simple.  In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus makes three statements about prayer.  We discussed the first of those 2 statements on the previous episode...  Today, I want focus in on the 3rd statement, which is: “Knock and the door will be opened to you… to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Prayer is simple - or at least it should be simple.  God made it to be simple; we tend to make it overly complex.  There are no magic words for prayer.  There is no secret formula to prayer.  Just talk; just listen.  Just like you would in any other conversation.  Jesus gives us a simple understanding for prayer in Matthew 7:7-8...

When your inner self-speech is filled with accusation and condemnation, it is caustic and corrosive to your soul.  Instead, let God’s Spirit dictate your inner monologue.  His thoughts about you are life-giving, life-strengthening, life-expanding!

Guilt and shame are not from your heavenly Father.  Neither are condemnation or accusation.  But sadly, these are the common feelings in the life of a disciple struggling to live and love like Jesus.  But they are not from God...

As we become more like Christ, we don’t just dissolve into carbon copies of Him...  In Him, we become more fully and completely and perfectly ourselves that He intended us to be – individually, specifically, reflecting the character of Jesus in the unique lives He has given us.

Here are 6 practical strategies for safe-guarding your marriage against developing any kind of extra-marital romance...

God’s best for us is not that we see how perilously close we can get to sin - without technically sinning.  Our goal should not be to remain just technically pure.  The question should be, “How close to Jesus can I be?” And this goes for every issue in life, not just a dating relationship...

The Holy Spirit of God gives life first to our BEING, and then to our DOING.  I think this can be one of the most challenging and difficult aspects of Christian living.  It’s not that our spiritual activities don’t matter.  What we do as Christians is quite important.  The point is this, though: what we do is secondary to WHO WE ARE.  Our identity as God’s beloved, redeemed, adopted children - int...

We’ve spent several episodes talking about Bible memorization – the importance of it, how our brains are wired for memorization, tips for how to actually memorize Scripture.  Today, I want to talk about the WHY, and I want to let God’s Word speak for itself as to why it is so vital to memorize it...

The human mind has an incredible capacity for memory.  We remember song lyrics, birthdays, phone numbers, cooking recipes, faces, names, TV show theme songs, movie quotes – it goes on and on – and we want to leverage that same ability to memorize God’s Word. 

Today’s episode of Practical Faith is directed toward couples, whether married, engaged, or dating.  I want to share with you a simple plan for daily devotions together with your spouse, fiancé, or gf/bf.

I met with a lot of frustrations in my spiritual journey in that first year after I fully committed my life to Christ.  But then I began to experience extraordinary life change and tremendous spiritual growth once I started memorizing Scripture. Jesus teaches us in the story from Matthew 12 that when you remove the bad from your life, you have to put good right there in its place, or else the bad...

Memorizing Scripture is one of the very best things we can do for our spiritual health and growth.  But – it can be intimidating!  I have good news for you though: I bet you already know more Scripture than you think you do!  The fact is, we all memorize tons of information all the time!  We all have a LOT more committed to memory than we realize...