Explorations into theology, technology, leadership, and culture.
There is one simple rule to help you apply all Old Testament stories: let them help you fix your eyes on Jesus. Here’s what I mean: 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God […]
A book that has been one of the most influential to me in terms of understanding the difficult riddle of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer is free in audiobook format for the month of May. This book put together many pieces that had long concerned and […]
I was encouraged by this exhortation today: “Nehemiah once had what could be considered impossible task: rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  No sane feasibility committee would have given him the green light.  And yet when the task was operating under the Grace of God, what happened?  Neh. 4:6 says: “So we built the wall. And […]
Matt Perman’s new book has me re-examining my time and task management systems. I have seen some questions floating around about optimal OmniFocus setup, so I thought I’d share mine. I don’t know that it’s optimal, but perhaps this will be helpful, and if anyone has any insights to optimizing, that would be great!
If you read only one book this year*, it should be What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman. Yes I mean that. The aim of the book is “to reshape the way you think about productivity and then present a practical approach to help you become […]
Last weekend I gave two seminars at our church associations national conference. I mentioned the first one yesterday, which lays out a biblical view of work and vocation. The second one, posted here, was about our church’s philosophy and theology of worship gatherings. If you are interested in hearing these concepts expanded, we are hosting […]
Last weekend I gave a seminar at our church association’s annual national conference on “Work and Worship: How The Gospel Affects Our Work.” It was similar to my previous two messages, with a few nuances. Listen to it here. The manuscript follows.
(Illustration by L. Chylinski, CMI, Inc.) Across the street from Mere‘s office, the Ames Public Library is undergoing a massive renovation. Lasting an estimated 18 months, the building is being rehauled from the ground up to better serve the community. Costing around $20 million dollars, the project will more than double the space inside the […]
Malcom Gladwell, author of multiple best-selling books on the nature of success, marketing, and culture, released a new sure-thing bestseller that reframes the story of David and Goliath from the typical “Sunday school†understanding. He gave a TED talk explaining his premise (16 min video) He also spoke recently at the Catalyst Conference on the […]
(Sorry for the cheesy title.) Nancy and I keep a weekly date night. This has been a habit ever since the latter part of our dating (the first part was the inextricable puppy love where honestly, we spent too much time together and got in a lot of trouble). It is a weekly time to […]
Last week I mentioned that we ought not seek an allegorical or “moral of the story” from Old Testament passages that we can seek to apply to our life today. (“Dare to be a Daniel!”, “Find your ‘five smooth stones’ to face your ‘Goliath’”, etc). I mentioned that most of us evangelicals have been taught […]
When we are reading a passage from the Old Testament, how should we seek to apply it to our lives? How should we seek to encourage others to live? If “All Scripture is God-breathed and useful†(2 Timothy 3:16-17), what is the right way to use it? When you read a passage of the Old […]