Finding Your Way Again: Learning from King Josiah in the Bible
My wife and I were driving to a home we had never seen to help some friends who were preparing it for another family to move into. I typed the address into Google Maps, and we set off on the short trip. The voice told us to turn left, go straight, take another left, continue […]
The Purpose of Lent? An Invitation of Decrease and Increase
I never quite understood Ash Wednesday when I was younger. My home church never emphasized anything about Lent, or even Good Friday for that matter. In my experience growing up in church, winter was over, spring started springing, then it was time for Easter Sunday! That meant getting up before the crack of dawn, putting […]
A Surprising Spiritual Benefit of Fasting: Preparation for What’s to Come
We experience a major spiritual benefit of fasting even if God answers no to what we’re praying and fasting for. Through fasting, God prepares us for what’s to come. Fasting should be a journey. Perhaps the fasting journey starts out of obedience, or out of what “seems like a good idea,” or a mentor suggested […]
Why Our Church Decided to Pray About the Transgender Bill
December 9, 2024 *Editor’s Note: When, if ever, should a church take a public stance over local legislation? Recently, the leaders of Harpeth Christian Church in Franklin, TN (located just outside Nashville by the Harpeth River) had a tough decision to make. Would they stake a position regarding a Tennessee law banning gender-transition treatments for […]
What Prayer & Fasting Does for Us . . . and Beyond
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NIV) Who doesn’t want to be […]
Rewards in Heaven: Is It Okay to Give to Get from God?
Some things seem absolutely crazy—at first. Harvey is a play written by Mary Chase (also a movie starring Jimmy Stewart) about Elwood P. Dowd, a friendly man who has a strange problem: He really thinks he can see a six foot, three-and-a-half inch-tall rabbit named Harvey. To his family’s embarrassment, the friendly Elwood will introduce […]
Praying with a Megaphone: Adding Fasting to Prayer
Toward the end of my father’s life, he suffered a stroke and became aphasic, meaning he could no longer speak. Since he could not communicate, it was very difficult to know what he was thinking or what he needed. He would look at us often with a frustrated look on his face as if he […]
Fasting and Prayer: 2 Stories
Fasting and prayer are often combined in Scripture. Both Old Testament followers of God (Ezra 8:23; Nehemiah 1:4; Psalm 35:13; Daniel 9:3) and the New Testament church (Luke 2:37; Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23) combined prayer and fasting when fervently bringing a request to God. This article brings together two stories, one ancient and one contemporary, […]
