Blog (Page 22)
Day 2: Living by the Spirit
Galatians 5 is such good news to anybody who wants to know how to be with God. You don’t need to follow a bunch of steps. You don’t need to be circumcised. You don’t need to be perfect. None of that matters. Instead, all you need is faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross to set you free from sin. Granted, Paul immediately follows that statement up with a warning not to use your freedom to sin,…
Join Us on a 21 Day Bible Reading Plan
In yesterday’s message, we challenged everyone who calls Ashworth Road “home” to join us in reading the Bible together for the next 21 days. Our hope is that each of us wants to be more like Jesus at the end of 2015 than we are right now. And the only way for us to become more like Jesus is to spend time with him. Thoughtfully reading one select chapter of the Bible each day is one of the best ways to connect…
Do You Believe?
Years ago, a young girl wrote a letter to The New York Sun newspaper with one simple question; Is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to The Sun these words: “Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; Is there a Santa Claus” Many of us are familiar with the story. One of…
How to Find the Right Church
Coming out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s a wild time of the year for shoppers to find the best gifts for our families (and sometimes ourselves) at the best prices possible. We search the internet for deals at multiple stores and then run from location to location trying to gather the best of what is being offered by the retailers this year. Some of us love trying to find the best deals while others grow weary of this…
Thanksgiving Recipe Time
Does Thanksgiving stress you out? Do you find yourself searching for ideas and new recipes to refresh your Thanksgiving menu from last year? Relax…I know how you feel. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time with friends and family but we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to plan the best Thanksgiving menu for that special moment each year. We want it to be warm, filling, pleasing to the eye, and all together perfect! After all, it only comes once a…
Thanksgiving Fun Facts
How much do you know about Thanksgiving? I’ve put together a list of fun facts that you can share around the table to impress your friends and family with on Thanksgiving Day! Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they have been around for over 10 million years Until 1863, Thanksgiving Day has not been celebrated annually since the first feast in 1621. This changed in 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale encouraged Abraham Lincoln to set…
Staying Thankful During Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has become anything but thankful. It’s the holiday about food and not fighting with family and watching football and then shopping, shopping, shopping….getting ready for the bigger holiday where we eat more, attempt to keep the peace in our families for yet another holiday, and open the gifts that we’ve spent hours stressfully shopping for. Don’t let that be your Thanksgiving this year. I’m attempting a few small changes in my daily routine this November to keep gratitude and…
Fighting Against Hunger
At Ashworth Road, we have been partnering with organizations local, regionally, and around the world to help end hunger. This past October, one of our ministry partners, Manos Herman, had the opportunity to present at the Iowa Hunger Summit presented by the World Food Prize. They shared about an exciting new technology that can pull the nutrients from alfalfa and reduce it to powder. This powder can be put into food to give individuals the vital nutrients they need to…
9 to 5: Integrating Faith and Work
One of the more difficult things Christians should learn to do is how to effectively integrate their faith and their work. Since we spend so much time at our jobs, it would be such a waste to not try to find some way to effectively be a Christian at work. The problem many have in doing this is overcoming the misconceptions we have about what that is even supposed to look like. Should we have the largest Bible known to…
Sometimes We Just Need to Laugh (at Ourselves) – Bad Christian Stock Photos
Every now and then, you run across something on the internet that is just too good not to share. Fortunately for me today, our Team Pastor Ryan Lenerz had this little gem waiting for me when I returned from lunch today. I love to laugh and a good belly laugh is even better. And this site had me rolling, almost in tears. As someone who is a Christian that often looks for stock photos and graphics to use for websites,…
It’s Cool Being a Dad
In a day when dads are made to look stupid and foolish on television and in media, it is refreshing to find an advertisement that shows dads in a positive light. Check out this great video all about #HowToDad.
Making and Keeping the Right Friends
Most of us have friends we like and friends we don’t (and I’m not even talking about social media). Wait – friends we don’t like? Yup. In fact, this phenomena is so common, it has a name – “Frenemies.” These are the people who are your friends by association, who you actually don’t like because they do things behind closed doors that only your enemy would do to you. So the question is, why would you keep a friend who…