The season is framed by prayer, fasting, and benevolence—each an invitation to grow closer to the heart of God. Through prayer, we seek guidance and communion with God. Fasting reminds us of our need for spiritual nourishment and the power of self-discipline. Benevolence calls us to serve others, reflecting the love Christ showed through His sacrifice. To get the most out of this season, we put together a few resources below that may help guide your journey.

Devotionals & Books

An Unhurried Lent: This 40-day series of emails will help you cultivate an unhurried heart as you prepare for Easter.

Lent for Everyone: This inspirational series of devotionals from N.T. Wright guides readers through the Lenten season, offering prayers and reflections for each day.

Gospel in Life – A Journey Thought Lent: A free 40-day devotional emailed to you daily during this upcoming season of Lent.

Lent and Easter Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen: These daily reflections, compiled by Judy Bauer, lead readers along a journey of both penance and celebration through the season of Lent.

Small Surrenders: Author Emilie Griffin offers readers daily devotionals using ancient and modern texts as inspiration in order to gain a deeper knowledge of ourselves and God.

Apps & Other Digital Resources

Lectio365: Each week through Lent, this app will offer prayer experiences focusing on the wilderness experience of a person or community, noticing how God met with them, shaped them and provided for them in the dry and desolate landscapes of their lives.

Bible Project: A Journey Through Luke & Acts inspires individuals, small groups, and families to read through the books of Luke and Acts in 40 days. This plan incorporates animated videos and insightful summaries to help participants encounter Jesus and engage with Luke’s brilliant literary design and flow of thought.

She Reads Truth: This digital community and app invites women of all ages to engage with Scripture. Check out some of their Lenten resources here!

Lent Spotify Playlist: These 40 songs were chosen (by Liz Pavey!) in hopes to capture the quietness, beauty, and reflection present in the season of Lent.

A lot is written across the internet telling people that God gives us all a second chance, but what about the person who has given up on God?  There is a scarcity of information trying to persuade a person to Give God a Second Chance.  Now think about that, trillions of articles and pages on the internet, and I couldn’t find more than a page or two arguing for why God is worth a second shot. It baffles me because nearly everyone in America knows somebody who is done with God, but NOBODY is talking about why, perhaps, God deserves a second chance from us.

In our previous blog post, Pastor Brent took us to one of Jesus’ most famous parables, the story of the prodigal son, and he unpacked 5 of the most common and understandable reasons people give up on God. Let’s take a look at the 5 reasons he listed:

1. We choose to walk away
2. Circumstances happen to us
3. We become religious
4. Bad Theology
5. Bad Christians

That’s a really quick overview, and if you missed the post, I encourage you to go check it out.  Brent concluded by asking each of us to evaluate if the reason we walked away from God was actually God’s fault – was he to blame, or something or somebody else?

Today, I want to pick up where Brent left off.  Brent wrote about us.  He wrote about why we gave up on God. And today, I want to look at things from God’s perspective.  What is it that God has done or offers to us that should maybe make us consider giving him a second chance.  If he’s not the one who should be taking all the blame for our busy schedules, our tragic experience, our unfair expectations, or our lousy church experience, then maybe, just maybe, he deserves s moment of your time to look at why God is not the one we should be running FROM but the one we should be running TO.

Why God Deserves a Second Chance

He Gives Purpose

Now in saying this, I understand many people who have walked away from God would take offense at that.  They would say they have purpose.  Very few people are living a life without any purpose at all.

The problem is, without God guiding our purpose, we as humans can very easily serve a purpose below what God intended when he created us.  Without God guiding us, we can find our entire lives are centered on ourselves, our comfort, our status, our kids – completely self-centered.  Only when we walk in step with the God of the universe will we take on a perspective bigger than ourselves.  That’s essentially what the Apostle Paul was teaching when he said:

Ephesians 2:10 – For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God created us and gave us each assignments, work he decided he wanted us to do for him long ago.  And that is now our purpose.  We don’t live to build our best life now.  We live to build God’s Kingdom here on earth.  And it’s in building that Kingdom that we actually come closest to God’s original decree to humans.

Going all the way back to the first chapter of the Bible, immediately after God created Adam and Eve, he told them their purpose:

Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

God created us and then he told us to fill the earth and subdue it.  Create, build, tend, care for, multiply, enjoy HIS CREATION AND HIM.  That’s ultimately our purpose.

Here’s the truth, without God establishing our guiding principles, our boundaries for what we are to live for, we the human race find all sorts of less meaningful things to live for.   And without God, we can’t judge anybody else’s purpose as wrong or less.

• That’s how we get white supremacists working to eradicate blacks.
• And how we get a dictator in North Korea working tirelessly to bomb America.
• And all sorts of people here in Des Moines working countless hours to pay for fancy cars or lavish lifestyles – completely consumed by and suffocating in their greed.

And without recognizing that we actually need God to establish our purpose and identify what we should be working towards, all sorts of  people do all sorts of things that are harmful to others and themselves, making a mess of their lives.

It reminds me of the closing verse in the book of Judges, the low point of Israel’s history.  It says: “And everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

He Offers Forgiveness

What I find fascinating is in Brent’s message last week, several of his reasons people give up on God are because of feeling that somehow he has wronged us.  He caused our suffering.  Or he didn’t help when I lost my job.  He didn’t answer my prayer for healing.  And we feel like God owes us an apology.  That we need him to answer for his actions.

But the truth is, we have it all backwards.  God doesn’t need US to forgive HIM and give him a second chance.  We need God to forgive us.  God has never sinned against us.  He has never been the cause of our pain, he has never abandoned us, or gossipped about us, or failed to do what he promised.  We have failed to truly know him, to know what his promises are, to know the evil our sin causes us and others.  But that’s not reason for God to seek our forgiveness – it is reason for us to seek His.  We have wronged God, and many times we don’t even know it.

Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

That’s the truth.  We are at fault.  And those who have turned away from God would be well served to humbly tell God, “God, I’m mad at you.  Show me the truth.  Teach me your ways. “

And praise be to God, he knows that, and even before we ever asked, he sent his son to the cross to die for our sins.  While we were still his enemy, while we were fighting against him, not following his purpose for our lives, he was doing the work to show that he forgives us.

1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we finally stop blaming God and thinking he owes us an apology and realize we owe him one, and we confess our sins to him, he stands ready to forgive us our sins and to wash us clean.

That’s exactly what every religion is seeking to accomplish.  This is the very purpose of the world’s religions – to offer a way for humans to atone for our sin or to reach a place of perfection, outside of our failure mistakes.  The difference between Christianity and the rest of the world’s religions are that in this faith based on Jesus Christ, forgiveness is freely given by God, and not earned by our good works.  Yes, we do good works in response to God’s goodness, but no amount of good works ever makes us clean.

He is Our Hope

The third reason God deserves a second chance is that he IS our Hope.  Some people have given up on God because they look at their suffering, the death of a child, the evil in the world, and they say “There is no God.” Or maybe they feel like God must not care at all.  And so they walk away.  But I contend, in those dark times, if you walk away from God, what else are you putting your hope in?  Or have you completely abandoned all hope for the future.

Jesus’ disciples faced a similar situation once when Jesus was teaching some difficult things that people didn’t understand.  In the same way our failure to understand suffering causes us to walk away from Jesus – this teaching was causing everyone to walk too.  And as the crowds were leaving him we read this:

John 6:66-68 – From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Do you see in this statement how Peter recognizes that while Jesus teaching is challenging, he has no other options.  He may not love the teaching, he may not understand it, but he does understand this – “Jesus is the ONLY HOPE he has for eternal life.”

After walking away from God, we might try to put our hope into things apart from Jesus – we might put our hope in our income, or in our spouse, or in our reputation, or into addictive behavior that makes us feel better like shopping or drinking.  But do we really think any of these things are worth building the foundation of our life on? Or are they just fleeting diversions?  I think David got it right when he penned Psalm 39:

Psalm 39:6-7 – We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.

God has promised never to leave us or abandon us.  He has promised to cleanse us when we confess our sin.  He has promised to give us his inheritance one day as we live in the Kingdom where all our sickness is healed, where all are loved ones who love Jesus will be, where there is no pain, no evil, no suffering, and no reason to blame God for failing us.  At that time we will see in completion his Goodness.  And it is in that perfect future and God’s grace and mercy to get us there where we must put our hope.  Compared to that, nothing else even comes close!

He is Faithful

Putting our hope in God is meaningless if he is known for letting people down.  But we read in Hebrews:

Hebrews 10:23 – Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

This is the God who promised 70 year old, childless Abraham that he would have descendants that outnumbered the sand on the ground.  And at 100 years old, God gave him a son, born to his 90 year old, baren wife.  Now that’s being faithful to a promise.

This is the God who promised to give the Israelites the land of Canaan.  And then he toppled the walls of Jericho from just the sound of trumpets, he defeated an army of tens of thousands through the obedience of just 300 men with torches, he defeated a giant through the trust of a boy named David, and he proved to be faithful as the Israelites took over the entire land God promised to them.

This is the God who fulfills not a few prophecies about the coming Messiah, but dozens of prophecies are fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection.  Throughout the Old Testament, God was making dozens of promises about the coming Messiah, and he was faithful to fulfill them all!

And the best part of God’s faithfulness is that it doesn’t depend on us.

2 Timothy 2:13 –  If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

Abraham tried to have a child through his servant. The Israelites often disobeyed God’s commands.  Herod did all he could to try and kill baby Jesus.  And through it all, God remained faithful to his promises.

And he remains faithful to his promise to you too.  Even though you’ve tried God out before, you’ve walked away, you’ve been unfaithful, you’ve given up, that doesn’t mean HE has given up on YOU.

Will You Consider Giving God a Second Chance?

When we really examine the reasons we give up on God, while we may not love to admit it, none of our reasons are God’s fault.  In various ways, his goodness, his perfect creation, and the purpose he gave to us has been tarnished.  And in our failure to see the root cause behind why we walked away – we unfairly blame God.  But I hope that in reading this, I have given you some very real and tangible reasons to consider giving God a second chance.  I mean that – are you willing to say to God today, “I need you God.  I need the purpose you offer. I need your forgiveness.  I need the Hope found in you.”

Just like a father whose heart breaks if his kid walk away from him, God’s heart breaks for every person who has walked away.  And he yearns for a second chance.  He pursues you and He hopes that you might look and see that he is good and faithful, and worthy of being your Father.  He loves you more than you can even comprehend.  And it’s the Love of God which is truly the #1 reason he deserves a second chance.  And that is where this series will continue next week as Pastor Brent concludes his teaching on the Parable of the Prodigal Son – looking at the amazing love of the Father.  So make sure to come back next week to read our following article about why God wants to give YOU a second chance.

But before we can consider any other questions, we have to start at what I believe is the fundamental question, the question that all the other questions are built on. Why did I give up on God?

I have to admit one of my glaring character flaws. There are many flaws I could pick from but one that always seems to jump out at me is my amazing ability to jump to a conclusion.  I can make a snap judgment even when I know better. It is common on my house for my wife to come to me to start telling me about her day. Usually I hear about things the kids have done. Often there is a story of how one of the kids misbehaved or acted up in some way. Before she can get the full story out I am ready to act. I am ready to discipline the child who has been difficult. Usually this ends with my wife telling me she has already taken care of it and there is nothing left for me to do.

Has that ever happened to you? I can almost guarantee if you are married this has happened to you. You have jumped to a conclusion prematurely only later to find out your conclusion was wrong. When that happens in marriage though, if you are committed to the marriage and don’t see divorce as an option, you do what you can to work through the issue. In a dating relationship, though, if the issue is damaging enough, you might use the conflict as a reason to walk away.

I believe this is what happens in our relationship with God. Maybe you came to faith as a child and in childhood, it was great. But as you grew older, the rules that seem to come with religion seemed to be stifling. In high school, you saw your friends doing things that you wanted to do but “faith” kept you out of. In college, the stories of the Bible started getting picked apart and you began to see a huge rift between science and the Bible. And there were questions raised you couldn’t answer and gaps that seemed to be uncrossable.

Or maybe life just dealt you a bad hand. You’ve personally experienced trauma. You watched or are even now watching someone close to you suffer. And even though you have done your best to live a good life, you can’t make sense of why this has happened to you and it has caused you to doubt God.  You doubt his goodness. And maybe you even begin to doubt his existence.

And what you‘ve found is that as you have grown up, what led you to faith as a child no longer seems valid. And we are faced with the question: what happens when the reason we came to faith is no longer good enough to keep us there? What happens is we slowly begin to give up on God.

Doubt Your Doubts

If this describes you and you have walked away from God, or if you are still trying to stay with God, but are really struggling, I would ask you if you are willing to question the reason you walked away in the first place. Was it really a good enough reason to walk away from faith? Was God truly the one to blame? Or could it be that God got the blame when there was really more at work than we want to admit or realize?

A Story of Giving Up

In the New Testament, we find a parable that Jesus told that gives us insight on reasons we might give up on God. In Luke 15, Jesus is giving his time and attention to those who needed him most, those who society had written off: the sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes.

In fact, there were a lot of “undesirables” attracted to him. One of the main criticisms against him was that “[Jesus] welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2 NIV) To the religious people, this was seen as unacceptable. In a religious system that was incredibly concerned with staying pure and clean, associating with these type of people made Jesus unclean by association.

Jesus then begins teaching by using three parables about lost items: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. All three stories are tied together, but the last one shows us two individuals who gave up on their Father. Read Luke 15:11-32 here.

Reasons We Give Up on God

Reason 1: Giving Up By Choice

This is such a powerful story. It highlights for us the reason Jesus came to the earth. In this story we see that God himself came to earth to pursue those who were far from him offering forgiveness and love to those who will seek him and repent. But in it we also see why people might walk away from God. We first see this in the younger son at the beginning of the story.

The younger son looked at life and his current situation and thought, “You know what, the grass is greener over there so I am going over there. Sitting at home, working for dad, living under dad’s roof with dad’s rules, that’s not what I really want to do!” Before we become too critical of him though, we need to consider, have you been there before? I have a daughter there right now. We try to be sensitive to her as a twenty year old who has lived on her own for two years overseas, but there’s still difficulty.

What’s so amazing about this is that the younger son didn’t just pack his bags and leave. He goes to his dad and says, “I want what’s coming to me when you die. In fact, I want it right now.” As the younger son, he was entitled to 1/3 of the father’s estate. The older brother would get the other 2/3. By requesting his portion before his father’s death, this son is saying to the father, “I wish you were dead so I could have your money.” In this culture and time, it would have been perfectly acceptable for the father to respond negatively, to refuse the son’s request and even kick him out for requesting such a thing.

Such a request was at great personal risk to the father not to mention the emotional toil it would have had to hear you child say they wish you were dead. But the Father did it. And let’s not think the father was naive. He didn’t think that this son was going to go and start a new business to improve his financial situation. He knew the son. He knew this was going to be blown on “wild living.” But he gave the son his inheritance and allowed the son to leave.

What looks like the good life to the younger son was way more appealing than staying with the father. That is the trap many of us have fallen into. We think about Jesus and church and Christianity, and the furthest thought in our minds is “fun.” Entertainment, partying, success, the American dream, career, and kids’ activities can all have a greater appeal to us than a life of faith. This is the walking away from God that is solely our choice. On the surface it looks appealing. It even feels appealing. It is fun. Things that pull us away from God usually are. If sin wasn’t fun it wouldn’t be tempting.

Maybe this is you. Maybe you’ve walked away from God because you desired something that seemed more fun or better than what God had to offer. If it is you, please don’t hear judgment here. I am not trying to make you feel guilty. I would just ask you to consider this: is it really worth it?

One of the most difficult individuals to talk to about Jesus is one whose life seems to be ok. Jesus isn’t a part of it. Everything is going good. Life is good. Job is good. Family is good. And typically you are even a good person. You might donate to good causes and even donate some of your time to them. But when life is good, often we see no need for Jesus.

But… even when life is going well, if you are living the American dream, do you ever wonder if this is all there is? Do you wonder if there is more to life than this? Is there a greater purpose than just living, having a career, acquiring stuff, being active all the time?

When we look back at the parable Jesus told, we find a young man who willingly walked away from the Father, a Father who represents God. And after he blows through all his money, after he lives the good life, he finds himself empty, destitute, and in great need. Not just financially, but relationally. He finds himself all alone. No one cares about him enough to even give him food. He realizes that after he pursues everything that he thought would make him happy or give him purpose, he is empty.

Reason 2: Giving Up Because Something Happened to Me

There’s another aspect to the younger son we see keeps him from the Father. Something happens to him. A famine hits the land. He had zero control over this. It happened anyway, and he finds himself on the losing end of a bad economy; no food, no job, no anything.  He was a victim of circumstances. And this may be a bigger reason people move away from God.

Something happens to you. You lose your job even though you were a good employee. You don’t get into the school or program you wanted.  Your boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse decides to end the relationship and you didn’t see it coming. A parent dies when you are young. Your child is diagnosed with an incurable disease. When life deals us a bad hand, it is very easy to get angry with God and to feel wronged by him. We wonder where is God in this? Why is he not answering my prayers? Why is he not healing my child? We wonder, where is God?

We blame God for what we are going through. We feel so out of control that we NEED to blame someone and God is just as good as anyone. And because we pin it on God, we find ourselves getting angry and disconnected until we finally convince ourselves God doesn’t care, that God is not good. God must be absent.

But what if God isn’t the one doing these things to you? What if instead of seeing God as a distant, uncaring deity, in reality he is a loving Father? What if instead of seeing him as the harsh judge sitting over it all, disconnected and unloving, what if he is the loving Father whose heart breaks every time your heart breaks? What if instead of blaming God, we realize that maybe it isn’t God’s fault? We realize that we live in a broken world full of broken people. God has taken it upon himself to make right what is wrong, even taking the brokenness upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ. He is actively working to bring about a day when once and for all, all pain and all suffering, and all heartache would be wiped away.

Please don’t read into what I am saying. I am not telling you that you don’t have the right to be upset or angry. What I am telling you is that God is with you. He comforts those who mourn. He is with us in our suffering. He never leaves us or abandons us, even though at times it may feel like he has.

Is it possible that God isn’t to blame for what you are experiencing and that even though it may look like he’s abandoned you, he’s been with you the entire time?

Reason 3: Giving Up and Staying Religious

There’s a third perspective from the story that I believe is equally important. It is seen in the older brother. What is interesting about the older brother is that physically, he never leaves the Father. He never walks away, but as he interacts with his dad, we see that he may be physically present, but he certainly isn’t present in any other way.

This is the person who does all the right things and says all the right answers, but God is nothing more than an insurance policy to getting what they want out of life. And apart from showing up at church occasionally and maybe dropping a $20 in the offering plate every once in a while, there is no evidence of God in their life at all.

This person looks at the message of Christ and gets angry. Angry because the grace and love that Jesus offers, especially to those who don’t deserve it, seems so reckless. “I’ve been a good person,” they reason. “I’ve believed the right things. I’ve earned my status with God,” so they think.

The problem with this thinking is that it isn’t the gospel. This isn’t Jesus. In fact, it is what Jesus came to correct, those who honor him with their lips but their hearts are far from him. This person would never admit to giving up on God, but their faith is really in themselves. They really have no need for Jesus or the cross. They are so good that they believe God actually owes them. This giving up actually has to confront the question, “Who are you really trusting in?” Maybe you wouldn’t say you’ve given up on God but have you trusted more in yourself that in God?

Reason 4: Bad Theology

There are other reasons than what we get from this story as to why people give up on God.

We could talk about bad theology. Our faith is built more on tweets and bumper stickers than on Jesus. A friend shared a story this week about his brother who when he was in high school attended a youth group meeting. The leader called everyone down to the altar and told them not to leave until they “had experienced God”. One by one teens got up and left the building. In the end, this friend’s brother was there by himself. He prayed and prayed for God to reveal himself. He desperately wanted to experience God, but nothing happened. Finally he got up and walked out of that church and walked away from God.

Why did he do this? Bad theology. God doesn’t always reveal himself to everyone the same way. And to put pressure on someone like this is asking for disaster. We could go on all day listing the bad theology we believe. Yes it looks good on a bumper sticker, but it is dangerous when real life hits and we are looking for answers. Bad theology leads to inaccurate beliefs and unmet expectations.

Reason 5: Bad Christians

Another reason we give up on God could be bad Christians. You know them. The judgmentalism, the hypocrisy, the close-mindedness, the unloving ways they treat one another and others. The history of Christianity certainly shows us many times we were at our worst.

What we need to realize is that families have “stuff.” I am flawed. You are flawed. There are no perfect families. There are no perfect churches.

Just this past week, Pastor Stephen from Alive Church shared with me that so many Africans who come to America end up walking away from God. Why?  Because a big struggle for them is approval. They want to be seen on the same level as Americans. They want approval and to be seen as equals. And as Stephen said, “Because they can’t find approval in the church, they go look for it elsewhere.”

Don’t allow the imperfection of those who are sincerely trying to follow Jesus to keep you from giving God another chance.

Is God Really to Blame?

When you think about God, faith and religion, I get it. This faith thing, following Jesus isn’t some “nicely-all-answers-come-neatly-packaged-with-a-little-bow-on-top” kind of thing.

Even so, what I want to make sure you hear is simply this: What if the reason you gave up on God wasn’t really a good reason to give up? Could it be you blamed God for something that wasn’t his fault? Were you taught something that has given you the wrong impression about him? Was it the imperfection of someone else that has pushed you away?

I realize that this post doesn’t really give you a single answer as to why you should give God a second chance. For that, you will need to check out the next post. But right now, all I would ask is to evaluate why you gave up in the first place? And is there any room for the possibility that God might deserve a second look in your life?

Join the Conversation

If you would like to talk with somebody about faith, your struggles with God, or have questions you would like to discuss, please leave a comment below and we would love to join you in your faith journey and walk with you as you wrestle with these big issues.

Sometimes we turn to family. Sometimes we look for the latest and greatest book on the subject. Friends are usually always willing to help out. And those casual acquaintances are ALWAYS ready to tell you how you can improve your life. And in a pinch, a pastor might work.

How do you choose who you will consult when you have decisions in your life? And what role does your faith play in that?

In 2 Kings, King Ahaziah wanted to know if an injury he sustained would be life threatening. As he thought about who he could or should consult, he decided that the best option was a false god, Baal-Zebub, the god of the city of Ekron. But Elijah, the prophet of the one true God, went to him and asked,

“Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zubub, the god of Ekron?”(2 Kings 1:3 NIV) 

As I read these words this morning, I thought, what does my life and where I turn in times when I need counsel or advice say about my faith? Is it because I do not functionally believe that God can or will guide me or answer me that I seek many others sources before I ever seek God? Does my life and the way I approach times of decision accurately reflect someone who is following God or does it reveal nothing more than a Christian atheist, believing in God but living like he doesn’t exist?

May God be our first recourse and not our last resort when we come to the forks in the road of our lives. 

Click … click … click. I could hear my parents in the other room using a handheld tally counter as they recited mantras. In one day in our home, the counter might reach 1,000 clicks, or 2 hours of meditation. They chanted in order to clear their minds and purify themselves, seeking perfect enlightenment in the way of the Buddha.

Each morning, I would wake up to the smell of incense burning. Oranges and pineapple cake were offered in front of Buddha statues in a room designated for meditation. Our home was like a temple. On each wall hung a Buddha portrait, totaling more than 30 deities throughout the house. A statue of the Grand Master, revered as a living Buddha, stood at the center of our home. My parents spoke often about discipline, wisdom, and training the mind according to the Four Noble Truths.

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Click here to continue reading….

For many of us, we don’t think too much about our story. We go through life just trying to survive from day to day. We can’t stop and think about the tory being written in our lives because we have to get to work, and we have to transport our kids to their next activity, and we have to get dinner on the table, and we have to conference with teachers, and we have to make sure kids homework gets done, and we have to volunteer with that organization, and we have to collapse at the end of the day, get as much sleep as you can in 4 to 5 hours so we can get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

But you have a story. A story that is uniquely yours. A story that God is writing in your life. And if we don’t find time to stop occasionally and consider the story that is being written, we will find ourselves at the end of another year, another birthday will have passed, and we will ask ourselves, “How did I even get here?!”

What will be your 2015 story? And more importantly, who will you share that story with? Don’t allow another week to go by without hitting pause in your life for 5 minutes to ask yourself, what is the story that God is writing in my life.

At the beginning of the year, Christianity Today magazine released an article called “The Top 10 Testimonies of 2014.” In the article are ten of the most shared stories of life change, ten stories of how God interrupted these individuals lives and began to write a new story. A story of following Jesus. Over the next few days, I will repost these stories to encourage you and to continually ask, what will be your 2015 story?

Here is the story of a man who went from bank robber to Christ follower. 

It didn’t take a moment of genius introspection to realize that doing life my way had led to nothing but disaster and destruction. It was the summer of 2009, and I had just completed an almost 11-year sentence in federal prison for my role in five bank robberies I had committed as a foolish young man. After my release, I moved into an apartment with the love of my life, Annie. Two weeks later I proposed. One week after that, we learned she was pregnant.

At age 35, I was about to become a husband and father. We had no money and no real plan for our future…

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Not surprisingly, this mentality of comparison-shopping is how most Americans pick a new church to attend.  Gone are the days of attending the closest church in the denomination that we were raised in.  Many people don’t even know what a denomination is anymore.  And so as “brand” loyalty has waned, people now look for a church that is the best fit for them and their family.  The problem is, many people don’t know what they should be looking for in a church when they are trying to find the right church for them.

Since we understand the importance of attending a church that fits your needs, we have accumulated a list of important questions to consider when selecting the best church for your family.

1)  Does the church teach about Jesus or about rules?

Many churches have become so wrapped up in teaching about what Christians are supposed to do and not do, that they actually fail to teach the message of Jesus Christ who came to this earth to reconcile us to God through no effort on our part.  Jesus himself was not one to get caught up in following all the rules as much as he cared about bringing glory to God.  Find a church that focuses on Jesus, because he’s the One who changes everything!

2) Does the church have programs you and your children will enjoy attending? 

If you don’t like to attend, then you won’t.  It’ important to feel like you belong in a church as you begin to grow in your faith.  And you will never feel like you belong if your kids are bored to tears or the music puts you to sleep.

3) Do the people in the church practice what they preach? 

A church that teaches about Jesus should be serving the needs of the community and showing love to everyone inside and outside the walls of the church.  Too many churches TALK about what YOU should be doing but then live a lifestyle that demonstrates they don’t actually believe it themselves.  You will never grow in a church like that or under leadership like that.  Make sure the people in the church are living a life you want to imitate.

4) Is the size of the church a match for you? 

How you are received into a large church versus a small church will be vastly different experiences.  It is much easier to remain anonymous and enjoy a wider array of classes at a large church while at a smaller church it is much more likely that people will get to you know and your family very quickly.  You need to decide for yourself which is more important, having classes for your exact needs or having people who truly know you.

While some of these questions may only be answered by visiting a church yourself, you can save lots of time by first looking through the church website or even placing a call to the church during the week with your specific questions (but please don’t call on Sunday morning, it’s a bad time to call).

Most importantly in this process, however, is to pray about what church you should attend.  At least once I felt like God wanted me to attend a church I wasn’t crazy in love with after attending.  But it turned out to be a great church for my family and me during that season in our lives.  While you can do all your homework to narrow down you list, listening to God will help you choose the right church to call home.

And while finding the right church may take longer than you thought and may be more tiring than expected, don’t give up.  Finding the right church to call home, like finding the best deal on Black Friday, is incredibly rewarding!

That is the first line of our church’s belief statement on the subject of salvation, which was the topic of our youth study last night.  As I read that line, one teen asked, “But how can you say salvation is for all people if we believe that some people are never saved from their sin?”

Herein lies the issue which people often get confused about.  When you mistakenly believe that salvation is only offered to a select few, you view God as a mean, unfair, vengeful God who damns people to hell.  And since you have no interest in worshiping a terrible God like that, you write him off and decide to do this journey of life on your own.

But what if you understood that salvation is an amazing gift wrapped up in a gift bag with your name on it?  God has paid an undeniably high price for that gift which he now offers to you and every other person who has ever lived.  He is not a mean God, choosing who to condemn, but instead is a gracious God offering a gift of peace even to those who are at war with him.  If you believed that about Him, would you not see his great love for you, even before you loved him?  And then, what on earth would stop you from receiving that gift and opening it up.  

And inside you would find the free gift of salvation God makes available to all people.

So the big question isn’t, “How could God be so mean to offer salvation only to a few?”

Instead, the question is, “Why are you choosing not to accept and receive this amazing gift God has given to you?”

Dr Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, was interviewed in 2007 by CNN about his faith.  Listen to him express how science and a desire to “prove” atheism actually brought him to a place of faith that radically transformed his life. 

Here is the article Dr. Collins wrote for CNN.com.

What I find intriguing about this interview, is what I referenced in the footnote of my previous post; our assumptions about one’s faith based on their political affiliation. Republicans don’t think Democrats can possibly be Christians because of their stance on abortion, socialized medicine, and etc. On the flip side, Democrats don’t think Republicans can be Christian because they don’t care about women, children, the poor, and only care about themselves and money. This debate is tiresome and it is time Christians move beyond it.

It is time for those who are true followers of Christ to affiliate with Him first, before any political party affiliation, and even before a church affiliation. We need to wear the name “Christian” above all other names or labels we might be tempted to put above this name. There is no greater calling than to be a follow of Jesus Christ. If your party affiliation is more important to you than this, there might be a problem with your faith.

Also, it is time for both sides to stop the rhetoric, the name calling, the grandstanding, the misleading, the spinning of truth, and acknowledge we live in a world with people who have great need, both spiritual and physical. We need to  join hands and begin to be the presence of Christ, TOGETHER. If we can stop finger-pointing long enough to serve together, how much more powerful could the church of Jesus Christ be in the world. How much transformation could we see take place if we focused our attention on those with needs and not on blaming one another. (And please, stop using the poor, the needy, the mentally ill, the destitute, and the immigrants as a club in which to beat up others and try to make them look bad!)

May God use believers from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and every political party, everywhere, to see His kingdom come, His will be done on earth.

Let me encourage everyone to watch both parts of this story. And don’t watch it alone. If you have teens that drive, sit down and watch it with them so that together, you can discuss just how devastating the consequences can be.

Watch part 2 here.

My favorite cartoons were Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry. If I am completely honest, when I find the older versions of these cartoons on TV, I will stop and watch a little just to take me back to my childhood. Recently I ran across an online video of an orchestra playing music from Tom and Jerry.  I have included it below for your listening pleasure. The kid in me saw the images of those great cartoons flashing through my mind as the orchestra played the various tunes. I couldn’t help but smile.

The musician in me was truly amazed. The skill required to play this music was incredible. Watching the violinists fingers moving at such a rapid pace, seeing each member of the orchestra playing their role, from the flutes to the drums, from the trumpets to the percussionists throwing plates in a trash can, each member played a crucial role to make this incredible score come to life. I am amazed at all the creativity and work that went into creating music for a children’s cartoon. In a society of disposable everything, it is a wonder that the artists went to great lengths to put out their best work, even if their audience was “just kids.” 

I am sure there are some great spiritual lessons from Tom and Jerry. Like perseverance, Tom never gave up chasing Jerry, no matter how many times he failed. Or the value of teamwork when Jerry and Spike would work together. (For those unfamiliar with Tom and Jerry, Spike was the dog that frequently made appearances in the episodes). Or possibly even conflict resolution when Tom and Jerry  made up in some episodes. 

But the lesson for me from this video is that if it is worth doing, it is worth the absolute best effort I can put forth to make it happen. After all, as a believer, everything I do is a reflection on my Lord, even if (and especially if) my audience is “just kids.”

“…Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT)

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