Every so often, a spiritual metaphor shows up right outside your office window, and if you’re a pastor I think… Read more Healthy Fruit Comes From Healthy Roots
Author: Matt Morton
Matt Morton is a teaching pastor at Grace Bible Church in College Station, TX. He is the co-author of the Ordinary Greatness series (NavPress, 2012) and has written articles for Relevant, Bible Study Magazine, and bible.org. He writes a monthly column for the Bryan-College Station Eagle.
Instead of Making Resolutions, I’m Asking for Grace
I’m generally a failure when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Based on the statistics I’ve seen, I am not alone in that. We tend to be good at making resolutions, but fewer than 10% of us actually keep them for more than a week or two.
6 Simple Christmas Ideas to Help Your Family Focus on Jesus
Christmas might be the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, but it can also be the most hectic. We all know that Jesus is the reason for the season, as they say, but it’s all too easy to fly through the season hardly thinking of Him at all. Between shopping for gifts, attending parties, and making travel arrangements, finding time to pause with your family and reflect on the Incarnation of Christ can seem impossible.
Incorporating Jesus into your family’s Christmas rhythm doesn’t have to be complicated and time-consuming, though. It can be simple and even quite fun. You only need a few minutes a day and little bit of persistence. Here are a few ideas that our family has implemented over the years to help us focus on Jesus:
On Love, Mortality, and Aggie Football
I didn’t grow up watching Aggie football. My parents both attended the University of Oklahoma, and neither were big college football fans. But my grandfather (whom we called Ghido) was an ardent Sooners fan. At least once when I was young, he took us to a game in Norman. All I remember about the game is that Ghido seemed to know every person in the stadium. I came to realize over the years that he seemed to know everybody wherever he went. He was one of those rare individuals who could walk into a room of strangers and quickly turn them into friends.
Still, Ghido loved his family above all else, especially his nine grandchildren. Each one of us secretly believed we were his favorite, and we loved him deeply. In fact, it was my love for my Sooner grandfather that eventually cemented my love of Aggie football.
What Does it Mean to Meditate on the Bible?
As a kid growing up in church, I remember being warned about meditation. Meditation was a weird and scary habit, something practiced by Hollywood actors who sat in a lotus position while reciting ancient Hindu mantras. Perhaps because of the fear that meditation is too closely connected to Eastern religion, I’ve rarely heard of a pastor encouraging his congregation to meditate.
The Bible does encourage God’s people to meditate on His Word, though.
God Isn’t Impressed by Long Quiet Times
When I was in college, one of my roommates had very long quiet times every day. He would pray and read his Bible for at least an hour every day, if not longer. Sometimes I started my quiet times exactly when he did, but I always finished mine much sooner. I would read several chapters of the Bible and then pray for everything I could think of. If somebody in my Bible study had asked me to pray for their sick poodle, I prayed for it. But for some reason, I always found myself running out of things to say long before my roommate did. I’d look over at him and wonder what was taking him so long. Did he talk slower than I did? Or was he genuinely a better Christian than me?
Why to Sing Praise When You Don’t Feel Like Singing
Every Sunday morning before I stand up to preach, I take my seat on the left side of our church’s auditorium. From where I sit, I have a fairly good view of the people in the congregation. While I know that I ought to concentrate on singing, I sometimes find myself watching the people around me during our worship time. (Don’t judge me! You’ve probably done it too!) Although some people don’t sing at all, other people sing enthusiastically. They keep their eyes focused on the worship leader or the lyrics, and they even raise their hands or close their eyes.
Sometimes, when I see a person singing praise songs with that sort of abandon, I think, “Wow, that person must really be feeling the goodness of God right now. She’s responding to a feeling that God has been good to her, so she’s singing wholeheartedly.” And quite often that’s true: sometimes we sing because we are in a joyful frame of mind, and we respond accordingly.
But that’s not always true.
8 Things to Pray for When You’re Not Sure How to Pray
Most Christians believe that prayer is important. If you’re like me, though, you sometimes wonder exactly what to pray for. There are so many problems and needs in our lives and in the world that we can easily grow overwhelmed. When I feel that way, I find it helpful to look at what the Scripture says about what types of things we should pray about.
How Can We “Pray Without Ceasing”?
When I was young, the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 confused me. “Pray without ceasing,” Paul says. How exactly can a person do that? After all, I have things to do! Am I supposed to simply stay in my closet all day and pray, neglecting my family, my job, and my friends?
Talking Back to Yourself
When you lie down in your bed at night, or when you awake in the morning and your house is quiet and still, what voices do you hear? What are the thoughts that fill your mind when your gadgets and books aren’t there to distract you? Perhaps you hear words like these:
“I’ve made a mess of everything.”
“My best years are behind me.”
“God could not possibly love someone like me.”
Maybe you repeat those words to yourself, over and over again, until they seem like indisputable facts. You find yourself caught in a loop, one that causes you to question God’s goodness and love for you. Not long ago, I heard a quote from the well-known 20th Century preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Here’s what he had to say about those words of condemnation that we heap upon ourselves in those moments of quiet reflection:
Matt Morton 