Throughout my life, learning to navigate being passionate about both arts/entertainment and the Church/my faith in Jesus, I've noticed that those two worlds and two communities don't always understand each other or get along well a lot of the time, and that breaks my heart. I don't believe it has to be that way or that God wants it to…
In this episode, I want to share five practical tips/questions with you that I personally use to discern individual pieces of entertainment I consume as a Christian and evaluate its impact on me. I hope this helps your discernment process too. This is a follow-up episode to Can Christians Listen to "Secular" Music? https://youtu.be/TS_b6NVCHjc Episode Outline and Bible Passages 1)…
If you grew up in Church like I did, you know Christians listening to "secular music" (or engaging any type of secular entertainment) or being a secular artist/entertainer can be somewhat of a controversial topic. In this episode, we unpack a biblical perspective on "secular" or mainstream arts and entertainment–art and entertainment that is not overtly faith-based or clearly communicating…
In this episode, we talk about how Christians should handle personal conviction issues and matters of conscience in the areas of life and conduct that don't seem so clear. We define what a personal conviction or personal conscience issue is according to Scripture and learn three biblical principles to help you discern your own personal convictions and interact well with…
In this episode, I share four thoughts to help you think through whether you should celebrate Halloween as a Christian. We'll look at what the Bible says about not participating with evil, whether modern cultural Halloween celebrations fit into what the Bible says is evil, and how to make a wise choice about whether to participate in Halloween based on…
*Photo by Kendall Scott on Unsplash All eyes are on Asbury University after the Holy Spirit intervened in a normal chapel service on February 8, 2023 that never ended. A simple, student-led, faculty-guided movement of humble worship and prayer, confession and repentance of sin, testimonies and exhortations from Scripture has continued for over a week at the the time of…
Photo by Roger Harris on Unsplash Last night the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards took place and caused quite the social media stir amongst Christians. Whatever your thoughts are on this topic you’re probably not fully going to get the answer you want from me, which is good. I want to challenge you a bit. Let me start out by putting…
Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash “I don’t want to be a Christian because there are too many hypocrites in the Church.” Have you heard that before or said it yourself? It’s one of the main ideas that discourages people from following Jesus–Christians seemingly not living according to what they say they believe. Biblically, the word hypocrite carries the idea…
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash At some point in your life or another, you may have been the recipient or even the dispenser of judgment over a Christian putting up a Christmas tree, teaching kids to believe in Santa, for giving gifts or screaming ‘NSYNC’s “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” at the top of your lungs. (Totally did that yesterday, by…
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash We know Christians should stay away from any kind of evil. That's a no-brainer. But what about innocent costume parties and trick-or-treating? Is playing dress-up and eating candy really all that bad? What are Halloween's true origins and does that matter for how we engage the holiday today? I gave some biblical context for…