Exploring Faith and Spirituality

Religion

Find Joy in the Dish Room

Over the summer, I’ve been working at Calvin University. Not as a resident assistant, a researcher, or a teaching assistant. I’m a line server in the school’s dining hall. Not the most glamorous po...

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My Best Friend Is a Church Grandma

Ask me who I connect one-on-one with most outside of family, and you might be surprised at my answer: a woman from church about 40 years older than me. Not a peer, or a cool twentysomething, but a ...

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How to Wash Windows for God’s Glory

“So what are you doing for work, Evan?” Aunt Nikki asked, passing the peas. It was Christmas dinner. The entire Georgia family had gathered under one roof to celebrate Christ, play cards, and consu...

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From High School to Campus: Stay Rooted in Christ and Guard Your Heart

Before heading to college, I wasn’t too concerned about preparing myself spiritually. Looking back, I wish I had been. Imagine standing at a fork in the road: one path draws you closer to God, the...

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Don’t Skip Judges in Women’s Bible Study

When an email from church announced an upcoming women’s Bible study on Judges, my mind raced to various passages, trying to grasp how we’d talk about this book as a group of women in an extremely p...

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How to Kill the Seven Deadly Sins with Grace

Few doctrines are more obvious, or more personally experienced, than the reality of sin. As Reinhold Niebuhr quipped, “The doctrine of original sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of th...

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My Mom, Her Drug Addiction, and God’s Grace

In our comfortable age, we often avoid affliction at any cost. But I’ve learned that Christian suffering isn’t without hope and that God often uses our pain to bring about redemption. In sixth gra...

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Can You Love Your Neighbor by Investing?

In an iconic scene from the 1987 film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, a ruthless businessman played by Michael Douglas, claims that greed is good. Most supporters of capitalism see Gekko as a caricature...

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Mother Vera review – luminous portrait of a horse-wrangling ex-heroin addict nun

A nun in a remote Orthodox monastery in Belarus invites us into her world in this beautiful black and white documentaryThe opening sequence is extraordinary: a nun drops to the floor in devotion, h...

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The Many-splendoured Cross: Atonement, Controversy, and Victory

Introduction 1 Birthdays, anniversaries and annual lectures are good opportunities for reflection and taking stock, for looking back and looking forward, maybe even for painful soul-searching. I a...

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The False Hope of ‘Rebrand Yourself!’ Identity Shifts

A growing subgenre of YouTube influencers and videos promises quick, easy hacks for reinventing yourself and becoming a “new you.” Here are some examples: Identity Shifting: Your New Way to Rein...

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Flawed Youth Ministry Wasn’t the End of My Faith

Painful experiences make it difficult to engage with what we once loved and held dear to our hearts. Broken relational trust and trauma can even lead us to abandon our faith. This is perhaps especi...

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He Who Sits on the Throne: Unveiling God’s Sovereignty (Revelation 4)

In this lecture, Don Carson delves into Revelation 4, presenting a vivid portrayal of God’s throne room. Carson emphasizes the holiness and sovereignty of God, highlighting the worship of celestial...

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How Should We Define Biblical Manhood and Womanhood? Trace the Arc of God’s Design.

Near the end of C. S. Lewis’s science-fiction novel Perelandra, his protagonist, Dr. Elwin Ransom, saw two idyllic forms—the celestial guardians of Mars and Venus: Malacandra [Mars] was like a rhy...

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Why Churches Need Counter-Catechesis

Working among college students, I get a firsthand look into the trends that dominate the cultural landscape at any particular moment. Over the years, I’ve witnessed fashion fads like the “man bun,”...

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Post-Divorce Healing for Muslims: Rebuild Your Life & Faith

You are not what happened to you. Your worth comes from Allah, not from someone who couldn’t value you. Healing Is Not a Luxury; It’s a Right Walking away from a toxic marriage takes courage....

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I Miss the Pews: Why Uncomfortable Togetherness Mattered

Red-padded pews. It’s one of my most vivid memories from growing up in church. Their smell resembled my grandparents’ closet. They weren’t comfortable. They were impossible to nap on during sermons...

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Christ on Every Page: How the Book of Jonah Points to Jesus

All of Scripture points to Jesus. Whether a passage predicts Christ, prepares God’s people for Christ, reflects Christ, or shows the results of Christ’s work, we can find him on every page. It’s ea...

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Accept God’s Invitation to Rest

“It feels so nice to finally stop and catch my breath.” Can you remember the last time you had a moment like that? For some of us, it’s been a while. In our hard-working, highly productive culture...

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The Crisis of Choice in an Age of Longing

We live in an age of longing—for significance, permanence, purpose. We see it in the stories we tell, the goods we consume, and the goals we pursue. And amid what some have called our meaning crisi...

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How AI Is Changing Job Opportunities for New College Grads

Over the past few weeks, the mainstream media has been sounding the alarm on a worrying new trend. “AI is coming for entry-level jobs. Bill Gates says Gen Z may not be safe no matter how well they...

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