by Erica Fitzgerald Snorkeling in Maui on my honeymoon was an otherworldly experience. As I plunged beneath the surface of Honolua Bay, I beheld a breathtaking array of colors swimming around me. My eyes were opened to an entire realm of life that I never knew existed. I wonder if... read more →
Mar
26
Mar
26
SPIRITUAL LIFE Restore my soul: In pursuit of personal revival (Scott Hubbard at Desiring God): Maybe you overheard someone praying with simple, childlike love for Jesus, and you can’t even remember the last time you prayed like that. Maybe months have passed since you have woken up and wanted, really... read more →
Mar
20
Part Three in BER's Technology Series The American computer scientist Alan Kay once quipped, “Technology is anything that was invented after you were born; everything else is just stuff.” Indeed, most of us think of technology as recent inventions like smartphones and artificial intelligence, forgetting how innovation shaped the... read more →
Mar
19
PRAYER 9 ways to build prayer into a worship service (Chuck Lawless): Jesus strongly reminded us that God’s house is to be a house of prayer (Luke 19:45-46). Getting there means building prayer into the DNA of a congregation, but the worship service can be central to that process. So,... read more →
Mar
12
SPIRITUAL LIFE How Jesus knew the Word: His secret to Scripture memory (David Mathis at Desiring God): Biblical meditation pauses and ponders God’s words without hurry. It chews on the truth communicated by the words of God. It doesn’t just keep on reading at the breakneck speed at which our... read more →
Mar
12
by Erica Fitzgerald Smartphones crossed the threshold of our home when our firstborn was a newborn. After navigating our honeymoon with a paper atlas just a few years prior, I marveled at the wonders of Google Maps and found comfort and pleasure in Instagram, Pinterest, and the countless homemaking blogs... read more →
Mar
05
Part One of BER's Tech Series by Greg Smelker I am excited to kick off a short series we are going to be doing on technology. Year after year, many new and exciting technological improvements come on the scene. In the last year alone we have seen artificial intelligence (AI)... read more →
Mar
05
PRAYER Why doesn't God answer all our prayers for healing? (JD Greear): The phrase “prayer of faith” is only used this one time in the Bible. Some people think it means that the prayer of faith is one characterized by incredible certainty—the one praying has no doubts that God is... read more →
Feb
27
WORSHIP Order, preparation, and the Spirit’s leading (Jacob Crouch): Believing that God moves in spontaneous ways is not unbiblical or sinful, but I think it has been overemphasized. The Spirit cannot be manipulated or placed under constraints (John 3:8), but a mark of the Spirit is that He works in... read more →
Feb
27
Jesus defines wisdom as obedience to his words—not just hearing them but hearing them and doing them (Matt. 7:24). And in the book of Proverbs it’s said that wisdom begins with fearing the Lord (Prov. 9:10). Obedience and godly fear are the two sides of the wisdom coin. When we... read more →