Prodigal Magazine
Stephen Curry Interview
So many people dream of playing for the Tar Heels of North Carolina, the Duke Blue Devils, and the Kentucky Wildcats. Teams that are rich in tradition have the facilities, the following, and the exposure to stay on top for decades and many young men dream of putting on those jerseys while playing AAU ball and high school basketball. They want their names to go down in history as being a part of these storied programs. Stephen Curry also held that dream. His father had excelled in the NBA and he dreamed of going to an ACC school or an ...
Q&A – What is God’s relationship to time?
Answer: We live in a physical world with its four known space-time dimensions of length, width, height (or depth) and time. However, God dwells in a different dimension—the spirit realm—beyond the perception of our physical senses. It’s not that God isn’t real; it’s a matter of His not being limited by the physical laws and dimensions that govern our world (Isaiah 57:15). Knowing that “God is spirit” (John 4:24), what is His relationship to time?In Psalm 90:4, Moses used a simple yet profound analogy in describing the timelessness of God: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day ...
MIKESCHAIR Interview
As the world looks in on Christianity today, they are looking for honesty and for sincerity. Too often, what they have found is hypocrisy in those who profess to be followers of Christ. As a new generation of bands hits the forefront in Christianity today, we are seeing a transparency that has never been seen before. MIKESCHAIR is one band who is definitely not afraid to openly discuss who they are, hoping that in their journey with the Lord, others may relate and come to know Him as well. MIKESCHAIR formed while they were students at Belmont University. The Lord has ...
Interview – Phil Wickham
A few weeks ago, I took a silent retreat into the North Carolina wilderness to get alone with God and to allow him to speak to my heart. I took a copy of 1 cd on my ipod, Heaven and Earth which is Phil Wickham’s latest album that releases on November 17. God spoke to me in many ways through scripture but He allowed Phil’s music to bring me to a point of true worship. I sat down with Phil this morning to talk a little bit about who he is, his career and what inspires his songwriting abilities. History Q- Give ...
Men of God Spotlight: Travis Fryman
He played for himself at the beginning of his career. His goal was to win and sharing the infield with Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker meant that winning was something that would happen often. He had an opportunity of a lifetime coming up with the Tigers but a few years after his debut, he began to see the game of baseball and the people surrounding him in an entirely different way. God opened his heart and his eyes to see things that way that God sees them, not just for what they can do, but for who they are. Travis Fryman ...
Right Makes Blight
Being ‘right’ is a commodity that drives people to do some asinine things. Self-righteous ‘street preachers’ blast pedestrians with cold-hearted theology, generals and commanders march their ranks off to demise for a cause they see as right, and relationships fail with conviction because one party refused to back down on principle. Rightness is something I hear constant [...]
Continue reading...Hitched Hiking
19. August 2009
I must admit I was less than thrilled about it. I mean, c’mon, I don’t normally do these things. It’s not my favorite thing to do. In fact, I would rather save our time and do something…I don’t know…a little less “natural.” Now don’t get me wrong, I was happy when my wife suggested we [...]
Continue reading...Fight Like Jesus III – Free E-Book
13. August 2009
“Be quiet!” “Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!” Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. [...]
Continue reading...God, are You ignoring me?
6. August 2009
There are a lot of things in life that I don’t know, and each day I discover brand new reasons that I’m not as smart as I thought. However, one thing that I have learned in 30 years of life and 3 years of marriage is what a conversation looks like. One person talks while the other listens, and then they switch places. Pretty straightforward, really. Except when it comes to God.
Continue reading...Fight Like Jesus II
20. July 2009
But early on Mark had run scared. We don’t know details, but something happened to set him off. Fear of being mocked or worse? Fear of losing the security he felt from familiar surroundings? Fear of not knowing how to fight to win? Whatever, Mark went AWOL. We piece together Mark’s story from Acts in the New Testament, a reference in a letter from Paul, the Gospel that bears his name, and from Church tradition. By the end, Mark makes a remarkable recovery and lives and dies, living up to his name - “Warrior.” As a young man Mark joined Paul and Barnabas when the community of Jesus-followers in Antioch commissioned then to plant churches around the Mediterranean. It proved dangerous adventure that Mark couldn’t endure. Shortly after the mission began Mark turned tail and headed home. Only he could explain why.
Continue reading...Fight Like Jesus
8. July 2009
Say something, for God’s sake! When Jesus shows up things happen. When he shows up he uses words and the world is recreated. Words are Jesus’ weapon of choice and his tool of design. He could hurl lightning bolts, or split mountains with his fist, or with a wave of his hand toss the armies of the planet into the sea. Instead, Jesus says things. For words, when they are the right words, spoken by the right messenger, are enough. At the start of his ministry Jesus explained his mission in words that Isaiah the Prophet had borrowed from God:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” Luke 4:17-19.
Continue reading...Jesus: Truth, Legend or Conspiracy?
22. June 2009
As someone at my local church, described the crazy details behind the religion of Scientology, about the levels of knowledge you master and the history of the sci-fi book from which much of the theology came from, I pondered on my own beliefs. Almost as quickly as I said, “how can people believe that” I quietly thought to myself, “you know, this is some crazy stuff we believe in too”, is this whole Bible thing really logical. To an outsider that has not grown up in the church his whole life, the story must sound a little outlandish. A baby comes to this Earth from a virgin mother, is born in a stable along side 3 wise-men, and is not only the perfect being but also the Son of God. He performed miracles, healed the sick, made water into wine, died on a cross along with all of my sins, and then rose from the dead to be seated at the right hand of God. Wow, I mean if I step back from it, it sounds a lot like the epic Star Wars story I just went too. It seems like a large tale, a beautifully mastered Hollywood script, with the underdog heroes coming through in the end. Is this really just a legend? Did stories of Jesus get exaggerated over the years and the breaking of bread for a few people turned into food for hundreds? Did his praying for the sick, turn into healing the sick? The information in this article is summarized from a sermon by Dr. Greg Boyd, Head Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in Maplewood, MN. Click here for the entire sermon. If you do not take the Bible story to be true, you have to either think it is a lie and a conspiracy, that the Disciples made it all up in a plot to deceive the world, or it has to be a legend, in which the true story has been changed and exaggerated as it was passed down from generation to generation. Our faith has to go beyond the evidence, but for the critical mind, the Christian faith is also based on historical truth. There are 6 fundamental problems with the Legend theory.
Continue reading...The Supremacy of Christ Over Language
29. April 2009
Last week I had the privilege of spending a week in the city of Brasov "Romania" together with an incredible team from the U.K. I always find traveling anywhere for the first time an exciting experience, especially when you just don't know what to expect. While there, I learned an important message about language barriers, and the powerful God that overcomes them.
Continue reading...A Brother’s Walk: A journey into modern monastic living
18. April 2009
Monks are interesting folks. They dedicate themselves to "contemplation", prayer, and life in community with others. Sometimes this includes the outside world, sometimes it doesn't. Their stories, as I came to learn them from my visits (which soon became annual events), involved spiritual battles and challenges that were far beyond my comprehension. What were these "principalities and powers", these battles going on for my soul, these spiritual beings that were more or less "departed" from this cosmos that we still talked about and included in our worship? After all, my entire spiritual development from childhood was, actually, not spiritual in any sense of the word. Now I was getting a new perspective. This was all new stuff. Taking hours, sometimes days, to just sit and "contemplate" the reality of Christ in these remote settings, of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and what that really meant, what fellowship and community meant to me and my fellow brothers and sisters (including those in the monastery with me), and then worshiping (six times daily) with these dear people brought things into a much different balance than anything that I was taught on Sunday School flannel boards in the past. There was truly a "spiritual" out there, and that spiritual was alive, and well, and thriving. And, it was a necessary part of Christian development. In me.
Continue reading...What is your focus?
6. April 2009
The old adage is "your energy goes where your focus is." Like a laser beam, focused energy can be very powerful. Powerfully focused energy can be constructive or destructive. Energy that is disrupted or dissipated is just energy with potential. It can be stored for later use, sometimes moved or transferred from one place to another but, unused it accomplishes nothing and when any power source is disrupted it is, for a time at least , unused! Agreed? Okay, so what's the point? It is critically important to be aware of the direction and employment of our energy. It is our "personal power" as author and motivator extraordinaire Anthony Hopkins would term it. If we permit our energy to be disrupted we run the risk of at best, not achieving our goals and at worst - the proverbial burnout! So, what is your focus? Where is your energy? Is it being used or disrupted? Is it focused and powerful or is it weak or being transferred, stored, or in the worst case scenario, depleted? For many of us, regardless of our circumstances, the stresses of daily living (or surviving as may be the case for an ever increasing number of us today) drain our physical, mental and emotional batteries with each new event, depleting or exhausting our energy resources. Even with advances in technology and medicine many people today, at every age level, are losing their precious "personal power" one distraction at a time. None of us intends to have more day left at the end of our oomph but, it happens, and usually without us even knowing how!
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29. August 2009
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