Darryl Dash's Blog, page 12

Ready for Turmoil

Are you ready for what's coming?

2025 is expected to be a turbulent year. We have a change in government in the States that promises to be disruptive. World events are not very encouraging. It feels like our societal fabric is falling apart. Pick up the news, and things are anything but stable or ordinary.

George Friedman believes we are experiencing an unprecedented convergence of two significant historical cycles in American history. The first is an 80-year cycle of significant institutional and...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

How Healthy Is Your Soul?

To get started, we might focus our attention on six of the most important areas of the Christian life: our heart, our habits, our hope, our enemies, our friends, and our neighbors.

The Best Seats at Church

The subject of seating doesn’t sound very spiritual. But Jesus tells us it is.

Forget New Year's Resolutions. Do This Instead.

I think a better way to grow is with a monthly dashboard.

Five Vows I Have Made

This morning I opened the fro...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

The Collected Best Christian Books of 2024

Here are the ones that appeared repeatedly and, in a more subjective sense, seemed to generate the most positive buzz throughout the year.

Best of 2024: The Rise of Hyperpleasures

Hyperpleasures, then, are not new. What is new, however, is the broadening of our hyperpleasures with the rise of our technological advances in the 20th and 21st century.

When the Growing Is Slow

So as I sit by the Christmas tree that is now g...

Echoes of Jesus (Ruth 4)

Big Idea: God works through seemingly impossible circumstances and sacrificial love to bring redemption through a baby who is born in Bethlehem.

On the morning of September 20, 1931, three English professors in their 30s walked along Addison’s Walk at Magdalen College, Oxford. You’ve probably heard the name of two of them: 32-year-old C. S. Lewis, who later wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, was friends with 39-year-old J.R.R. Tolkien, who later wrote The Lord of the Rings.

On the walk, they talked a...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Think You Know the Christmas Story?

It might be useful to reflect on a few common misconceptions about the Christmas story. Here are five of them.

Did the Son of God Leave Heaven When He Came to Earth?

We don’t need the Son of God leaving heaven for earth in order for the incarnation to be worth singing about.

How the Sabbath Is Missional

When we rest for God, we join him on mission.

Meet the Astronaut Who Left NASA to Help Support Healthy Churches

In spring 2021,...

Top Blog Posts of 2024

Here, in order of traffic from highest to lowest, are a couple of lists of the top posts I’ve written over the past year.

Thank you for reading. I’m grateful for the privilege of writing, and I feel doubly blessed that some bother to read what I’ve written.

If you do want to keep up with what I’ve written, please sign up for my weekly newsletter, or subscribe to the feed for DashHouse (RSS) or my column at TGC Canada (RSS).

Top Posts at DashHouse

The Difference Between Saul and David

I’ve been studyi...

Finding Jesus in Ruth (Ruth 3)

Big Idea: We are helpless outsiders until Jesus, our divine Redeemer, pays the price to give us new life and his love.

The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful narratives in the entire Bible. It’s rich with themes such as loyalty, kindness, humility, faithfulness, and redemption. It’s a rich tapestry of character qualities and moral lessons. It teaches us about loyalty, redemption, kindness, humility, hard work, and God's sovereignty. And, believe it or not, it teaches us a little about the...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2024

I don’t know what the future holds. But 2024 brought many surprises, some of them welcome for the church.

Ritual Isn’t the Enemy; Empty Ritual Is

We need rituals. Let’s leave empty ritual behind.

3 Reasons Why Evangelism Is a Primary Means for Spiritual Growth

Sharing our faith is critical to our spiritual growth and the lack of doing so impedes our Christian growth.

Pastoral Authority in the Age of Podcasts

As pastors, we increa...

Best Books of 2024

I didn’t read as many books as I’d hoped in 2024, but I read some good ones. Here are the top books I’ve read this year, and why I liked them.

In no particular order:

The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America's Most Famous Residence

I'm a little surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. President Harry Truman renovated the White House from 1948 to 1952. Before the renovation, the White House was practically falling apart. The renovation was so extensive that it complet...

God’s Answer to Our Needs (Ruth 2)

Big Idea: In anxious times, count on God’s people and God’s providence.

We live in a tough world, and many things seem beyond our control. The future looks uncertain. Do we have what it takes to not just survive but thrive? In a world that feels stacked against us, what will our lives become? Will we get the jobs we need? Will we meet the right people? Will our needs be met? How secure is our future?

It's easy to feel like life is out of control. This uncertainty can quickly lead to overwhelming a...