Josh Hunt's Blog, page 29

Don’t miss the dance

My niece Courtney got married not long ago, and at the wedding reception they had a dance for married couples in which they would eliminate couples from the dance floor based on the length of their marriage. At the beginning we were all on the floor. Courtney and Patrick were the first to leave, then […]

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Two vital (and forgotten) ingredients of an effective prayer life

Let’s start at the very beginning. To learn how to pray we need two things: a time and a place. Linette Martin writes about the single most important rule when it comes to establishing a regular time of prayer: The way to begin is slowly. I advise five minutes a day. This may feel impossibly […]

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How Jesus changed people

Jesus understood how people change. That is why he taught in stories. He used narrative to explain his understanding of God and the world: “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” “A man had two sons . . .” If we adopt Jesus’ narratives about God, we will know God properly and right […]

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Prayer is learned behavior

Prayer does not happen automatically. My hunch is that of all spiritual disciplines, prayer is the one that people feel most guilty about. Somehow it seems that if we really love God prayer should flow out of us without effort or discipline. In fact, this was not the case even with Jesus’ first followers. They […]

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When you flourish, you become more you.

Some friends of ours had a daughter named Shauna who was a classic strong-willed child. When she was four years old, she kept trying to go AWOL on her tricycle. Her mom could not rein her in and finally said, “Look, Shauna, there’s a tree right here, and there’s a driveway right there. You can […]

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Take the second step

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Flourishing means moving toward God’s best version of you.

God made you to flourish — to receive life from outside yourself, creating vitality within yourself and producing blessing beyond yourself. Flourishing is God’s gift and plan, and when you flourish you are in harmony with God, other people, creation, and yourself. Flourishing is not measured by outward signs such as income, possessions, or attractiveness. […]

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Prayer changes things

The Bible’s teaching on prayer leads overwhelmingly to one conclusion: Prayer changes things. The first extended prayer recorded in Scripture takes place when Abraham finds out Yahweh is about to destroy the town of Sodom. What is striking about the conversation is the care with which Abraham marshals his argument and states his case — […]

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How can I change?

Craig is one of the people who took part in the experiment in developing a curriculum for Christlikeness. After being involved in an apprentice group, Craig began to notice some real changes in his life in the way he behaved toward his family, friends and coworkers. He is a zoo architect, which requires him to […]

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All of heaven stops so the prayers of the saints can rise before God.

Let’s look at how seriously the writers of Scripture viewed prayer. In the eighth chapter of the book of Revelation, John describes a scene in heaven after the seals have been broken on the scrolls that tell the story of human sin and violence and God’s judgment. Then a remarkable thing happens. John writes that […]

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