Aaron Armstrong's Blog, page 18

Sunday morning is sometimes a Sunday morning decision

We love our clichés in the church, don’t we? Pithy statements that have some truth to them, and are often shared to be an encouragement in some way. But because of their overuse, many are insufferable. One of those, shared nearly every Saturday night on the social internet by a church leader somewhere is: Sunday morning is a Saturday night decision.

Yes, gathering really does matter

The big idea is that if church matters, then we should be there. Don’t leave the decision to the last minut...

Do blogs still matter?

Many of us make jokes about blogs, and specifically how they used to be a thing. They were what we used to share our reactions and engage with others before Twitter, before Substack paid newsletters, podcasts, and videos.

But blogs… they don’t matter anymore. Or at least we don’t think they do. They’re slow; unlike social media, they take you out of the moment. You can’t have an instant reaction on a blog. They take a lot of work.1 They require a kind of thoughtfulness, at least in theory, th...

What do we do if we think a group member may not be a Christian?

You’re sitting in your living room after your community group, reflecting on the conversation of the evening. While you’re reviewing the night, you remember something a group member said, and it catches you off guard:

“I don’t know why we put so much emphasis on the Bible…it’s just a book.”

As you pray over this, you recall other similar comments—That’s just Paul’s opinion, God and I have an understanding, and so on—and become increasingly concerned that this person may not actually be a C...

How do we protect ourselves against rage-driven ministry?

A cursory reading of the Bible reminds us that God really, really doesn’t take kindly to those who stir up division and dissension among His people. He wants His people to be united in love and truth.

This isn’t a new idea, and it shouldn’t be shocking. It isn’t the sort of insight that comes from years of faithful study, or a careful exploration of the languages, the context of the text, or anything like that. It’s an observation that literally anyone who is functionally literate is capable...

Are Morals and Moralism in Conflict?

I’ve always hated multiple choice questions. They always feel like a trick (because too many of them are). Three or four choices, all of which seem plausible, except for maybe one super-obvious non-answer thrown in to see if we’re paying attention, and the instruction to choose which we think is correct. But sometimes there’s an answer in these that can seem like a trick, but is actually really important:

All of the above. 1

When we’re faced with multiple choices, we’re tempted to assume th...

Why it’s Hard to Believe in God’s Goodness

In the fall of 2021, as our church was going through the book of Nehemiah, I was working through the prayer of confession in chapter 9. As I studied the passage, it helped me to recognize something extremely important:

It’s really hard to believe in God’s goodness.

Most Christians will say that we do believe God is good, of course. We can affirm the general truth. But when we start looking at our own lives, we struggle to see how God can be good to us because we’re not terribly faithful...

When We’re Focused on What Won’t Last

At the beginning of 2022, my church began studying the book of James. This book is so helpful and practical in many ways. But one of the ways that it helps me personally is helping me to see when I’m focused on the wrong things.

Or maybe a better way to say it is, when I’m focused on what won’t last.

The Perennial Issue

James 1:9-11 introduces a perennial issue: our relationship with wealth. More specifically, it challenges the all-too-frequent assumption in a western society that weal...

Freedom from the Tyranny of “Success”

Some time ago, a friend shared an announcement that he was writing a book for a well-respected publisher. I was, of course, excited—but I was also a little jealous. It was foolish and unnecessary, of course, but it was there. When I should have been fully celebrating my friend’s good fortune, I was wondering why I wasn’t experiencing the same.1

I know I’m not alone in this. All of us have moments where we don’t respond to God’s blessings to others in the way we would want or expect, whether H...

What if We’re Opposing the Gospel?

The last five years have been some of the more discouraging to watch, with different voices seeming to oppose the gospel at every turn. Those voices opposing the gospel have always been there, of course. How could they not be? God’s work of redeeming and restoring the world through Jesus is a threat to the powers at work in this world.

Opposition Has Always Existed

This is something we see all throughout the Scriptures and through history. Whenever God’s people are committed to God’s work...

Can a true believer blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

Can a Christian truly blaspheme the Holy Spirit? I’ve wondered about this since the early days of my faith when I read Matthew 12:22-32. After Jesus healed a demon oppressed man, all the crowd marveled. “Can this be the Son of David?” they asked.

The Scribes and Pharisees weren’t impressed, though. They rejected Jesus and the sign of His power. Instead, they declared, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

Rather than admitting that Jesus might tru...