Aaron Armstrong's Blog, page 5

The Answer to Pressure is Perseverance

When anyone comes to faith in Christ, their faith is going to be challenged and tested. For some of us, it happens almost immediately. That was Emily’s and my experience. We were thrown into all kinds of difficulties from the moment we asked ourselves, “Now what?” Relational challenges. Work issues. While this testing is inevitable, it’s unlikely for Western Christians will experience persecution.

At least, not the overt persecution experienced by the early church (and in many places in the ...

Discipleship: Life as a (Healthy) Group Project

When we read the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), we can mistakenly read it as a call to evangelize, to proclaim the gospel message. And while that is part of Christ’s commission to us, it is only part of it. To make disciples is to teach and train our fellow believers to become mature followers of Jesus; to help them “observe everything [Jesus] commanded” us (Matthew 28:20), as they grow in their knowledge of, obedience to, and love for the Lord.

But growing in spiritual maturity isn’t ...

A “missing” verse and a gateway to worship

If you want to get people in a tizzy, start talking about the alleged omissions in modern Bible translations. If you compare a Bible published in the King James Version with the NIV, NET, CSB, ESV, NASB, and nearly every other translation from the last 70 years,1 you’ll notice a handful of verses that do not appear within the main body of the text.2

I’m not a big conspiracy theory guy, especially where there is nothing nefarious at work. These verses, which appear in the footnotes of many t...

How do you discover your spiritual gifts?

For many years, I didn’t give spiritual gifts much thought. Of course, I didn’t reject the idea of the Holy Spirit equipping and empowering believers in particular ways. I just tended to approach the subject more abstractly.

As a new Christian, I was overwhelmed by personality test-style assessments. (I still am, to be honest.) Actually, that’s not entirely true. I saw that the tests were pretty easy to manipulate into giving a desired answer.1 And people put way too much stock in these asse...

What’s the Problem with Proselytizing?

I still remember when, in the early days of our relationship, Emily was telling me all about what Bahá’ís believed. This religion she belonged to taught the essential oneness of humanity nationally, ethnically, and spiritually. They were also against proselytizing. They wanted adherents to talk about their faith, of course, but only in ways that don’t make hearers feel as though they’re being encouraged to convert.

Instead, the thinking went, people would see the value of the principle of o...

A Mid-Year Life and Ministry Update

2024 is officially halfway through. With July now upon us, I wanted to offer a quick life and ministry update:

Family and personal life updates

The last several months have been difficult, to say the least. We’ve lost multiple family members, been dealing with health scares, and more. The Lord’s been good to us through it, but it’s been a lot. Emily and I are both tired, as you can imagine.

Our children are all going to be in the same physical school for the first (and only) time since...

Where do you turn in times of trouble?

I’m tired. Tired in my bones. Tired in a way that I’ve not been in at least three years. 2024 has been rough on our family so far. Three deaths in our family. Two more in our church family. A major health scare. An equally major surgery. As you can imagine, it’s a lot.

It’s been the kind of year where, every time I think I’m starting to get my feet back under me, something happens to knock me down again. One where I keep coming to the end of myself. One that makes me resonate with David’s w...

Character Matters Because Character Matters

Over the last several years, the American evangelical church has faced a catastrophic credibility crisis. It seems like every day brings word of some kind of evil perpetrated by a church leader. It is heartbreaking and, honestly, infuriating. I hate that we’ve come to this place—that we’ve reached a crisis point that was entirely preventable.

But how did we get here? We forgot what makes a leader a true leader.

What Does it Mean to be a Leader?

Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of the “le...

Regeneration: the Work of the Gospel We Should Talk About More

What does the gospel do in us? That might seem like a strange question since the gospel does a lot. Depending on your inclinations, you might think about:

Atonement: the consequences of our sins are satisfied and our guilt is covered through Jesus’ death.Justification: we are declared righteous because Jesus’ righteousness is given to us.Adoption: we are welcomed into God’s family as beloved sons and daughters.

These truths matter. They are beautiful, shaping our faith in profou...

Put away your idols

There’s a story in the book of Joshua that I can’t get out of my head. As the end of his life neared, Joshua, Son of Nun, Moses’s successor, gave one last message to the Israelites as they prepared to make their lives in the promised land. And his call was simple: “It’s time to make your choice: worship God or worship your idols.”

“Now obey the Lord and worship him with integrity and loyalty,” Joshua said. “Put aside the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and wo...