Tyler Braun's Blog, page 41

What’s Holiness? (Excerpt from Why Holiness Matters)

My book releases this Wednesday so I thought I’d pass along an excerpt from it. If you’re in Portland, come out to my book release party this Wednesday night (info here). I’ll be announcing a special offer for purchasing the book on Wednesday as well, so if you’re on the fence about spending the money, wait a couple more days. This post has been adapted for my blog.

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Fragmentation

Growing up I always preferred to eat dinner from a portion plate. I had to keep my foods separate. My lettuce salad...

Creative Theology: An Interview with Author Sam Mahlstadt

I’m excited to share a discussion I recently had with Sam Mahlstadt, the author of Creative Theology, a book I really enjoyed. Christian culture has put a huge emphasis toward artistic expression and the importance of creativity within the church, but what Sam does in this book is create an under-girding theological understanding for why we should even think this way. It’s a top notch book. At the bottom I’ll have details for how you can win a copy of the book.

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Tyler: As I read the book I qui...

The Great Curse of This Age

I appreciate Luke’s account of Jesus clearing the temple in Luke 19. It’s a key event that, in the chronology of Luke, comes right after what is known as The Triumphal Entry, or Palm Sunday, just as the Passover week is beginning.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ message is clear…

When money becomes a focal point in life it is ultimately a reflection of a heart gone wayward.

As I read through this passage several times I sensed God saying to me that although this was a historical event, Jesus has every...

Book Dedication

Being that most book dedications are typically short, you would think that writing one for my upcoming book would have been the easiest page of the entire thing to write. But, it wasn’t.

I spent hours toiling over it. And I couldn’t figure out who or what to dedicate the book to.

But then, one morning, lightning struck in my head and I knew what it needed to be.

I thought I’d share the dedication with you because it was quite the process for me to put it together.

Dedication

To my wife of 5+ years...

Give Up Your Refrigerator Rights

We’ve all heard the importance of living by the mantra of “People Over Projects.” People and relationships are the marrow of life that all of our lives should be working toward building, growing, and connecting to.

I would imagine many of you are like me though, in that you are task-driven, and get fulfillment about being able to mark things off of your checklist. And so you struggle with the idea of “People Over Projects” and how it doesn’t work like a checklist.

If we know deep-down that crea...

You Have to Go Through the Fire

The day after the Miami Heat won the NBA Finals I listened to Shane Battier talk on the radio about why his team (Miami) won and their why their opponents, Oklahoma City, did not.

And his answer honestly shocked me.

I expected him to say that they had better strategy, or better coaching, or they executed during crunch time, or they had the best player on the court who was playing out of his mind. All of these things would be true in the eyes of most basketball fans.

But Shane Battier didn’t talk...

Are You Fully Alive?

I believe all of us are searching for significance in our lives. We all want to be known and know others. We all want to be loved and accepted. And on some level, we all want to make a difference with our lives.

Everywhere I look I see people on the search for significance, coming up empty time and time again.

Very few of us ever step into the true life God desires for us. Very few of us ever lead lives of significance.

We have a million excuses for why this happens, and honestly, most of them a...

Why Your Church Helps Your Holiness

From Tyler: Today’s post is from pastor and author Daniel Darling. Having written a book on holiness myself I spent a lot of time processing through the role church can play in our development as followers of Jesus. I think Daniel lends a much needed perspective in this post and I’m glad to share it with you.

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At the dawn of Creation, there is a singular moment when the Father paused from his creative labors and uttered a bold statement that reflects humanity’s basic need for community.

“It is...