Mark Batterson's Blog, page 19

Once a Whisper

For the past two decades, I’ve had the joy and privilege of pastoring National Community Church in Washington, DC, and I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else doing anything else with anyone else. I’m living the dream, but that dream was once a whisper.

The genesis of the dream goes all the way back to a cow pasture in Alexandria, Minnesota, where I heard the still small voice of God. I had just finished my freshman year at the University of Chicago. Law school was Plan A, but that was before I...

Divergent Thinking

In the early years of the Head Start program, a study was conducted involving sixteen hundred children who were tested in a wide variety of categories, including divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the ability to correctly answer a question that doesn’t require creativity, just analytical intelligence. Divergent thinking is a very different animal. It’s the ability to generate creative ideas by exploring possible solutions.

When asked to come up with as many uses for a paper clip as...

For David’s Sake

1 John 5:14 – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

Versions of this three-word phrase—“For David’s sake”—pop up in multiple places in the Old Testament. It’s a testament to God’s faithfulness even when we’re faithless.

In 853 BC, a king named Jehoram assumed the throne. He was the fifth king of the southern kingdom, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram actually killed his brothers to secure the...

Closer Than Close

Genesis 1:1-2 – “In the beginningGodcreated the heavens and the earth.The earth wasformless and void, anddarkness was over thesurface of the deep, andthe Spirit of Godwasmoving over thesurface of the waters.”

Long before the Holy Spirit filled or stirred or gifted or convicted or sealed or revealed or reminded, we find Him hovering over the surface of thedeep. And He is still hovering over our lives the way He hovered over creation.

He still speaks light into darkness.

He still brings order...

Dark Night

2 Corinthians 12:9 – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Mother Teresa devoted her life to loving the sick, the poor, and the dying in the slums of Calcutta, India. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003 she was beatified by the Catholic Church. With those kind of accolades, it’s easy to think of her as existing in a...

Lick the Honey

The post Lick the Honey appeared first on Mark Batterson.

Snow Crystals

Wilson grew up on a farm in Jericho, Vermont, and as a young boy he developed a fascination with snowflakes. Obsession might be a better word for it. Most people go indoors during snowstorms. Not Wilson. He would run outside when the flakes started falling, catch them on black velvet, look at them under a microscope, and take photographs of them before they melted. His first photomicrograph of a snowflake was taken on January 15, 1885.

Under the microscope, He found that snowflakes were...