Big Questions for God

When you meet God, what’s the first question you’ll ask him? Mine is easy: Why zits and mosquitoes, God? Sin and the fall of humankind is a serious issue. I get it. But acne and blood-drawing, itch-causing, malaria-carrying bugs seem like cruel and unusual punishment. For a kid who grew up in the mosquito infested South

Hope Healed Her (and it just might help you too)

Imagine waking up one morning with the ability to see out of only one good eye, without the power to move your limbs, and with a tangle of tubes extending from your body like tentacles. Now imagine having no idea how you got in such a predicament. Such is the story of my friend Katherine

New Baby, New Book (and a freebie just in time for Lent!)

Happy New Year! I hope your Christmas was meaningful and the year has started well! I’m excited for 2016. Very excited. The first–and best–reason for my excitement is my newborn son, Jacob Christopher Greer. Jacob, born on December 28th, is the most amazing Christmas present. Needless to say, my wife and I are totally in love. We praise

Who Worships a Child?

I’m about to have my first child. “A real boy!” as Pinocchio would say in his high-pitched Disney voice. By December 30th that real boy – my son Jacob – will no longer be hiding out in Kerry’s body; he will enter the world breathing real air, crying real hard, and growing real big as he begins down

God’s Will: Can It be Found and Followed?

What if knowing God’s will for your life was not as complicated as it seems? pic courtesy pdpics.com I have a friend who has struggled for a very long time to understand what God’s plan is for him. Like all of us, he longs to know that he’s in “the center of God’s will.” He’s

Baptism: Wading the Waters Together

My last post—The Power of Presence—was about the power of God’s presence with us and our presence with each other, and I want to share with you a beautiful moment from last week that illustrates again the gift of God’s presence through his people… The story begins with AJ, who walked into the church where

The Power of Presence

I’ll never forget where I first learned about the power of presence. It was in a hospice care facility in east Texas where my sweet grandmother, Jo, was dying. My grandfather, her husband of 58 years, never left her bedside. He comforted her, supported her, and helped ready her for eternity with the simple power

Not Opposed to Effort: Solutions for Better Discipleship (solution #2)

(This post is the 5th and final blog in a series about the nature of discipleship in our churches today.)   Making disciples is what the Church was made by God to do. In this series I explain why we aren’t doing it well (Read it here)  and two things that stand in our way

Not Opposed to Effort: Solutions for Better Discipleship (solution #1)

(This post is the 4th blog in a series about the nature of discipleship in our churches today.)   In the first post of this series (Read it here) I argued that the American church’s misunderstanding of the phrase “grace is enough” causes us to miss out on what it truly means to be disciples of

Not Opposed to Effort: The Second Roadblock to Discipleship

(This post is the 3rd blog in a series about the nature of discipleship in our churches today.)  In the first post of this series (Read it here) I argued that the American church’s misunderstanding of the phrase “grace is enough” causes us to misrepresent the Christian life and miss out on what it truly

Not Opposed to Effort: Two Roadblocks to Discipleship

(This post is the 2nd in a series about the nature of discipleship in our churches today. Click here to read the first post.)  In last week’s post (Read it here) I argued that our misunderstanding of the oft-used phrase “grace is enough” causes us to misrepresent the Christian life and miss out on what

Not Opposed to Effort: The Work of Discipleship

Grace is not enough. That sentence alone will send the reformed crowd into orbit, and it just might make the rest of you scramble for Bible verses that refute works-based righteousness. But when I was recently asked to comment on Christian discipleship today, I could not help but think that grace is not enough. Obviously

Questions about God? – We’re All Asking ‘Em…

And I would really like to know what yours are. I’ve begun a project with a two fellow Christian authors and we want to do something the church is not doing very well: we want to help people wrestle – honestly, boldly, and productively – with the questions we are all asking about God and

I’m only eating rice and beans this year (so far)

I’m never more content than the Sunday morning of Thanksgiving weekend. The previous 72 hours are filled (literally) with turkey and pumpkin pie. And lots of it. And when Sunday morning rolls around I am primed and ready to worship God for all his bountiful blessings in my life. But then, out of nowhere, the

My First Baptism

Photo Credit: Jewels654 via CC Actually, it was Zack’s first baptism. And I did the honors. For the first time. For the last 4 months, a small crew of like-minded Christian fellas have been meeting at my house. It’s a typical church small group. Or community group. Or life group. Or whatever your church may