rebelling against low expectations
The dawn of a new year is swiftly approaching, and with it comes the famed New Year resolutions. If I were to guess, one of the most popular New Year resolutions for Christians is some sort of Bible reading plan. Most of us want to improve our daily habits for our time in Scripture. For some, that means reading the Bible more consistently. For others, it means extending mere reading into a...
When I need to think through something, I write it down. I know this doesn’t work for everyone—some people are external processors and need to talk it through with a friend. For some, just attempting to journal can cause more stress than it alleviates. But my method of processing the world inevitably involves writing, whether it’s sitting down to journal or just writing angsty poetry in class. I...
You know what is one of the worst cliche sayings ever? “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I’m not one for cliche sayings to begin with, but that one has never sat quite right with me. I’ve always felt like it was a lie; a saying to give you false hope in the midst of your suffering; something to slap on the walls of a classroom to give half-hearted encouragement to its readers. After...
Do you always find it easy to read the Bible? Do you constantly burn with a deep passion for God’s Word? If you honestly couldn’t answer yes to those questions, maybe these will resonate more. Do you struggle to meditate on God’s Word? Do you get distracted when you sit down to read? Do you long to delight in God? Yes? I know, me too. Too often our pursuit of God is so weak. We struggle with half...
The Bible isn’t magic, but sometimes we treat it as if it is. We see it as a horoscope, or a magic pill, that by simply popping in each morning, we will receive all we need. Like an oracle of old, we come to it with our questions, and it will spit out the answer to our queries. Each morning devotion tells us exactly how to live that day, every quiet time automatically encourages us, and with only...
When I was eleven, my parents gave me my own study Bible. I’d had other Bibles before, of course. I remember a children’s Bible with a picture of Jesus on the cover and I once had a mini pink Bible that I ruined when I accidentally dropped it in a mud puddle. But to me, this Bible symbolized adulthood. For years, the Bible has been an integral part of my life. I can honestly say it’s changed the...
We’ve all been told to memorize Scripture. We all know that it’s something we should be doing. Some of us have even set memorization goals and worked towards memorizing verses, chapters, or even whole books of the Bible. But have you ever asked, why? I know I have. In fact, when I was seventeen years old, I struggled with that question. (Which was a surprise because I had spent most of my school...
One of my favorite scenes from C.S. Lewis’ legendary Chronicles of Narnia (from which I have many favorites), is the very last scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace have just completed an eclectic series of odd adventures and are looking for a way back home. In so doing, the trio come across a small fire with fish roasting over it and a lamb beside it who beckons them...
Transformed by Truth: Why and How to Study the Bible for Yourself as a Teen, a new book by Katherine Forster, releases from Crossway today! Forster wrote Transformed by Truth in response to a lack of resources for serious Bible study for teens. More importantly, however, she wanted to combat the low expectations that the world and sometimes even the church has for teens and their Bible reading...
rebelling against low expectations
