Approaching God

June 12, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

What is a Sunday morning like for your family? I feel like I’ve watched families walk in to church like they have just survived a war. It's got to be hard. It is difficult enough for me to get myself to church on time - I can't imagine getting four other humans dressed and in the right place before I get to church.

I grew up in a family of three boys. There were definitely times when my mom declared “silent car” on the drive to church. I think my parents tried to figure out ways to get us up and going with some kind of consistency on Sunday mornings, and this is partly how they did it:

Chocolate milk.

This Little Light of Mine

June 05, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Do you remember the song, "This Little Light of Mine?"

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine, Let it shine, Let it shine!

It's a simple song that is packed with meaning.

Jesus talked about us shining like lights in Matthew 5:13-16.

I Cannot Do It

May 29, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

I love the Old Testament story of Joseph. Joseph's story is in Genesis 37-50, and it's a fascinating read of family, jealousy, hardship, forgiveness, and God's will. But there is one moment right in the middle of the story that has always intrigued me. Do you ever read something in Scripture and think, "That's not what I would do?" This is one of those moments.

In order to drop into the middle of Joseph's story, we've have to understand what has happened up to that point. Joseph was the son of his father's favorite wife, so naturally, he was the favorite son. If you have siblings, you've probably heard your parents say that they love you all the same. This wasn't really the case in Joseph's family. Joseph was the favorite, and everybody knew it.

Watch Out for the Dogs

May 22, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

You know that moment in a movie or a T.V. show when you hear the record scratch noise and the video stops? There’s usually a freeze-frame and the main character looks confused. You're supposed to ask the question, "What is going on?"

If the Bible had a soundtrack, there's a moment in the book of Philippians where this would have totally happened. If you read through the book of Philippians, you'll read about Paul's experience as a prisoner for the Gospel. He encourages his friends to really care for one another. And then, you get to Philippians 3.

What I Learned from the Train

May 17, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Janie and I just returned from a vacation to the west coast. We spent a few days in L.A. before we boarded a train for a 34-hour ride to Seattle. It was just me, Janie, and the retirees, riding the rails. We took a lot of naps and spent most of the time just staring out the window. It was beautiful, riding quietly through uninhabited places of our country. There were mountains, lakes, forests - all wizzing by.

That was the challenge - if either of us saw anything interesting, it was difficult to point it out before it was gone. Everything whipped by so quickly. It was beautiful, and then it was gone. Slowly, Janie and I learned to stop trying to comment on everything, and just enjoyed the view.

It reminded me of a prayer from Psalms 90 that is actually a prayer of Moses.

Silence

May 15, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

I think cellphones have brought a lot of positive change to the world and our lives, but they’ve also brought us endless notifications. Companies invented strings of sounds that are designed to annoy us into paying attention! A ringing phone is the worst. Most people keep their phone on 'silent', but even silent mode isn’t silent! You can hear someone getting a call from a mile away as their phone rattles against everything in their purse. Phones have brought so much convenience, but they require so much attention.

Constantly buzzing, ringing, beeping: begging for attention. And as noise fills our life, we are all too ready to respond. It’s like we wait for the phone to ring. We are right there when the notifications come, and our life becomes one big reaction. Something happens, and we react. We hear the notification; we swipe. We hear about a problem; we’ve got a solution. Someone needs us; we’re ready to answer. We have become reactors.

Surprise

May 08, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

As a kid, I loved the story of Jericho because we got to yell in church. Usually, we would build a wall with those cardboard bricks and march around it, pretending to be Israelites. If you were really lucky, you were selected to act as the wrath of God and knock down the wall!

We may remember this story with nostalgia, but I don't think we really think much about how crazy it was. God gave Israel quite the battle plan. There wasn't supposed to be any fighting at all. After the people marched around the city and shouted a great shout, the walls would come a'tumblin down.

Our Eyes

May 03, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

There are a lot of places where Scripture talks about our eyes. They're very important. Jesus even talked about our eyeballs in the Sermon on the Mount. In this passage He tells us that our lives follow our eyes. What we look at is ultimately the direction of our hearts.

In Matthew 6:22-23, Jesus asks us to think about where we're focusing.

Heart and Hands

May 01, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

There is a story in the New Testament that I think is really funny. It's funny to me because when we read it, we all aspire to be one particular character, but I think most of us are someone else. This is a story that we love to apply spiritually, but we don't often think about what it would have been like to be there.

This story is about two ladies named Mary and Martha.

Listening to the Spirit

April 26, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Do you ever feel like you just wish someone would tell you what to do? I like leading, but sometimes it's nice to have someone just tell you what to do next. I think this is why I like lists– they're a way for me to get to tell myself what to do. It's the best of both worlds!

So often we feel like there's no one to show us the way with our faith. We ask questions like, "What am I supposed to do next?" "What is God up to?" We have questions that we can't figure out on our own. And then we read stories in the Bible where God seems to tell people exactly what's going to happen next.

To Each His Own

April 24, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Some of the best news is that we're not supposed to follow God by ourselves. We are not alone, we're following God together with other believers. Though this is definitely good news, sometimes it complicates things.

Whenever you talk about doing something together, it can be a hard thing. People can make things more difficult. Primarily, working together introduces the danger for one serious problem: jealousy. We start looking around and realizing that there are some people that are better at certain things than we are. Maybe they have more resources or more talents. They could be better at speaking or more creative than we are. As we notice this and see this, we take our focus off the task and think more about how they are better.

Generosity

April 19, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Have you ever read a certain Scripture and thought, “that’s perfect for this other person I know?” Have you ever read something in the Bible and thought, not about how it applies to your life, but how it applies to other people? Sometimes we sit in church and think more about 'people who need to hear this,' than we do about what God might be saying to us!

There's a passage in 1 Timothy that I think it's particularly easy to do that with.

Covered

April 17, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

What do you wish people thought about you? It can be easy to get lost in others' perception of you. Do you think people ever talk about you behind your back?

When we’re born, we’re born into a context. We have a family, a history, and a lot of times, expectation. Maybe you were always expected to amount to something. Maybe, no one thought you would amount to anything. But there was a perception around who you were and who you were supposed to be.

Slow Obedience

April 12, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

I'm not a parent yet, but I feel like there has to be some sort of ancient parenting phrase-book that you receive when you have your first child. There are things that all parents say that just seem to keep getting repeated throughout history. Does that book exist? I probably won't know until I have kids. I'm sure everyone is sworn to secrecy, of course.

One thing I can still hear my parents saying to me is this: "Slow Obedience is No Obedience." That's an all-star phrase.

Today's Truth

April 10, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Have you ever felt like your time with God was a separate event from the rest of your day? I often feel like God shows me something in His Word, but then I pretty much forget about it while I live my life. We don't often do this on purpose, it just happens.

As we live our life, it can be easy for us to forget the bigger picture. This is why my wife Janie and I developed "Today's Truth." This simple notepad is a way to connect your time with God to the rest of your day.

Behind the Scenes

April 05, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Have you ever wished or hoped for something for a long time? Think deeper than some Christmas gift you really wanted. Has there been something you've hoped would happen in your life? What do you think your response would be if it did?

In a lot of ways, the book of Ruth is a book filled with longing. Ruth's story really starts with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi lost her whole family. Shortly after her husband died, her two sons did as well. She tried to change her name to "bitter." Naomi tried to send her daughters-in-laws back to their own families, but Ruth stayed.

Ten Things Before You Go to College

April 03, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

When I was in seminary, I led a group of 4 high school guys for four years. We started meeting together when they were freshmen, and I got to see them graduate and head off to college. The last topic we talked about were 10 things before they headed to college.

Last year, I fleshed these ten things out a bit more to write Ten Things Before You Go to College. In this short book, I outline ten things that I wish I had thought about before I headed off to school. This week, I released the full-color print version!

By This We Know Love

March 29, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

Easter is this Sunday. We will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ– the moment He came back to life! But in order for us to get to Sunday, we have to experience Friday first. It's not fun to think about everything that Jesus went through on our behalf. There are details and images that we would rather not think about. It's easy to see the victory of God at the resurrection on Easter, but what are we supposed to take away from everything leading up to it?

There's a short verse in the book of 1 John that helps us understand everything that happened around Easter.

Pure Religion

March 27, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

The book of James has always fascinated me. James was written by on of Jesus' half-brothers. Can you imagine growing up with Jesus? James was there? What was that like?

The even crazier thing is that James believed. He became convinced that his brother was the Son of God and our Savior. That's someone I would want to talk to.

Tears for the City

March 22, 2018 by Kevin Johnson

If you grew up in church, you probably remember the week before Easter pretty well. You got to cut out palm branches and throw them everywhere. If you had a really cool teacher, you were told to yell words you'd never heard, like, "Hosanna!"