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Are we praying for people we don't like?
(Or just wishing they'd go away?)
UPDATED JAN. 31, 2007
I'll let my latest posting on JesusFreakBlog.com speak for itself, but I've got several other things I'll be posting on this site in the next several days that I hope get us thinking about praying for people we may not like.

"Once saved, always saved": Is it Biblical?
UPDATED JAN. 23, 2007
I have added a new article written by a brother in the Lord, Brian O'Connell, about the idea that once we are saved, we cannot lose our salvation. Jesus promised us that He would never let go of us, but also commanded us to remain with Him no matter the circumstances. Click here to read this article.

Donate books to help this ministry
UPDATED DEC. 13, 2006
The ministry of The JESUSFREAK.NETwork received nonprofit-organization certification from the Internal Revenue Service this past spring, so all donations to this ministry are now tax-deductible. One way you can help us is to donate Christian-themed books to us. For more information on how you can help, click here or at the link in the upper-right corner of the page.

Who would Jesus hate?
UPDATED DEC. 5, 2006
In response to far too much nonsense I've heard, seen and read recently from people who claim to be Christian but whose lives show none of the love that Jesus commanded us to show, I just registered WhoWouldJesusHate.net. I hope this will give a good punch in the gut to those of us who need it.

Links/info on other religions and cults
UPDATED NOV. 8, 2006
Given the number of non-Christian religious groups that we likely encounter quite often as we talk to others about Christ, it can be confusing unless we understand what others believe--especially if their concept of who He is differs from our own. I have just added this page on what various groups believe, which I hope will be a very useful resource as you share your faith with others.

What are you thankful for?
UPDATED NOV. 3, 2006
As Thanksgiving approaches here in the U.S., our thoughts turn toward thankfulness to God--which should be our attitude year-round anyway. So to give you a chance to share with others what you are thankful for and what the Lord is doing in your life, I have set up a link on my blog that can be accessed through ThankingGod.org where you can share what He has been doing. I hope that this will be an encouragement to all who visit this site.

Jesus loves non-Christians. Do we?
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 9, 2006
I won't rehash here the point I just made in my latest blog entry, but I'd just like to throw out the rhetorical question: Is everyone around you, Christian and non-Christian, seeing the love of Jesus in your life? If not, why not? I'll let the blog entry speak for itself. Feel free to join in the conversation.

Questions about Christ
UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2006
This ministry has received countless questions from people about all aspects of living for Christ since we went online in 1999. I have begun compiling those questions for what I hope will be a very useful resource for believers. Click here to go there, and please keep checking the page for updates.

Also, since quite a few of you have written to ask about trading links with this site, if you have a ministry-related website or blog and would like to trade links with Jesusfreak.com, e-mail me and I'll be happy to check out your site.

God's peace is more than just a lack of conflict
UPDATED JULY 15, 2006
I rarely comment outright on stories in the news, especially with regard to conflict in the Middle East since there's so much of it. But given the huge blowup the past few days with Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians and probably very soon Iran, I'd just like us to stop and think about the difference between just a mere cease-fire and the true peace that God promises to all who seek Him. This of course applies to Israel, but also to everyone who seeks to follow God's will. And given that Israel is a literal flashpoint in world and Biblical history, I hope that my latest blog entry can help us keep things in perspective as we think about what we're really expecting not just in the Middle East but in our own lives when we talk about "peace." God promises us so much more from Himself than we can ever expect or imagine among ourselves--but let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that human efforts can ever bring about God's peace, nor that earthly "peace" is the real thing. Click here for what I hope will be a lively discussion.

Taking time to talk to God
UPDATED JUNE 1, 2006
Since our lives can get so busy during the summer (and fall, and winter, and spring), I have put together a blank, printable prayer list that you can print out and fill out with prayer requests, and post the list where you can see it and pray on a daily basis. The page is at this link. My apologies to those of you who received my newsletter without this URL.

Thoughts about "The Da Vinci Code"
UPDATED MAY 1, 2006
Given the amount of conversation over the upcoming movie release of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on what I think is slightly misplaced controversy. I think that despite the understandable emotion that the book (and soon the movie) has raised with regard to the life of Jesus, Biblical illiteracy among Christians is a much bigger threat that we seem to be glossing over. Click here for an article that I originally posted on JesusFreakBlog.com a few weeks ago.

UPDATED APRIL 18, 2006
I have just posted an article by a brother in Christ named Brian O'Connell about the dangers of trusting in the notion of a pre-tribulation rapture (like in the "LEFT BEHIND" series of books), along with a verse-by-verse examination of dominant pre-trib beliefs and a comparison with various Scripture passages. I'm posting this article because I hope it will get each of us to ask ourselves what we are willing to endure for the sake of Christ and how we can totally rely on Him for our strength no matter what. The article is at this link.

UPDATED APRIL 14, 2006
The server that JesusFreakBlog.com is on has been hit by spammers the past several days and I'm just now noticing (and trying to delete) the junk postings they have made. Please let me know if you see any threads I have overlooked that may still have spam on them, so that I'll know what needs to be deleted. Also check out my blog entry about the fact that Jesus died for spammers, and others we might not like.

UPDATED APRIL 4, 2006
The JESUSFREAK.NETwork is now officially recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry organization. Please prayerfully consider financial support for this ministry.

Easter and the reality of Christ's resurrection
UPDATED MARCH 15, 2006
With Easter coming up in the next few weeks, I think it's very timely for us to think about the event upon which our faith in Christ is based: the reality of His resurrection. Nobody in the past 2,000 years has provided any meaningful explanation of how Christ DIDN'T rise from the dead, in light of the Gospel accounts. Here's an article I posted two years ago after the release of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST that I hope will be a refresher course on the event that gives us more hope than anyone else on the face of the Earth--and should compel us to share that hope with others.

And to once again resurrect my yearly tribute to the Easter Bunny, click here for rabbit recipes.

UPDATED FEB. 8, 2006
To coincide with Valentine's Day next week, I thought it was very timely that we think about God's totally inexplicable love for us. Here's an excerpt from my Feb. 1 newsletter:

With so many people in dozens of countries either looking forward to (or dreading) Valentine's Day on Feb. 14, what better time could there be to think about how incomprehensible God's love is--especially and thankfully in contrast to love from other people? I know that love (or the lack of it) in this world can leave a lot of us jaded and wishing we could just forget about it. And Valentine's Day can open old wounds for a lot of people who have been hurt by people they loved. Especially for those of us who have been hurt, maybe we keep thinking that someday--whenever it might be--we may or may not understand and experience what true love really is. But in reality, because we've been hurt before, we never really expect this to happen to us. We keep telling ourselves that it may or may not happen "someday," but that someday never comes.

But God loved us so much that He sent us His only Son--it's the verse we know probably better than any other. And if we really trust that God meant what He said, then this should totally rock our world. Look at Romans 5:6-11:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

To paraphrase Isaiah 64:6, our own righteousness makes us nothing more than depraved scum. But God sent His only Son to cleanse us and make us just like Himself. This makes absolutely no sense. And that's the point. Are we just going to sit there academically analyzing John 3:16 and put God's love in a tiny little box? Or are we going to freely accept it and let our lives be overwhelmed by it and shaped by it--and let God's love overflow from our lives to others as well? Well, yeah, someday...whenever it will be.

Probably most of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 2:9--"However, as it is written: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.'" Nowhere in this verse does it say this is just referring to heaven...someday...whenever. God loved us so much and sent His only Son to die for us and to cleanse us and to make us just like Himself so that His love would pour forth from our lives like a flood and affect everyone else around us. That love is with us. And Jesus promised He would never leave us. (Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20)

Is there anything else that can change our lives more? Is there anything more accessible than God's love that can radically change our lives right now, right where we are, no strings attached? Is there anything else more powerful to make people want to know who Jesus is?

Make time to be with the One you love. And let His love story fill you, change you and overflow from your life so that others will see it for themselves. Live out His love. And share it with everyone else. It's not like we have to wait for it.