The Real Deal 27: Our Uncommon God
At the Safe Haven, we are having a glorious time working our way through the Lord’s Prayer, little by little, phrase by majestic phrase. Think of the Lord’s Prayer as…
The Real Deal 26: Recalibrating Our Expectations
The other night at the Safe Haven, during our series — Jesus in High Definition — we had a heart-to-heart. A heart-to-heart discussion about misinformed expectations. The premise of the…
The Real Deal 25: Loving Those Different than Us
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus commands us Christians to love our enemies. Now, this is a very well known and often recited and taught upon passage. However, one part that…
The Real Deal 24: Duck Dynasty
Well, my friends, they say that “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I don’t know if I’ve ever realized the truth of that statement as much as I…
The Real Deal 23: Voices from a Video
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a compelling, truthful, tell-it-like-it-is, brutally honest video worth? As a guy who has been in church leadership for over…
The Real Deal 22: God’s Will
Time to tackle yet another question from camp. And this one just happens to be one of my all-time favorites. This student phrased the question as follows: How do I know if…
The Real Deal 21: Halloween
Call me a contrarian, but I LOVE Halloween. And I, for one, am not prepared to concede this holy-day to the enemy. Here’s why: Halloween is a contraction of two…
The Real Deal 20: Rejection
It’s one of the saddest verses in all of the Bible, and yet (ironically) one of the most encouraging. Especially for one very special junior high student. The verse to…
The Real Deal 19: How Old Is The Earth, Really?
Why do some people say the earth is millions of years old, and others say it’s only thousands of years old? I am so confused. I hear one thing in…
The Real Deal 18: Why Is My Mom A Crackhead?
No junior higher should ever have to ask God a question like this. But that is exactly the question one middle school student asked when given the opportunity. “If you…