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The Christian Atheist

February 14, 2011 — Leave a comment

Craig Groeshel’s latest book, The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist, is a raw and unapologetic challenge to live fully devoted to Christ. Groeschel’s hard-hitting message will awaken your spirit and embolden your faith. Here are just a few thought-provoking comments from The Christian Atheist:

  • “At the age of twenty-five, I was a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ.”
  • “Some of us know God by reputation…Some of us know God in our memories…and some of us know God intimately.”
  • “Jesus never criticized prayers that were honest, only those that were long and showy.”
  • “If you keep making excuses, you’re insulting God’s power.”
  • “If you’re not ministering and using your gifts in the church, then something God wants done is being ignored.”
Perhaps my favorite chapter from Groeschel’s book is his chapter on forgiveness. The story he tells about forgiving Max, a close family friend who molested his sister for years, is amazing. Groeschel writes, “My prayers for others may or may not change them. But my prayers always change me. Praying for Max over time changed me. It made me a different person, so different that I began to contemplate the impossible: asking God to help me forgive Max.” Craig made that decision, and with God’s help he forgave Max. And when he did, he writes, “The Bible became clearer. God seemed nearer. My heart was purer.”

The Christian Atheist address a number of issues that are relevant to where we live today. Each chapter title begins, When you Believe in God but…
  • Don’t Really Know Him
  • Are Ashamed of Your Past
  • Aren’t Sure He Loves You
  • Not in Prayer
  • Don’t Think He’s Fair
  • Won’t Forgive
  • Don’t Think You Can Change
  • Still Worry All the Time
  • Pursue Happiness at Any Cost
  • Trust More in Money
  • Don’t Share Your Faith
  • Not in His Church

Regardless of where you are in your faith journey, you’ll be challenged and stretched by The Christian Atheist.

In Personal Growth Character, Faith
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Risk-Taking: Lessons From My Small Group

April 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

My small group has been studying the topic of Risk from Hebrews 11 for the past few weeks.  Last Sunday night during our group meeting it was really encouraging to hear one member after another express their desire to step beyond just “playing it safe.”  Whether it was realizing the boredom and monotony of living a “safe” life or the challenge to take risks to pursue their God-given dreams, it was really cool to see God move in all of us.  


As Mark Batterson once said, “Too many of us are tentatively playing the game of life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.”  None of us want to live that way.  We don’t want to be guilty of making the grandstands of mediocrity the place where we watch God use other people while we sit on our hands because we’re too afraid to act.  As we’ve studied Hebrews 11, here’s a few things we’ve learned in our journey together:

  • God can use anyone who is willing to take risks…even a prostitute named Rahab (Hebrews 11).
  • “God ordained dreams die because we aren’t willing to do something that seems illogical.” Mark Batterson
  • Risk-taking can feel like test-taking.  Risk is always accompanied by the unknown (consider Abraham when God called him to sacrifice Isaac) 
  • Risk-taking always requires a “great exchange.”  Moses exchanged power and privilege for God’s purpose.  He exchanged the security of Egypt’s wealth for the payoff of Israel’s exodus. On this side of the exchange we find comfort and security.  On the other side of the exchange we find fulfilled dreams and a life of obedience.
  • Noah’s risk-taking led to intimacy with God.  Our risk-taking should do the same. (Hebrews 11:7, The Message)
  • “The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.” Dick Biggs
  • Risk requires action–beware of “inaction” regrets.  Over the course of one week, action regrets outweigh inaction regrets 53% to 47%.  But over the course of an entire lifetime, regrets of inaction far outnumber regrets of action–84% to 16%.  
  • Our tendency is to think that God’s plan starts and ends with us.  We are so focused on our personal potential and objectives that we often forget that we are one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Question:  What lessons have you learned about taking risks and stepping into God’s plan for your life? 
In Church, Personal Growth Faith, Risk
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Integrity and the Compartmentalization of Faith

July 14, 2009 — Leave a comment
Integrity is a non-negotiable–not just for leadership but for life in general. Integrity is the purity of character that influences every part of a person’s life to the degree that what you see in public is what God sees in private. Integrity is about more than the absence of bad habits. It’s the presence of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life producing genuine character. To have integrity implies that you are whole or complete.

One of the enemies of “wholeness” is the compartmentalization of faith. We live in a world of “lists” and that list mentality has negatively impacted our ability to live with integrity. As a result, we create compartments in life and often organize those compartments into two major categories–sacred and secular. Author and professor Dallas Willard has observed, “There truly is no division between sacred and secular except what we have created. And that is why the division of the legitimate roles and functions of human life into the sacred and the secular does incalculable damage to our individual lives and to the cause of Christ. Holy people must stop going into “church work” as their natural course of action and take up holy orders in farming, industry, law, education, banking, and journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism or to pastoral and missionary work.”

The truth is when God redeems your life, he redeems all of who you are. He doesn’t just redeem your spiritual life, but he redeems your work life, family life, recreational life–essentially all of you. Your life is not divided into “sacred” and “secular” categories. Rather, God calls you to be holy and to view every arena of life through a missional lens. Therefore, when God redeems you, He invites you to be on-mission with Him. He invites you to participate, as Chuck Colson says, not only in the great commission, but also in the “cultural commission,” using your God-given influence to shape culture for good.

Integrity cannot exist when our faith is compartmentalized. True integrity de-compartmentalizes our lives and makes us one person–whole and complete. When you lack integrity, a different you shows up in each arena of life. It’s like a spiritual multiple personality disorder–the people around you never know which you will show up at home, work, or church. But God invites us to a life of integrity where He is at the very core influencing everything we do and every arena of life. God-directed integrity removes a compartmentalized faith and creates one you in step with God’s work in you and in the world.

Questions: Do you compartmentalize your faith? How has this affected your integrity? What needs to happen for your life to represent the wholeness and completeness associated with true integrity?
In Culture, Personal Growth Character, Culture, Faith, Integrity
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