Happy Friday! As I drove in to work this morning I was listening to Vet a new album by DA Truth. Worth the listen! When you get a chance put on some fresh tunes, you can stream from Spotify or Apple Music or buy the album and support the artist.

Does Jesus Commend Dishonesty in Luke 16?

Over a dozen email questions have arrived in the inbox from listeners who want to better understand Jesus’s parable in the first half of Luke 16. Isn’t Jesus celebrating dishonesty? Matt in Oklahoma writes us: “Hello, Pastor John! How do you understand and explain the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16:1–13? This one is a real head-scratcher for me. What does it mean? And what are the implications for Christians today?”

A Biblical Theology of Cities

Developing Healthy Leaders in Underserved Contexts

Listen to this podcast! “In some contexts, we can’t assume students have access to certain resources (like books and online material) due to financial or language issues. We can’t assume every aspiring leader in underserved contexts has a basic theological understanding of key doctrines. And often our illustrations and applications of ministry principles don’t connect well in poor or dangerous places of ministry.”

Is an Elephant Running Your Life?

The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning: Always trust your feelings.
This chapter sets out to dismantle this Great Untruth by insisting that while feelings are always compelling, they are not always reliable. “Often they distort reality, deprive us of insight, and needlessly damage our relationships. Happiness, maturity, and even enlightenment require rejecting the Untruth of Emotional Reasoning and learning instead to question our feelings.”

Why Is Friendship Hard for Men?

Many factors combine to make friendship difficult for men. Personally, time for friends seems unrealistic in light of work or family responsibilities. Culturally, we don’t have a shared understanding of what friendships among men should look like. We also find ourselves connecting more digitally than deeply. We’ve lost a vision for strong, warm, face-to-face and side-by-side male friendship.
But God made us for more. He made us in his own image, the image of a triune God who exists in communal love. Therefore, friendship is not a luxury; it’s a relational necessity. We glorify God by enjoying him and reflecting his relational love with one another. If you are a man who has struggled to go deeper with other men, here are five concrete steps to cultivate deeper friendships.