Next Steps

Prayer is a spiritual discipline that most Christians are familiar with but most of us are frustrated with at times. Why don’t Christians pray more? We don’t know how. If you didn’t grow up in church, or even if you did, praying can be incredibly intimidating, especially if you grew up in a formal church where the pastor…

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Matthew 4:4 Let’s say you had a plate of food you wanted to dive into. How would you do it? Let’s say this food represents Scripture, how do I get into it? It’s not…

Most people understand that Christians believe the Bible is important, but why is it important? What value does it hold in the life of the believer? 1. The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself to humanity. If you want to know about God, the Creator of the Universe, the one who made you on…

Even if you’re not a church person, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that a great way to grow in your faith is to dig into Scripture and read your Bibles. It’s not like this is some big secret. And it’s not that no one has access to Scripture. We’ve got it on our smartphones.…

Whether we recognize it or not, every Christian has a superpower, a supernaturally chosen, Spirit-infused, divine grace, given to you to change your world. You didn’t ask for it, but if you’re a Christian and the Spirit of God lives inside of you, then you’ve got at least one. Commonly known as ‘spiritual gifts,’ your superpower…

One of the most hopeful verses in the entire Old Testament is Jonah 3:1, when God speaks again to Jonah after Jonah had been swallowed by a whale for his disobedience:   1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give…

The most famous part of the story of Jonah in the Old Testament is the moment in his life when he was swallowed by a huge fish: 17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his…

If you look at the Old Testament story of Lot (Genesis 13-14, 19), you’ll see a cautionary tale of how quickly life can get out of control when our bad decisions start to snowball. Where did things start to go wrong for Lot? It was when his uncle Abram gave him the choice of where…

If you read Daniel 3, you’ll discover an amazing real-life story of three men who courageously spoke truth to power even at the threat of their own lives. In a previous post I share four harmful ways we respond to trials in our lives. From the positive standpoint, what can we learn from the lives…

There’s no getting around difficult times in our lives. As followers of Jesus, however, we are called to respond differently than the rest of the world. It could be a relationship that is going downhill, a situation you weren’t expecting or a trial that seems to be sapping your last ounce of energy. How do you respond…

Josh Daffern
about

Josh Daffern

Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!

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