Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11148. Cutting off family is a question I get asked far more often than I once expected, usually by someone who has already tried every softer option and is exhausted from trying. I want to answer honestly rather than give the easy churchy line that family must always be kept close no matter what,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11147. Honouring difficult parents is one of the hardest commands in Scripture to obey with integrity, because the fifth commandment was never written for families where love flowed easily. Exodus 20:12 says honour your father and your mother, full stop, with no footnote excusing us when a parent has been unkind, absent, controlling or…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11146. Honouring your parents does not end the day you move out, get married, or start making decisions they disagree with. The command stays with you for life, though the shape it takes changes considerably once you are grown. I get asked this often by adult believers navigating ageing parents, strained relationships, or simply…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11136. A disciple of Jesus is not simply someone who believes the right facts about Him. It is someone who has attached their whole life to His, as a learner attaches their life to a teacher whose way of seeing the world they intend to make their own. I want to unpack that carefully,…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 11143. Church hurt is a real and painful thing, and I want to say that plainly before anything else. Whether it came from a controlling pastor, a gossiping small group, a public discipline handled cruelly and without grace, or simply years of being quietly overlooked and unappreciated, this kind of wound cuts deeper than…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 11142. Finding a new church after leaving one you have belonged to for years is genuinely disorienting, and I say that having walked several families through exactly this process. The familiar faces, the seat you always quietly sat in, the small weekly routines you barely noticed until they were suddenly gone, all of that…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 11140. How do I find a good church? I get asked this constantly, whether from someone new to the faith, a family who has just relocated, or someone quietly limping away from a painful previous church experience and nervous about trying again. It is one of the most practically important questions a Christian ever…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 11139. A small group is, at its simplest, a handful of church members meeting regularly outside the main Sunday service to study Scripture, pray, and build genuine relationships with each other. What is a small group actually for, though, beyond simply filling a gap in the church calendar, and why does it matter enough…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 11138. Should I have an accountability partner in my Christian life? I hear this question most often from believers who have just come through a season of moral failure, or who sense a particular temptation gaining ground in their life and want a genuine safeguard beyond simple willpower and private prayer alone. My short…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11137. Christian mentoring gets talked about a great deal in church circles these days, often in the same breath as discipleship, and I think that overlap causes more confusion than clarity for most believers wondering whether they actually need a mentor, a discipler, or simply a good friend who happens to be further along…