The Problem of Pornography

John H. Armstrong August 10th, 2010

No subject makes me quite as uncomfortable to speak or write about as pornography. I suppose this is because I know the problem is so profoundly difficult yet I actually know so little about it. I have read very little on the subject and never attempted to counsel porn addicts. I have, rightly I think, preferred allowing those more skilled to help men in the grip of this mind-numbing, soul-destroying sin. I have known a few friends who’ve had serious struggles with pornography and I am keenly … (Read More)

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The Power of Real Friendship in a Culture That Gives Us RentAFriend

John H. Armstrong July 12th, 2010

The writer of Proverbs says “A friend loves at all times” (Prov. 17:17). The Scripture says so much about friendship that it is staggering really. I am thinking through a future book on friendship to follow my current writing on the relational Trinity and how we live life in the Triune God. Clearly friendship is important to a healthy life, spiritually and emotionally.

The apocryphal book of Sirach adds this rather amazing wisdom:

Let those who are friendly with you be many, but let your ad … (Read More)

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Stuck On the Road to Adulthood: Mission and the Millennial Generation

John H. Armstrong June 1st, 2010

A recent Sunday issue of the Chicago Tribune (May 23) ran a front-page feature on the Millennials that got my attention. For those who do not follow this generational descriptor the Millennials are the generation born between 1977 and 1998. The older Millennials came of age around 2000 (they were 23) and now include adults 33 years of age and under. There are 75 million Millennials in America! (There are only 51 million adults in Generation X, those born between 1965-1976, thus the generation th … (Read More)

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Your Church Is Too Small - John H. Armstrong on SBE

Erik Guzman May 14th, 2010

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." - Jesus

Read those words from Jesus, then take a look at the Christian Church today. I think you'll agree…we have a problem. But before you write Jesus' prayer off as an unreachable ideal, listen to this edition of Steve Brown Etc. with John Armstrong, author of Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ's Mission Is … (Read More)

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Becoming Fully Present in the Moment

John H. Armstrong May 10th, 2010

A remarkable thing happens to us, and in us, when we learn to live in the present moment. We learn to live for him who died for us and was raised again for us and thus we live for the moment he has given to us and not for something else or for some other time we dream about.

When we live this way each day, each moment, becomes a kind of sacrament. Every moment contains something in it that we need to fulfill our deepest need. That need is to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourse … (Read More)

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The Four Marks of the Church & Why They Still Matter

John H. Armstrong March 23rd, 2010

The classical theological view has always been that unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity are the “four marks” of the Christian church. Various evangelicals attempt to add “other” marks to these, some even popularly speaking of “nine marks of the church.” I have no dispute with this notion in terms of a general consideration of the work of the church but there are not “nine” marks of the church in the confessional and historical sense. The danger comes when “nine marks, … (Read More)

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