Guest article written by Demian Farnworth, keynote blogger at FallenandFlawed.com.

There are two people in the world: Those who go to church and those who don’t.

Let’s talk about those who go to church.

We all know a man who never misses a Sunday morning service–not because he wants to be there… But because it’s his duty.

Dad would roll over in his grave if he didn’t.

A duty he symbolically checks off his list as he kisses his shaky, silver-haired mother on the cheek and then slips out the door, never to give church, God or Christ a second thought.

This man “goes” to church.

On the other hand, we have the man who manically drags his family to church every Sunday only to break down midway through the sermon, struck dumb by the conviction of the Holy Spirit on some secret sin holed up in his heart.

Fortunately he eventually pulls himself together and rejoices when God reminds him of Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

But this man’s not done.

Throughout the week he nurses that tension between conviction and joy–his thoughts always hovering between shame from sin and pride in Christ.

Yes, he goes to church. But as you can see, he’s manifestly different than the first man and church doesn’t define him. What gives?

The truth is really very simple.
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Guest article written by Daniel C. Wilson, keynote blogger at DesireSpiritualGrowth.com

There is no one so useless as the one who is lukewarm, content, comfortable, and safe behind a buffer of outer holiness.

Trying to remedy this by focusing on living “right” can feed this unusable stratagem. When we focus on living “right,” we inevitably miss out on a passionate pursuit of Christ.

Not only that, but our pursuit of right living empties our life of the spiritual power that ought to be filling our life.

What are you zealous for?

Do you lack zeal for prayer? For missions? For church? For Bible study?

If so, the problem is not a lack of information or focus on those activities.
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Guest article by Don Dudley, keynote blogger at YouSeeDryBones.com.

I own books. Let me explain.

I own a history book. I can look in it and learn all about the people who lived in the ancient Sumerian culture. There are early samples of their writings like the epic known as Ishtar’s Descent into the Netherworld. How awesome is that? In the appendix it shows how cuneiform evolved into Hebrew and later Greek.

However, I am not an ancient history scholar.

I have a diet book. It’s all about getting good abs. It shows me how to eat correctly and what exercises I can do to have a sweet upper body. It has a special chapter devoted to building “explosive” speed by correctly developing my muscles.

Judging by my waistline, I am not a body builder.

Another awesome book I own is called The Blair Handbook. It is an extensive volume to help writers know the grammatical rules. This book includes sections on how to notate academic papers in MLA and APA.

Despite this, I can barely spell my own name and homonyms trip me up.

Oh, I also own a Bible.
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How long before you actually followed Christ did you say that you “believed” in God?

I can speak for myself here. It was for all my life. I’ve always “believed” in God.

But I didn’t trust in Him. I didn’t love Him. I didn’t worship Him.

There have been numerous people with whom I’ve talked and have told me that they believe in God. Of course, this used to satisfy my inquiry. But not now.

Now, however, when someone tells me they believe in God, I ask them, “Oh yea? That’s great!” And then follow with, “What do you mean by that?”

So why does it take more than just believing?

Whoever follows Jesus knows his voice. They discern from the voice of the enemy, and the voice of their Savior. To put it plainly in the words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

But what does it mean to follow Jesus? I suppose we could write a book about this, but this article does not afford the time and space. So I will break it down into two things for now that are most protuberant: Loving God and Loving Others.

This comes from Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40: Continue Reading…

I have been known to do personal surveys from time to time.

Not the kind where you have a seat and fill out a form, but the kind where I would just ask specific questions to random people as I encounter them usually about the topic of faith.

Some of the surveys I have done have been

There have been more, but these are the ones I have done the most. I especially enjoy asking people why they wear a cross or what it means to be a Christian.

And honestly, people have been quite offended by these questions. I suppose it is because they had to give a reason for something they were unsure of.

But do we really understand what it means to be a Christian?
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