October 29, 2019
by Eric Stillman
I still remember where I was the day I realized that the world did not revolve around me. I was in Washington D.C., 21 years old, sitting in the top section of RFK Stadium at a Promise Keepers conference. All around me, thousands of men from all over the country stood, many with their arms raised to the sky, worshiping their God. As the swell of their voices echoed around the stadium, a sweet sound in our Lord’s ears, I suddenly realized that I was not the center of the universe. I was just one among many who had gathered that day to worship God and to commit our lives to His service....Keep Reading
Tags: Discipleship, pride
October 22, 2019
by Eric Stillman
I was 21 years old and spending a lot of time in ministry to teenagers when the movie Titanic was at the height of its popularity. I distinctly remember the swooning sounds of many a teenage girl over Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, as he won Rose’s (Kate Winslet’s) heart and then (spoiler alert) gave up his life to save hers by choosing to remain in the frozen water while she floated safely on the piece of debris from the ship....Keep Reading
Tags: God's love, Titanic
October 15, 2019
by Eric Stillman
What comes to mind when you hear the word “righteous,” and what is your understanding of what it means to be righteous? Perhaps, like me, you instinctively think that to be righteous means to achieve some kind of moral perfection, that the righteous person is the one who lives a moral and ethical life. Let me ask you to consider a better way of understanding righteousness....Keep Reading
Tags: Discipleship, Righteousness
October 8, 2019
by Eric Stillman
The first time I remember hearing the phrase "born again" was in relation to Darryl Strawberry, the former Mets and Yankees star. I recall reading that Strawberry had become a "born again Christian," and while I wasn't quite sure what that meant, it was obvious that he seemed to have found religion.
The phrase “born again” carries with it all kinds of baggage in this day and age....Keep Reading
Tags: Evangelism, Salvation
October 1, 2019
by Eric Stillman
At the end of a lengthy chapter on the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, Paul concludes by exhorting his listeners to live their lives completely for God, because it all matters. In a world where it is so easy to question the significance of our daily struggle and toil, I find this passage to be cold water in a parched land. Because Jesus rose from the dead, Paul argues, we know that the things that we do this side of heaven have eternal significance. ...Keep Reading
Tags: Discipleship, Significance
September 24, 2019
by Eric Stillman
King Saul was the first king in Israel. Tall, strong, and handsome, he certainly looked the part. But from the beginning, his insecurities held him back. In fact, when the prophet Samuel went to anoint him as king, they could not find him because he was hiding “among the baggage” (1 Samuel 10:22)!
Despite his anxieties, Saul’s early days as king were full of success. But eventually he lost his way...Keep Reading
Tags: Worship, Discipleship
September 17, 2019
by Eric Stillman
Lately I have found that when I am accused of wrongdoing, I have two potential responses competing in my mind. The first is to defend myself, to give all the reasons the accuser is wrong, and to point out all the way my accuser is just as guilty as I am. My second response is to not only agree with my accuser but to add to my accuser’s list all the other ways that I am guilty which they neglected to mention. The first response feels like the right way to go. After all, I am standing up for myself and declaring that I am not such a bad person after all, nor am I alone in being imperfect. The second response, however, is both humble and brutally honest about who I am....Keep Reading
Tags: Identity, Criticism
September 10, 2019
by Eric Stillman
This past Sunday, I began preaching through the book of Revelation. One of the key takeaways from chapter 1 is that our perspective on this world is incredibly limited. We may believe that “reality” consists of what we can see, touch, hear, taste, and smell, but the Bible, and Revelation in particular, reveals to us that there is a whole unseen spiritual reality that is more real than the transitory things that inhabit the material world.
In a Tim Keller lecture that I was listening to recently, he shared an implication of that truth that I had never considered. ...Keep Reading
Tags: Suffering, pride
September 3, 2019
by Eric Stillman
I became a follower of Jesus as a college freshman at age 18. After a couple of years of learning what it meant to follow Jesus and developing some close friendships with my Christian friends, I started to understand the importance of accountability, of having someone that I trusted enough to confess my sins too, someone who would ask me the tough questions about my walk with the Lord. For the past 20+ years, I have always had at least someone that I talk with regularly so that I stay sharp in my discipleship. As Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
But here’s the thing about accountability and the sincere desire to avoid sin:...Keep Reading
Tags: accountability, Discipleship
August 27, 2019
by Eric Stillman
One of the fundamental values of our culture is that every person should have the freedom to choose for themselves how to live (within the bounds of the law). But our culture’s definition of freedom (the absence of restrictions) differs from the Biblical concept of freedom. The Bible tells us that in the end, you are either a slave to God or a slave to sin (Romans 6:16). The choice is not between following God and living free to do as you please. The choice is between serving God, which leads to eternal life, or serving sin, which leads to death....Keep Reading
Tags: Freedom, Culture
