The Tulip Driven Life

By: Nathan Fox  The Problem For one reason or the other, I feel as if Christianity in America is on a rapid downhill climb. We can blame it on theological faultiness (and that would be correct), or on immoralit y in the church (correct also). But I will give one overarching reason for what I believe to be a continual decline of Christianity in this country: shallow faith.  For many reasons, the Christian faith  in this country is slowly fading into  an activity, and not a wholly devoted lifestyle . Many “Christians” now walk into church not because they want to grow closer to God, but because it is something that they have traditionally done. And believe me, I was no exception to this growing up. I went to church because my parents did, and thought that my faith was something that I did, not something that I was.  There was no depth to my faith growing up, and I would venture to say I was not the only one.  I often wonder how many of us go through th...

By: Nathan Fox Text: Colossians 1:13-14 My Personal Life of Grace I must start off by confessing that though it seems that I have my entire life in order and that my days are “peachy,” I am nothing more than a sinner saved by grace. As a matter of fact, those who read this blog and read all the good stuff these contributors provide should realize this: each blogger is sinful and only through God’s grace are we even given the platform to proclaim His name. Before any one of us is magnified, and before anyone reading this blog thinks that we bloggers are just perfect, we must all remind ourselves that God’s grace is the only reason why we can proclaim what we proclaim. He is the source of hope in our life, and the certainly the only good from this life stems from his incomparable love for each of us. So before you take the time to read this blog even further, remember this: I only write what I write because it is God who is good, and not myself.  God’s Living Grace ...

By: Nathan Fox Colossians 1:9-12 God’s Will- Specific or Not The topic of God’s will is one that is spoken about often, but very rarely addressed on a specific level. The answer for that is this: God has a specific will for your life that no blogger (like myself) could tell you about. I am not going to try to tell you EXACTLY what God’s will is in this blog, but hopefully by the end of reading this you will see some traits and habits that we can extract from Scripture that certainly line up in the will of God. My hope is that after reading this what we have covered will at the very least urge you to understand that knowing God’s will is not attainable for humans on a specific level (in terms of where to live, what food to eat, etc.), but it is accessible on a general level through His Word. We would always be wise to turn there first to understand somewhat what God’s will for our life is. God’s Will Defined by Paul The first thing (and ultimately the thing upo...

By: Nathan Fox Introduction I feel so compelled to write this blog post today. Not only do I work through books of the Bible at a time, but also have been blessed to read a little booklet everyday that provides tidbits of encouragement and sound Biblical advice. The book (Oswald Chambers’  My Utmost for His Highest)  covered one of my favorite topics today, and consequently the Scripture that I was covering in Colossians also speaks on this issue. The issue you ask? It is simply this: true faith in Jesus Christ bears fruit.  Scriptural Text Last week, we covered the first few verses in the book of Colossians, and talked about unity in doctrine and unity in love. Unity in doctrine is an imperative for a growing Christian and a growing Christian congregation, but it doesn’t just stop there! The doctrine of the Gospel has the potential to change lives not only at the moment of conversion but for all eternity. For our text today, we will look at Colossians...

By: Nathan Fox Introduction to the Book and the City As promised in my previous blog post, I have begun a personal study series into the book of Colossians and have thus decided to write for the next few weeks on little lessons that God is teaching me from the book. Before I dive into today’s blog content, I feel it very important that we have a somewhat firm knowledge of the background behind this Pauline epistle. Naturally, we would assume that this book was written to the people of Colosse, and we would be correct. Knowing this, there are several interesting characteristics to note about the city of Colosse. First of all, Colosse was a very influential city, and likewise was influenced by other cities. We know this because of some of the content from Paul in this letter. Several times Paul warns the people of Colosse to hold firm to true doctrine, and to not be swayed by false teachings such as Gnosticism (of which we will cover in greater detail in future blogs)...

Post by: Nathan Fox Our Topic I recently just finished a book study on the book of Acts, which indeed was very beneficial in not only my personal life but hopefully in the lives of those who have read my contributions to the blog within the last month and a half. It truly is a remarkable book, and one in which we can glean some very important points of living from. My next book that I have decided to study is the book of Colossians, which I will begin to unpack in next week’s blog. For this week I am taking a break from any specific book study and will instead focus on a topic that every Christian ought to be familiar with on a daily basis: Thankfulness. Why This Topic In all honesty, no topic is as prevalent in churches and individual lives as this one. Especially around the Christmas season, the topic of thankfulness is one that should be on the forefront of every believer’s mind. Pastors from pulpits everywhere should encourage thankfulness from their God-given p...

By: Nathan Fox What Spurred This Post A few days ago Ashley (my fiancée) and I were at church, and really we were just talking to people after the service. A man in our church walked up to Ashley and I and saw our Marriage Counseling books that we are working through in preparation for our life together; immediately seeing our books spurred a conversation between the three of us. This man ended up telling us his story of a failed marriage due to his inability to “stay in God’s Word and to communicate with his wife.” He told us of a season of his life that was utterly lost, as he was addicted to drugs and was even arrested for running a meth operation. I knew his story, but had never heard him so purposefully open in telling it. Here was this man who didn’t know Ashley and barely knew me giving us advice on marriage through his testimony, which was a true blessing to hear. The true irony in all of this is that later on that night I was reading through Acts chapter 22. It...