Did you know that the Bible tells us that there are certain things we shouldn’t even talk about? The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5: “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must…| Kindle Afresh
In Philippians 1:19, Paul writes, “for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” New Testament scholars disagree about what Paul is affirming. A proper understanding of this verse can help us increase our confidence in prayer. Option 1: Physical Deliverance. … Continue reading Whether-by-Life-or-Death Prayers| Kindle Afresh
Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that we were to take the statements in Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 about a thousand years being like a day literally (which are probably not literal in their lit…| Kindle Afresh
The four most important spiritual disciplines are: 1) scripture, 2) prayer, 3) church, and 4) mission. No other spiritual disciplines rise to the level of importance of these four. Two questions cl…| Kindle Afresh
My thoughts wandered this morning on my prayer walk.[1] I kept bringing my mind back to prayer, but my mind was wandering from my very first steps. I decided to use the Lord’s Prayer to guide me—I sometimes do this when I’m struggling with mind-wandering—but I still had trouble concentrating on prayer. (By the way, … Continue reading How Wrestling with Hard Bible Passages Expands our View of God| Kindle Afresh
God trains us through waiting. On the day I started writing this post, I was waiting for God to answer a prayer. You see, Trudi and I have been leading up a residential discipleship community of Ch…| Kindle Afresh
This morning I spent time in Hebrews 12:18-24 during my morning reading in God’s Word.[1] I found myself particularly attuned to some things I had never previously noticed. In the middle of a warni…| Kindle Afresh
Everyone is not equally temptable. One person can be severely tempted by something that another person barely or is not-at-all tempted. Some people, for example, are tempted to drown their sorrows in alcohol. That isn’t a temptation for me—or at least so far in my life it hasn’t been. But I am tempted by other … Continue reading Temptability: Not the Same for Everyone| Kindle Afresh
Last year I turned sixty. I don’t know if I count as an old person yet. Granted, when I was twenty, I thought sixty was ancient, but I now realize that barring a major illness or accident, I still …| Kindle Afresh
Most of you have probably heard of Josephus. An enormous amount of what we know about the history and culture of the Jewish people in and around the time of Jesus comes from Josephus. But Josephus only wrote one paragraph about Jesus. That paragraph is famous. It is so famous that the paragraph has its … Continue reading The Earliest Non-Christian Testimony to Jesus (Josephus) Turns Out to Be Genuine| Kindle Afresh
What should you do when there is no time to pray? On the surface, this appears to be a simple question, but it turns out to be a bit more complicated in practice. Here are four perspectives that ma…| Kindle Afresh
Recently, just after morning prayer at “The Berdhouse” community where Trudi and I live, I got into a short conversation with a couple of our residential college students about 1 Thessalonians 5:17…| Kindle Afresh
Last night before going to bed I asked my wife an unusual question, “Should I get up at my normal 6am time and take my regular prayer walk followed by some time reading the Bible, or should I set m…| Kindle Afresh
“The key to missions is contextualization.” “The key to growing the American church is relevance.” If we could put the Christian message in just the right form, and set up our churches to be places…| Kindle Afresh
3 posts published by Kenneth Berding during September 2024| Kindle Afresh
One of my favorite documents from the early church is “To Diognetus,” written sometime in the second century. We don’t know the identity of the author, although he was obviously a dedicated Christi…| Kindle Afresh
A couple days ago I was reading Ephesians 1 in Greek during my morning Bible-reading time. As I read, I was drawn to two phrases that are clearly present in Greek but often eliminated in English. T…| Kindle Afresh
Of all the things I have ever written, there are three consecutive paragraphs I once wrote that seem to have offended more people than anything else I’ve ever written. Please understand, I really d…| Kindle Afresh
Have you ever wondered about fasting for an extended period of time? Jesus, after all, fasted for 40 days in the Judean wilderness. I wrote a short introduction to what the Bible teaches about fast…| Kindle Afresh
If you connect a few historical dots, you may (as I did) find yourself thinking that Paul was friends with the son of Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried Jesus’s cross—and, furthermore, that Paul …| Kindle Afresh
