New Identity Magazine

FAITH NOT WORKS

Michelle Saldivar — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 15:15:13 +0000

Photo Credit: MattJHerring | Flickr (Creative Commons) Where do you find your value as a person? From your job? From your grades? From your relationships? The world teaches us that these are the aspects of life that define who we are as people and who we will become, but that doesn’t make them true. God has something better for us to base our value on. Works can be defined as what you do in…

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THE IMPERFECT PASTOR

Brandon Hurlbert — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 16:00:40 +0000

Photo Credit: Steven Leonti | Flickr (Creative Commons) A few years ago, I was apart of a large multi-campus church that was very well connected and whose pastor was often in the public spotlight. When rumors began surfacing about potential scandals, almost every Christian news outlet and magazine went hunting for skeletons. They unearthed a number of things that were seen as unethical, unwise…

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KEEP THE FAITH

Lisa Gagnon — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 19:57:39 +0000

Photo Credit: Jens Vallsten | Flickr (Creative Commons) Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” In our everyday lives, we use “faith” to refer to any belief system and say “I have faith in you” when we believe someone is able to do something. When something bad happens in our lives, we might hear “just have faith” or “everything…

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REBUKE?

Ramon Mayo — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 21:26:24 +0000

Photo Credit: Juanedc.com | Flickr (Creative Commons) If you hang around certain Christians you may hear the word “rebuke.” It’s a tough word so not everyone uses it. It’s one of those words you can use to muscle your way around spiritually. A rebuke is simply a sharp form of criticism or disapproval. It’s basically a biblical way to say that this is not cool and needs to stop now.

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FEAR LESS

Délice Williams — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:49:40 +0000

Photo Credit: Steven Leonti | Flickr (Creative Commons) I’m writing this piece in October, the month when grocery stores haul out mounds of candy, and when pumpkin-flavored items appear in unlikely places. Orange and black seem to be the color scheme for just about everywhere, and Halloween costume ideas have already started appearing on my social media feed. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” will…

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GOD & POLITICS

Nicholas Sowell — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:41:23 +0000

Photo Credit: FFCU | Flickr (Creative Commons) The presidential race was nothing short of a disaster, not because of who won, but because I’ve never seen politics like this in my lifetime. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both brought out the worst of anything they could dig up on the other. It was rarely, if at all, about policy or demeanor. There was little about how either candidate would…

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THE GIFT OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE GREAT ENCOURAGER

Luke Geraty — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:00:22 +0000

Photo Credit: Corpuzzle | Flickr (Creative Commons) A couple years ago I was invited to receive some training to become a certified coach for the family of churches I belong to. I was informed that the training would help me coach people who were planting churches, and it would also help me be a much better leader in the local church I was serving. “Sign me up!” I thought. Before we began the…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: SIMPLICITY

Hannah Helms — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 17:59:27 +0000

Photo Credit: Steven Leonti | Flickr (Creative Commons) The discipline of simplicity is, simply put, the practice of living with less. This practice is unique from the other spiritual disciplines that we have explored in this series, in that the need to be intentional about living with less applies specifically to those living in societies and situations that allow people to live with more than…

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7 MEANINGFUL WAYS TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR

Lindsey A. Frederick — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 22:10:47 +0000

Photo Credit: Darian Wong | Flickr (Creative Commons) Most Americans will spend the last night of the year attending a party dressed in head-to-toe sequins, watching the ball drop in Times Square, or hoping to get a kiss from a crush or even a stranger. Compared to the meaning, story, and ritual attached to Christmas, do these traditions not strike you as bizarre? But we’re not alone.

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APPROACHING THE NATIVITY

Greg Whyte — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 17:24:59 +0000

Photo Credit: optictopic | Flickr (Creative Commons) Of all the nerve!” fumed a certain member of my congregation as she stormed into my office. She was holding a Santa ornament that the (newly formed) decorating committee at my church had included as part of the Christmas decorations. “Pastor, did you see what they put out there for our decorations?!” I did notice the Santa figurine among the…

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