(Part 1 of 3) How can I know God’s will for my life? It’s the question I get more than any other. It’s rarely said like that, though. It’s usually more specific: Should I take that job? Should I quit this job? Should I go to college? Should I marry this person? Should I buy this [...]
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Have you ever noticed that the gap between people who actually know how to ice skate and those who don’t is enormous? I took this picture while getting in some family time at Ober Gatlinburg recently: Just because you lace up and get out there doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing. The skilled ones glide [...]
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A queen bee is special. No queen, no colony. She’s royalty. But apparently, in terms of DNA, every bee in the colony is identical. They all start out the same: jobless, genderless, larvae. And when the time comes for a new queen a larva is chosen (again, no different than the ones around it). This [...]
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Sunday I’ll start a new teaching series at the Maryville Vineyard. It’s called The Deliverers. In 8 weeks we’ll look at 5 of the 12 jacked up heroes whom God chose to make Judges. Ehud Deborah Gideon Jephthah Samson Here are a few of the reasons I’m so excited about it (in no particular order) [...]
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Limos don’t age well. I drove by an older one a few weeks back. It looked terrible. And not for reasons you might think: It had been maintained well. It was clean and free of dents. It was driven by a professional-looking, kind-faced chap. It wasn’t even that old, actually (it was probably newer than [...]
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The baptism in the Holy Spirit is certainly one of the most polarizing issues in Christianity (I feel dirty calling it an ‘issue’). There’s tons of confusion, a fair amount of accusation, and not nearly enough open and thoughtful dialogue. As with any polarizing ‘issue’ people tend to run to one side or another…and then [...]
Continue Reading →Some rules are dumb. Legalistic types in ancient Israel made it a rule that you couldn’t spit in the dirt on the Sabbath. The idea was that spitting in the dirt was similar to mixing mortar…which is work. And, of course, you can’t work on the Sabbath. Therefore: Spit on the dirt: you sin! Spit [...]
Aaron McCarter is the Lead Pastor of Maryville Vineyard Church in East TN.