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) [...]
Continue Reading →Kyle Mules is an incredible kid. He’s also incredibly sick right now. He’s fighting a ruthless virus called Guillain-Barre, along with severe pneumonia and other complications. He’s in ICU at Children’s Hospital. Kyle’s mom, Kelly, recently posted on facebook: Last night the warm peace of Jesus came over me and held me tight…I KNOW HE is [...]
One year ago I accepted a challenge from Michael Gatlin. It boiled down to this (paraphrasing wildly): “Set a goal for how many people will be led to Christ through the ministry of your church in the next year. Be bold about it, and then have the guts to tell your church about it, and [...]
“The trouble with religion is it’s intolerant because it presses other’s to adopt a particular set of beliefs.” That statement is, by it’s own flawed definition, intolerant. Tolerance cannot be pretending that we don’t have conviction about the truth. That’s just dishonest. Those who protest the concept of “absolute truth” do so because they have [...]
I had a disturbing experience a while back. While sitting at my desk at the church, I followed a link to read a blog post that caught my eye. I was bored soon and started to look for something more interesting. Figuring I might have the luck of the draw I clicked the “next blog” [...]
Now that the Lord has given the land to Israel, and taken Joshua off of the battleground, the rest of the book (chapters 13-24) focuses on Joshua’s leadership as he establishes the house of Israel. His role shifts from Patriot to Papa. Let’s be honest: these last few chapters are tough to read…especially in comparison [...]
Aaron McCarter is the Lead Pastor of Maryville Vineyard Church in East TN.