May 7, 2011
Chip’s blog has a new home!
Chip’s blog has been moved to a new location – LivingontheEdge.org/blog
Please update your bookmarks!
May 3, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: Stories from Seoul
We’re leaving Korea on our way to Hong Kong, but before we did I just had to take a few moments and share some of the encouraging stories we’ve heard over the last few days. God’s on the move, and He’s touching people’s hearts and that’s evident as they share their stories and make choices that honor Him. We’ll send you some updates from Hong Kong, thank you for praying with us.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
May 3, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: Onnuri Community Church in Seoul, Korea
What a privilege it was to worship with the congregation of Onnuri Community Church this weekend in Seoul, Korea. I was blessed to share a message about parenting that’s close to my heart, and it happened to fall on Children’s Sunday! Here’s a brief clip from Sunday’s service. Next we’ll travel to Hong Kong. Thank you for your prayers -- they are making a difference.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 30, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: God’s at Work in South Korea
We’ve just finished up at a retreat center outside of Seoul and God has shown up in some truly remarkable ways. Our time was spent with some incredible CEOs and their families, talking about God’s plan for balancing life’s demands and how to have a deep, fulfilling marriage. The response was really encouraging! Tomorrow we’ll be sharing with a tremendous church family -- we’d appreciate your continued prayers over our time and God’s message.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 29, 2011
A Secret Pact Between Friends
What would you do if someone handed you a “secret” checkbook for an account filled with money?
I was about twenty-eight when it happened to me. I was pastoring my first church in Texas. John Saville was the chairman of our board of elders and in his early seventies at the time. To be honest, I thought he was a little kooky. I was both surprised and intrigued when he took me aside one day and said he wanted to “cut a deal.”
He handed me a checkbook for a discretionary account with a balance of $5,000.
“Here’s the deal,” John said. “God’s given me the desire and resources to help people, but I need you to be my eyes, my ears and my heart. Whenever you see a need that you think I would be excited about and could meet, I want you to use this money. Don’t tell anyone where it came from. Just take care of it and tell them that God paid it.”
I was shocked and sort of overwhelmed. At first I felt a lot of pressure about it – what if I chose to spend the money on the wrong things? After a while though, it got to be fun. All of a sudden, I felt like Santa Claus 365 days a year. I had hidden resources at my discretion and was constantly asking God how to use them.
As a result of this deal, three major things happened in my life:
- Rarely did a day go by that I didn’t think about John. I was constantly asking myself, “What would John want me to do?” I’d known John for over a year but until our secret “deal” I’d never thought about him every day.
- I suddenly had a heightened sense of accountability and kept meticulous records. Back then I wouldn’t typically sweat being a little “off” in my own personal checkbook, but that wasn’t acceptable when it came to John’s. He’d trusted me, and I wanted to be worthy of that trust.
- John and I became best friends. I sought John out to understand his heart so that I would know how to use his money. Every few months John would buy me extravagant lunches and I would share stories about how people’s lives had been touched by his generosity. After we celebrated, he’d fill that account right back up and we’d do it all over again.
The genius of the relationship that I enjoyed with John Saville revealed a breakthrough concept that completely changed my thinking: God owns everything and has entrusted me as His resource manager.
What I experienced with John is exactly what God wants to experience with us. Learn to manage your money, time and talent based on God’s desires instead of your own and the same things happen: We begin to think about God every day. We take time to seek God out to learn how he would want his resources used. In the process, we are drawn closer to God and come to truly know him.
Many of us think of generosity as a “have to” – a necessary but unappealing aspect of the Christian life. True generosity isn’t rooted in guilt, self-righteousness or a martyr complex. It’s rooted in joy. It’s genius because it’s the smartest, most fulfilling way to live.
This week we’ll begin the series “The Genius of Generosity.” In it, we’ll examine the many ways to invest in God’s kingdom and the transformational results of doing so. Whether you listen online or host a group study, I pray that you’ll come to understand God’s design for generous living.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 27, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: Will You Pray Over Our Travels?
I’ve just left California for a week of travel through Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, and wanted to ask for your prayers over our team. During this trip we’ll have the opportunity to share the Romans 12 message with several groups of executives, CEOs and pastors as well as a church of over 75,000. Would you please pray with us that God would use this time to accomplish His will in every way imaginable? We’re trusting God to heighten our sensitivity and help us bridge cultural and language barriers so that we can share His message of truth and love. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement -- we’ll keep you posted on how God is using our time.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 22, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: What’s Good About Good Friday
For those of us that didn’t grow up in church, the idea of Good Friday can be hard to grasp: celebrating the torturous death of our Savior? How is this good? In many ways it’s easier to focus on Easter Sunday versus examining the significance of Good Friday. As the body of Christ, it’s essential that we spend time on this day reflecting on what it represents to us as sinners, and beloved children of God and followers of Jesus. I want to share a few thoughts on what exactly is so good about Good Friday. I pray that on this day and throughout your Easter weekend you will have a true sense of the price that was paid on your behalf, and appreciate God’s love for you like never before.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 13, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: How to Teach Your Teenagers the Difference Between Love and Sex
Talking to teenagers about sex is more challenging than ever before, and more critical. They are bombarded with images about love and sex that shape their values. Make no mistake: in the absence of honest, Biblical guidance there are countless influences that will affect your teen’s attitudes and actions in this area. I want to share a testimony that really touched my heart on this subject. It’s a great example of a mom speaking God’s truth into the lives of her daughters in a way that has eternal impact.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 13, 2011
Real Answers for Tough Questions About Christianity
“Chip, I don’t get it. How can someone as well-educated and intellectually astute as you appear to be really believe in a literal Jesus and all of this ‘born again’ stuff?”
It was the spring of 1976, and I was about to graduate from college. I was talking with a professor who I really respected. That day he asked me a question that I think he’d been waiting to ask for quite a while.
Now this guy was brilliant, well respected and had been instrumental in my growth over the last four years. Yet he saw Christians as people that need a crutch – narrow-minded and uneducated. He didn’t understand how I could subscribe to that thinking when I clearly didn’t ‘fit the mold.’ His question got under my skin because I respected him … it also made me really think about what I believed.
I was a Christ follower and my life had been changed; but I also had intellectual integrity. Surely God didn’t expect us to throw our brains in the trash to be followers of Jesus! I knew that there were good answers for the hard questions about God, Jesus and the claims of Christianity.
That conversation began a journey of thirty-plus years focused on this question: Is there intellectually feasible evidence to support a faith in the Jesus of the Bible and his claims of deity, eternal life and absolute truth?
There are answers, and those who seek can know the truth. Over the next few weeks I’m going to share what my journey has uncovered and challenge you to take a deeper look at the fundamentals of your faith.
But first, let me ask you this: How long has it been since you examined the really difficult questions about what it means to be a Christian? Are you clear about what you believe and why you believe it? What is it based on? Is there evidence, or did someone tell you what to believe?
Knowing that you believe is a critical turning point in your life. Knowing WHY you believe represents a level of true understanding that God calls each and every one of us to. These questions are at the core of our existence; they speak to eternal life, absolute truth, creation and the very existence of a living savior who dwells within us.
This week we begin the series “Why I Believe.” In it, we’ll address some of the most controversial claims of Christianity. I pray that this series and our new small group study will equip you to respond in peace and confidence to those who genuinely seek answers about the Christian faith.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
April 7, 2011
VIDEO BLOG: How to Move Beyond Conflict (pt 6)
There are a few final thoughts on conflict resolution that I wanted to share with you. Think of these steps as the “finishing touches” that will enable you to move beyond conflict in a healthy way. After all, conflict doesn’t feel good to begin with, so if there’s no clear closure it can have deep emotional impact. My prayer for you is that these six messages will equip you with practical tools and a Biblical perspective that has transformational results in your relationships. Remember, if you’d like a copy of this message or want to share it with someone, you can listen to the full message for free online.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
Chip Ingram
Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
