Blog (Page 17)

Blog (Page 17)

An Assignment

This week the only thing I ask you to read is not my words, but God’s word. I preached out of this Old Testament minor prophet book about two months ago, when the pandemic first broke out. This word from the Lord is even more relevant right now. Read it several times and take notes.  Read the 3 chapters of the book of Habakkuk. Let God speak to you. Billy Arnold

Loneliness

Former surgeon general Vivek Murthy is so concerned about the physical and psychological effects of loneliness that he has written a book to counter the effects in society.  According to his research and personal experience, loneliness can increase instances of heart disease, depression, dementia, anxiety, and a host of other conditions (not that we need anything else to worry about!?). Apparently, loneliness is a global issue, causing the United Kingdom to even appoint a loneliness minister. Tracey Crouch, the first to…

What to Say to a World in Chaos

Honestly, my head is spinning right now. Our lives get completely tossed upside-down during the total shock of the coronavirus lockdown, and then in a split second we are in chaos as a society. What am I supposed to say? Do I, as a pastor in a church family, say anything? Can I really add anything of value to the thousands of church and civic leaders who are speaking out? Can I add anything of value to the millions of…

Lamp to Our Feet

I was talking with one of the students recently and asked him how he was processing the current events. His response was, “World’s crazy.” The world is crazy at times. The world, marred by sin, is extremely broken and hurtful. So often, life is crazy. It has been discouraging at times. These past few days, weeks, and months have been so difficult in so many ways. It is hard to hold on to hope when all seems hopeless. It is…

Multiply! Buliisa Starting Up Again!

After nearly three months of COVID-19 interruptions, we are re-engaging with our plans for Multiply! Buliisa! Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you what Multiply! is all about: Multiply! is a chance for us to consider how God views our resources, to be encouraged by the ways that God has multiplied resources for his glory in the past, and to commit to using our resources for the good of those in need. Specifically, we are focusing our efforts…

An Unexpected Gift

Come back with me to the first of January. Do you remember what life was like? Remember we had to sit in heavy traffic to get to work? We had to jump from meetings to more meetings. We had to take our children to their soccer games. We had to take them to ballet lessons. We had to rush through meals. We had to pick up dry cleaning. If we are honest, we knew our busy lives were on autopilot,…

Learning to Pray in Circles

This Sunday I will finish our series of messages based out of John 17, concentrating on the final verses, 17:20-26. Read this a few times before we study. Read it carefully and slowly, and let it sink in what Jesus is praying about, and who he is praying for. He is praying for you! Almost 2000 years ago, the night that Jesus was arrested, he turned his attention in prayer to the heavenly Father in a final address. He prayed…

Know Which is Which

The secret is out. Americans love to take control. No, we have a deep, deep need for control, don’t we? We need to control this, control that. We need to control our schedule. We need to control how the app icons line up on our phone screens. And if we are honest, we need to control what others think of us. We need to take control over everything and anything that happens in our lives. We stress when we don’t.…

Adapting to the Environment

If you are like me, part of your day in lockdown is spent aimlessly browsing through thumbnail images of movies and TV series on streaming services looking for something decent to watch.  On occasion, a nature show will catch my fancy and compel me to click.  My memory of watching nature shows stretches quite far back to early childhood. One vivid memory I have as a five or six year old is of watching a nature film in a crowded…

Where is Jesus in the Pandemic?

You guys, I had the worst dream—the whole world was consumed with a viral pandemic. Oh wait, that was not a dream. It’s really happening. When everything started to shut down and the numbers started to climb, my fear began to grow.  I wondered, “Who of my friends or family will suffer?” The fear that I could be infected and not even know it was unbearable. Could I have given it to that nice old man in the grocery store,…

Developing your Own Prayer Life

Prayer truly is the privilege of entering into a conversation with the Creator God, our Almighty Father. This is the Holy of Holies that we can now access because of what Christ has done.

An Invitation to the Holy of Holies

What is duty of care?  Those in my life that I am responsible for. What is prayer?  An invitation into the special place where I communicate with Almighty God regarding those in my life that I am responsible for. Have you ever had an invitation to attend an exclusive grand event? An invitation to the Governor’s mansion? The White House? The home of a powerful person? If I ever received an invitation like this, I would frame it and hang…

Contentment in Crisis

Last Friday morning’s headlines said it all. A stunning 20.5 million jobs lost in April, the worst month since the government began tracking the data in 1939. The unemployment rate stands at 14.7%, the highest on record since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began its monthly series, and climbing. An unimaginably high number of Americans have lost jobs. More stand to lose jobs. Maybe you are someone, or you know someone, who has lost a job or is about to…

What Just Happened?

I find myself asking that question a lot these days. Do you? Do you ever think, “What in the world is going on?” I find today’s environment quite surreal. In many ways, it’s quite a pleasure having some real down time—time with my family, time in the Word, actually even a bit of time to work out now and then! But it can also be a bit scary—especially as we start to think about what the future looks like. A couple of Sundays ago, Billy…

Billy’s Update — May 7, 2020

Welcome to May and Mother’s Day weekend!  At LifeWay Church this coming Mother’s Day Sunday, our service will feature some ways for us to recognize this wonderful day,  and to enjoy the blooming of spring as well. The flowers are definitely coming out; the weather is certainly cooperating. The only drawback is the “social distancing” that we are still having to live under. So we are online again. On Sunday, I am beginning a short series of sermons out of…

More Than Just Mom

Celebrating titles that God gave to all women This Sunday is a wonderful day to celebrate all the women in our lives who have raised us, loved us, challenged us, and given so much for us.  As a daughter and a mother, I can truly say that “mom” is a great title to have! I have been thinking a lot about some other titles that God has given women—titles that are rich and powerful and full of meaning (much like…

I’ve Known Her My Whole Life

Happy Mother’s Day! It feels like I’ve known my mom for practically my whole life. And I’m still not tired of her! She is both the most loving and toughest woman I know and has taught me so much, my whole life. She has been the biggest encouragement in my life, from the first time I walked to riding a bike, swim meets and baseball games, rugby matches and school dances, and the list goes on and on. But out…

Motherhood Film

In addition to the global coronavirus crisis, did you know we are also in the middle of a global fertility crisis? It is happening all over our world. Women are having fewer children, or no children at all. In 1950, women had an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. By 2019, the fertility rate had shrunk to half. Women are having an average of 2.4 children in their lifetime. In Taiwan, where I am from, women on average are…

Billy’s Update — April 30, 2020

Church in the Lobby Do you know how, at the end of a Sunday morning when you’d leave the church service (can you remember those days?), you’d stop for a while to hang out and visit with people you know, meet some new faces, and just be social? Those were the good ol’ days, weren’t they? In the current world of having everything streamed into our living rooms, we wonder when we’re ever going to get to do that again!…

Missions: The Third Pillar of Christian Living

The Three Pillars of Christian living are community, discipleship, and missions. When one is a part of a LifeGroup, then he or she brings to reality in the 21st century the three essential things 1st-century Christians set out to do soon after our Lord Christ Jesus ascended into heaven.

Keep Doing the Good

Now that we’re a few weeks into the Corona Quarantine (or Big Rona, as some of the youth like to say), I imagine that you, both parent and teen, have been struggling with patience. Close quarters, the fear of the unknown, frustrations about schedule and school, and all of the Zoom calls that everyone is doing has definitely helped to test our patience and our ability to hold onto joy in the midst of trials. So I want to offer…

This Week in KidVenture — April 23, 2020

Hello, KidVenture families! This week in KidVenture we are looking at Acts 2, which describes the very first Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit was given to all of Jesus’ followers. That same Holy Spirit lives in each of us when we choose to follow Jesus, and so as Christians we often say that God lives in our hearts. We don’t often talk specifically about the Holy Spirit. But this week’s story and our verse of the week help us…

When Will We Get Back to Normal?

We have now been in this new COVID reality world for more than a month now, and all of us are asking the same thing about our family, our business, our shopping, our school, our stock market, sports, social interaction, and church life: When will we get back to normal? The way I see it from here is that the question really should be, What will a new normal look like? There is no way that any of us can…

Discipleship: The Second Pillar of Christian Living

If I asked you what is a disciple, what would you say? Christians think of a disciple in many different ways. Some think of a disciple as a student of a teacher. Others think of a disciple as a sort of protégé, being guided by an older and experienced person. Still others think of a disciple as a follower or adherent of a master. Even though the ways one thinks of a disciple may be many, it is interesting Christians…