Jacob Evans

Goals with No Nets

[386 words] Back in the day, friends would invite me to meet them somewhere to play a pick-up game of basketball, and few things are more disappointing than showing up to play a game of basketball and seeing a goal with no net. While I might have verbalized my disappointment, it didn’t prevent me from…

The Unsettling Truth

  [421 words] Jesus preached what is undoubtedly the most famous or popular sermon ever preached: the so-called Sermon on the Mount. In the course of that sermon, He preached things that many would deem as positive, such as “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this…

Procrastination

[391 words] We all have a problem with procrastination from time to time. Have you ever put off writing a term paper, paying a bill, purchasing Christmas gifts, mowing your yard, completing a house project, cleaning your house, doing the laundry, or filing your tax return? While procrastination in these and other areas will not…

An Inside-Out Transformation

Christians are being transformed into Christ’s likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). God is trying to press His people into a Christ-shaped mold. But this transformation isn’t an easy process, partly because the world is trying to press us into its own mold. In order to be transformed into the image of Christ we must resist being…

Are You Open?

  [273 words] Sometimes I forget that it is a holiday and drive to the bank to deposit a needed check, only to see a sign on the door that reads “Closed.” Frustrating. On one summer night a few years ago, my wife and I were craving some Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream. We made the…

The Leftovers

At the risk of appearing snobbish or ungrateful, I’ve got a confession to make: I don’t like leftovers, i.e. cold food that is in need of being reheated. I always have the best of intentions to pull last night’s meal out of the refrigerator, throw it in the microwave, nuke it, and consume it, but…

Are You Living Up to Your Clothing?

It’s Friday evening a little after sundown when he walks through the front door after a long day at work and announces his arrival, “Hi honey, I’m home.” “What took you so long? Supper’s been ready for an hour,” his wife says rather loudly from the kitchen. He walks in the kitchen and explains, “Oh,…

Motivation Inspection

If you are a Christian, probe the deep recesses of your heart and determine what’s motivating you to follow Jesus. What’s driving you? Is it fear? Fear has undoubtedly turned many people from their sinful ways. The thought of “the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10) has a way of humbling the proudest of people…

Jesus vs. the Jews

Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus is essentially on trial. The reader is forced to make a decision around every corner about whether he or she accepts the claims of Jesus or the claims of His opponents: the Jews. In the second half of John 10, Jesus is in the midst of one of His…

A Loving Father

[317 words] I recall an interview I once read of a young teenage girl. At one point in the exchange, she remarked, ”l know for a fact that my parents don’t love me.” Why do you think this teenage daughter said that? Here’s what ran through my mind when I read those words. Perhaps her…

Withstand the Ridicule

[300 words] The first surviving visual representation of Jesus’ crucifixion comes from graffiti scratched on a stone in a guardroom on Palatine Hill near the Circus Maximus in Rome. (Open your web browser and Google ”The Alexamenos Graffito.”) It is a crude drawing of a man with the head of a donkey hanging on a…

Unique

Jesus is unique. In fact, the phrase “only begotten Son” in the NKJV’s translation of John 3:16 could arguably be rendered ”only Son” (ESV), meaning that Jesus was God’s unique Son. Yes, those who are Christians are sons and daughters of God, but Jesus is special. There’s no one else like Him. Jesus was both…

Behind the Scenes

When you’re watching a movie at home or at the theater, when do you typically stop watching? Do you press “stop” when the camera pans out to a wide angle and the closing music begins playing? Do you exit when the lights come up? Or do you do the unthinkable and actually watch the credits?…

A Petite But Potent Word

Some writers consider “no” to be the hardest word to say. Of course, whether or not this is true depends on the context. For example, most parents don’t have a problem dropping this word if their children get out of line. You can picture it, can’t you? A tiny hand is reaching for a hot…