If you haven’t already, you’ve gotta read the “Best of the  Best of the Blogs” at NeoBlogs!

This is a great way to catch up with our blogosphere. If you’re new to our site, this is an easy way to get a glimpse of what we are about. These blogs are written by “average” Christians at Xenos Christian Fellowship, as well as from some of the leaders.

We encourage comments and discussions here! Bloggers usually respond very quickly.

Parenting

From our Parenting Classes and Neozine articles on Love Ethics, we are concerned about parenting issues.

• Raising Christian Kids in a Non-Christian Word by Joe Allie. Comments in this article fly in the face of much of Christian parenting.
• Raising Infantiles by Joe Allie.  Christian kids are as affected by our culture as anyone. How do we raise them “in the world” but not “of the world?”
  
• In the Days of Noah by Lisa Beech. When our kids are bullied, how do we help them handle it?
• Diffusing My Tribe by Lisa Beech. How do we break the bad habits and rules that are harming our family?
• M.A.D. aka Melancholic Atmospheric Disturbances by Lisa Beech. What do we do with our expectations?
• Be-sada: Fortress of Pride by Lisa Beech. How do we handle the pride in our children?
• Priorities by Lisa Beech. When our kids don’t meet our expectations.
• Confessions of a Proverbs 31 Flunky by Lisa Beech. When mothers fail the “perfection” test.

Love Ethics

Jesus is all about Love Ethics, not arbitrary ethics. The following blogs grapple with  Love Ethics and the issues they raise.

• Love Ethics, an excellent summary of what this means.
• Randomness by Keith McCallum. In a world of apparent randomness, people seek significance, but  how?  The answer: ”Through a relationship, I find meaning” – first and foremost a relationship with God.
• Hughes Church Finds Its Groove by Lisa Beech. Story of a church that learned, when its strong leadership team had stepped back from the front lines, that its ”love had grown cold.”
• Like Squirrels Gathering Nuts by Lisa Beech. A Christian worker struggles with order and the chaos of loving people outside of the box.
• Fear Not by Lisa Beech. A personal struggle between the incompatibility of love and fear.
• The Joy and the Pain by Lisa Beech. A mother reflects on the relational victory and failure between brothers.
• Failure to Thrive by Lisa Beech.  A friendship ends due to unresolved conflict and the unwillingless to forgive.
• Change of Heart by Lisa Beech. Repentence is more than just a change of mind.
• First Merits by Lisa Beech. How is worth determined?
• In Defense of Men and Women by Joe Allie. A personal reflection on the role differences in marriage between men and women.
• True Confessions of a Tribal Sissy by Kalie Brooks. How one Christian worker wrestles with learning love authority coming from a tribal background.
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Lisa Beech. The story of  Joseph as an image of redemptive love.
• Tempermental Encounters of the Beech Kind by Lisa Beech. How temperaments affect love interactions within a family.

Youth

Our fellowship focuses on reaching youth, which is a growing problem for Christians. These blogs help identify important youth issues.

• The Mean Girl’s Problem By Joe Allie. Are we still as depraved as we were in high school?
• It Takes a Village by Keith McCallum. Shocking truth! The family is not the highest value in life.  <!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>
• The Stream of Time by Keith McCallum.  The youth’s role in the Body of Christ.
• Buffalo Wings by Joe Allie. Mission’s trips for youth.
• Prom: The Lion’s Den by Kyle McCallum.  Have we unconsciously bought into the values of the world system? Our kids will see it.

Grace

If we were only allowed to talk about only one thing, we’d talk about the grace of God.

• What’s So Confusing About Grace? by Joe Allie.  Do we really understand grace?
  
• Price Paid by Lisa Beech.  Who needs grace anyway?
• The Xenos Law by Kalie Brooks. How grace works itself out in our lives.
• Keepin’ It real or Staying True to Your Roots by Joe Allie. Remembering where we came from keeps us grateful and humble.
• What’s the Big Deal About Justification by Faith? by Dar McCallum. Justification bears fruit in our lives. What is it?

The Law and The Gospel

These articles could be under the grace category, but we separated them to make the point: it’s a choice between Law and Grace, in the Gospel.

• Five Views of Sanctification by Kyle McCallum. An excellent review of the book The Five Views of Sanctification.
• The Law and the Gospel: The Reformed View by Greg Morscher. A review of the book  Five Views on Law and Gospel, ed. S. N. Gundry
• The Law and The Gospel, What’s the Big Deal by Greg Morscher. The polarizing effect of grace.

Discipleship

Discipleship is at the heart of everything we do. Matthew 28:18-20 is the command by which we do it.

• Batter My Heart by Kalie Brooks. How is the discipline of the Lord breaks to the heart of the disciple.
• The Crux of Church Growth by Keith McCallum. The threatening implications of “The Great Commission.”
• Loosening Your Ties to the World by Greg Morscher. Pursuit of the American dream or of the Kingdom of God.
• Bittersweetness by Joe Allie. Discipleship spurs mature growth.
• Great is Thy Faithfulness by Kalie Brooks. How love cultivates tenderness in the heart of the disciple.

Christ

Jesus – we’re so crazy about Him it’s hard to know what blurb could express that!

• Jesus – the Crazy Liar Lord by Keith McCallum. Why Jesus IS different.
• Blink Once for Yes, Twice for No by Joe Allie. The power of free will and personal choice.
• Validation by Joe Allie. Jesus makes exceedingly bold claims but unlike movie promos, He delivers the real thing.
• Hottest Love Story Ever Told by Joe Allie. Jesus is into changing our lives through our heart. Is your life changing for the better?
• Breaking Out by Joe  Allie. We all wear masks to hide our real selves. Jesus wants us to reveal our true selves so we can be healed and changed. We all want to “be real” but it is so risky. Can we do it?
• Why a Vintage Jesus? by Lisa Beech. A review of the book  Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears.

Philosophy

The Gospel message is undergoing unprecedented challenge today, and we’ve got some bloggers who rise to the occasion.

Colossians 2:8 (NASB)
⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

• Omniscient Truth by Keith McCallum. Truth is Jesus.
• The Postmodern Influence by Kalie Brooks. Postmodernism has infiltrated every area of life.
• Emergent Philosophy by Jeremiah Ramsey. A critique of the Emergent Movement.
• Credo ut Intelligam by Jeremiah Ramsey. What is a cult anyway?

The Church

No church has been as successful as the 1st Century Church. We are aware that the way we carry out body life may seem unusual to the secular world – and even to many “church-goers.”  However, it would be familiar to our brothers and sisters of the first century church.

• Dividing Walls
• The Culture of Saving Face v. The Culture of Saving Faith by Jeremiah Ramsey.  “What is wrong with the current state of the church?”

Gratitude

We train our kids to say “please” and “thank you,” but are we as parents grateful? What role does gratitude play in spiritual growth and our mental health?

• Still Feeding Off of Other’s Living Flesh by Lisa Beech. A complainer seeks a  heart transformed by gratitude.
• Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude by Kalie Brooks. Confused on gratitude – Here’s a breakdown that gets to the heart of the matter.
• Culture of Complaint by Kalie Brooks. A reflection on contentment in American culture.
• South Street Smart – An Urban Ministry Education – by Kalie Brooks. How serving outside of one’s comfort zone builds a gracious heart.

Identity

To receive Christ means so much more than forgiveness of sins. A “new identity” is God’s gift to us too often overlooked by Christians, and what a shame it is!

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

• The Born-Again Identity by Kalie Brooks. As a Christian, who am I and why am I here?
• The In-born Supremacy by Kalie Brooks. A struggle with the “boastful pride of life.”

Radical Christianity

The difference between saying “I’m a Christian” and living the Christian life is a radical difference. Here are some articles that discuss radical ideas for radical Christians.

• How to Be Cheap: These are a series of articles on how to save money. In these uncertain economic times, they are worth a read