WithoutWax.tv by Pete Wilson | Tag Archive | relevant magazine
Tag Archive - relevant magazine

Where Is God When Things Fall Apart?

June 8, 2010 in God, Plan B, Spiritual Growth with 22 Comments

I wrote an article for the latest issue of Relevant Magazine entitled Where Is God When Things Fall Apart?

Here’s a portion of the article…

Eight years ago, I started a new job and on the very first day of that new job, I knew it wasn’t a good fit. I remember putting my head on the desk and thinking, Pete, what have you done? I’d left a job I loved working at a church I’d helped start. I’d only made the move because I believed it was what God wanted me to do. I’d believed it was God pushing me out of that proverbial comfort zone.

“I thought this was your will,” I’d pray. “I thought this is what you wanted me to do. What am I missing? How did I screw this up?”

Just a little over a year later, I resigned from that job. Discouraged, bitter and confused, the only thing I knew for sure was that I never planned on working in a church ever again.

To my surprise, the next few months proved to be more difficult than the previous ones. Overwhelmed with questions about God, my calling and the Church in general, I felt lost.

At some point during those hard months, a friend met me for coffee. Right in the middle of my complaining to him about all I was going through, he looked at me and said: “Pete, do you think you’re the only person who has experienced disappointment with God? I hate to break it to you, but all of us face moments in life when we feel as though God doesn’t show up like we thought He would.”

Contrary to what you may have thought as a kid, life is full of disappointments. And those disappointments can leave you wondering if God is still involved in your life. And if He is involved, what He’s doing exactly

(CLICK HERE to continue reading the article)

Should You Say “Goodbye” To Guilt?

August 20, 2008 in God, Leadership, Religion with 65 Comments

I read THIS article the other night and it got me thinking about guilt. Here’s part of it…

We feel guilty if we don’t give money to the Church or spend the right amount of time in prayer. Unfortunately, many believers are driven to do these things—pray, tithe, attend church, remain sexually pure—by a rabid sense of duty.

This ought not to be. While these things are good things and goals to be sought after, and while guilt should be a natural reaction to sin from a regenerate heart, the Christian faith should never be driven by a sense of duty, guilt or entitlement. Instead, we should be driven to lives of holiness by passion—passion for God, passion for the lost, passion for the Gospel, passion for each other.

I was wondering what role you think guilt plays in your life. Is there such a thing as good guilt?

Someone told me in college there is a big difference between conviction and condemnation. I agree, but often still have a hard time telling the difference between the two in my own life.

What about you?

Seven Burning Issues

June 17, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, God, Leadership, Religion with 57 Comments

Relevant Magazine is doing a series of articles entitled “The Seven Burning Issues” dealing with hot topics in Christianity. This particular article you can read HERE has to do with homosexuality and the church.

Their panelists include but are not limited to such Christian leaders as Nancy Ortberg, Chuck Colson, Steve Brown and N.T. Wright.

Here’s my question. If we assume that “homosexuality” is one of the burning issues today in Christianity what do you think the other six are? What is your burning issue?

This is a Watercooler Wednesday post.