benjaminasimpson
Benjamin A. Simpson
Waco, Texas. Student of Jesus. I also write.
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Review: The Action Bible - Faith in Action Edition (with Giveaway!)
A quick look at The Action Bible: Faith in Action Edition. #FaithInActionBibleMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork
When I was in elementary school, a member of my family bought me a Picture Bible they saw advertised on television. The printing was right out of the comic book pages, mixing magenta, cyan, and yellow, portraying the major stories of the Bible. The dialogue was abbreviated. It did not include every story and detail from a full translation of the Bible. But it got me thinking about the biblical…
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"What More Could He Have Done for You?"
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Author and speaker Brennan Manning has an amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: bought a new car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the…
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To Try: Speaking Aloud to God
In The Secret of Guidance, F. B. Myer states, “it is well to acquire the habit of speaking to God as to a present friends while sitting in the house or walking by the way. Seek the habit of talking things over with God–letters, your plans, your hopes, your mistakes, your sorrows and sins.”
Having begun as a child in my earliest efforts at prayer with simple, spoken petitions, I later moved to…
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Spiritual Formation is for Everyone
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Spiritual formation is not optional. Every thought you think, every emotion you let shape your behavior, every attitude you let rest in your body, every decision you make, each word you speak, every relationship you enter into, the habits that make up your days, whether or not you have social media (if you do, how you use it), how you respond to pain and…
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The Transforming Power of the Cross
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[W]e don’t need to understand every atonement theory to know the transforming power of the Cross. Its undeniable power to transform us is a simple fact, confirmed by human experience.
A Catholic archbishop described how three mischievous teenage boys decided to play a trick on their local priest. While he was hearing confessions one day, they took turns going into…
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#Discipleship#Jean-Marie Lustiger#Jesus#Love#spiritual formation#spiritual transformation#the cross#trevor hudson
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A Reading List for the Committed Christian Seeker
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One of the special gifts that Dallas gave me was the space to ask him questions. The first time I asked whether I could raise some questions with him, he responded with his typical generosity. We set one whole evening aside and sat together in our living room. I had with me a yellow pad to write down his responses to my long list of prepared questions. These…
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#Bible#bible reading#Dallas Willard#john#luke#mark#meditation#Scripture#spiritual reading#study#trevor hudson
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Our Greatest Cross to Bear: "Self"
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We must bear our crosses; self is the greatest of them; we are not entirely rid of it until we can tolerate ourselves as simply and patiently as we do our neighbor.
If we die in part every day of our lives, we shall have but little to do on the last.
What we so much dread in the future will cause us no fear when it comes, if we do not suffer its terrors to…
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#bearing one&039;s cross#Christianity#cruciform life#dying to self#dying to sin#François Fénelon#Jesus#mortification
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"God Needs Our Silence"
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So often we try to convey or communicate the character and work of God to others by stepping up the noise and the activity; and yet for God to communicate who and what God is, God needs our silence.
Rowan Williams, Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons, p. 98
We need preachers.
We need activists.
And we need contemplatives.
We need persuaders and prophets…
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New Article: "Spiritual Formation is Part of the Great Commission"
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The Baptist Standard has published an article I’ve written called “Spiritual Formation is Part of the Great Commission.“
Check it out.
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Simpson Family Movie Nights: 2023 Edition
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Last year we watched:
January: Holes (2003)
February: Turbo (2013)
March: Freaky Friday (2003)
April: Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
May: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
June: DC’s League of Super Pets (2022)
July: Matilda the Musical (2022)
August: Back to the Future (1985)
September: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022)
October: Elemental (2023)
November: Home…
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I Clearly Need More Meds
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A Little More Family History
I recently shared about a connection between my family and Pastor George W. Truett. After researching the timeline more closely, I followed up with those at the Truett Memorial Library, asking if there was a record of the sermon preached on April 10, 1927, when my great-grandfather Loys Arnold was received for baptism.
The answer to that question was no, but the archivist did find a bulletin…
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Alternatives to Digital Distraction: Five Spiritual Disciplines
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I work on a university campus. It is a beautiful place. I’m thankful for the opportunities to leave my office, walk the grounds, and be surrounded by beauty. There are green spaces and trees, fountains and memorials, the sound of bells chiming the hour, birds, squirrels, cultivated gardens. I also have memories. I completed my undergraduate degree here. My…
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#attendtiveness#contemplation#digital distraction#practicing the presence of god#retreat#silence#Spiritual Disciplines#spiritual formation
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2023: My Year in Reading
This year books have helped me stay sane, if I was ever sane to begin with. In the latter half of the year I read more fiction than any other genre, needing a vehicle in the evenings and in quiet moments that enabled me to relax and escape, to visit unfamiliar and strange worlds, to deepen my understanding of human nature and the human psyche, to broaden my understanding of those around me and of…
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Social Media Algorithms: "A Conveyor Belt to Someplace Bad"
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Gen Z were the guinea pigs in this uncontrolled global social experiment. We were the first to have our vulnerabilities and insecurities fed into a machine that magnified and refracted them back at us, all the time, before we had any sense of who we were. We didn’t just grow up with algorithms. They raised us. They rearranged our faces. Shaped our identities.…
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A Thought on Christmas Day
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In the New International Version, John 1:18 reads:
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
If you click the link to the verse, you’ll see parallels in the KJV, NLT, and ESV. Michael F. Bird notes the interpretative difficulties this verse presents due to the…
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Among the Best Sermons I've Heard This Year
Alison Gerber delivered this sermon to those gathered for Truett Chapel on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. Titled “Martha the Minister,” it is among the best three sermons I have heard this year, if not the best. Molly, seated next to me that day, declared this “a Word from God.” I wholeheartedly agree.
For those with ears to hear, listen.
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