Author: Seth Barnes

Educating Haiti’s children

Written by Seth Barnes on July 18, 2010. Posted in Haiti. 3 Comments on Educating Haiti’s children

How is the school system in your community? Compare it to the one in Haiti. Right outside our base in Port-au-Prince, a school has started up in the open air under tarps and sheds....

Getting victory over the kingdom of evil

Written by Seth Barnes on July 18, 2010. Posted in Fighting your enemy. 7 Comments on Getting victory over the kingdom of evil

We followers of Jesus in America need greater understanding concerning the ways and tactics of evil. The bottom line is, you have a creator who loves you and an enemy who hates...

American dream Is elusive for millenials

Written by Seth Barnes on July 17, 2010. Posted in Culture and Faith. 4 Comments on American dream Is elusive for millenials

One reason that young people need to take a Luke 10 journey is that the American dream is not only a mirage, it’s not even available to them if they wanted it. Check out this...

Luke 10 Extreme Team Challenge

Written by Seth Barnes on July 16, 2010. Posted in Courage. 15 Comments on Luke 10 Extreme Team Challenge

Will the Luke 10 approach that Jesus gave to his disciples work in our modern day? A few people who believe that it will are going to put their faith to the test next year (as early...

The amazing Luke 10 journey

Written by Seth Barnes on July 15, 2010. Posted in Journeys. 30 Comments on The amazing Luke 10 journey

For the last 20 years or so, I’ve been challenged by a Scripture that’s so incredible, I’m tempted to discount it as being utterly impractical for our modern times....

Waiting on God to speak

Written by Seth Barnes on July 14, 2010. Posted in Listening prayer. 8 Comments on Waiting on God to speak

A few years ago we were praying with a friend of mine who was troubled. He had gone through a hard time in his life. The pain of divorce and layoffs left him feeling far from God. I...

Can you afford to be cynical?

Written by Seth Barnes on July 13, 2010. Posted in Culture and Faith. 6 Comments on Can you afford to be cynical?

I grew up cynical. I hung out with cynical friends. I went to a cynical college. And I live in a cynical culture. In America, our politics are cynical and worldly-wise. Our media...

When the kingdom of heaven intersects our world

Written by Seth Barnes on July 12, 2010. Posted in Kingdom Reality. 8 Comments on When the kingdom of heaven intersects our world

Last Friday night Estie returned from an evening at a nearby house of prayer. She’s a practical girl, prone to skepticism, and when she showed me the gold dust on her hands,...

Why the poor in spirit are blessed

Written by Seth Barnes on July 11, 2010. Posted in Poverty. 3 Comments on Why the poor in spirit are blessed

Here’s an excerpt of a great article by Jimmy McCarty from Wrecked. Guatemalans smile a lot. They are polite, hospitable, friendly and patient with most attempts at Spanish....

Want to change? Pray for brokenness

Written by Seth Barnes on July 10, 2010. Posted in Abandon. 9 Comments on Want to change? Pray for brokenness

Here’s Chelsea Dipaolo’s story of how her life changed. It illustrates how hard the process can be. It takes a good measure of brokenness along the way. We’ve come...

An account of angels singing in Germany

Written by Seth Barnes on July 9, 2010. Posted in Amazing God Stories. 14 Comments on An account of angels singing in Germany

We have more encounters with the supernatural than many of us will admit. God and his agents are regularly intersecting with our lives in ways that validate his great personal concern...

How do I get out of here?

Written by Seth Barnes on July 8, 2010. Posted in Abandon. 5 Comments on How do I get out of here?

Maybe you made a mistake somewhere along the way. You compromised and started following an easy road, a broad road. And you know Jesus talked about a narrow road, but you’re...

In praise of quitting

Written by Seth Barnes on July 7, 2010. Posted in Abandon. 7 Comments on In praise of quitting

Have you considered the notion that maybe you should walk away? If people have made choices for you that you wouldn’t make for yourself, maybe it’s better to just quit. Having...

Discovering the purpose in the pain

Written by Seth Barnes on July 6, 2010. Posted in Dealing with junk in our lives. 9 Comments on Discovering the purpose in the pain

Only recently has God revealed to me the purpose of the pain I went through in 1989. For years I attributed the betrayal to random misfortune, but more recently the Father spoke...

Walking away from the pity party

Written by Seth Barnes on July 5, 2010. Posted in Listening prayer. 6 Comments on Walking away from the pity party

We all get hurt and we all get tired of dealing with the people who hurt us. And I’m guessing most of us have conversations with God like Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.”...

Celebrating your dependence day

Written by Seth Barnes on July 4, 2010. Posted in Lordship. 7 Comments on Celebrating your dependence day

I shared these thoughts four years ago in this post and got no feedback. But I liked it and hey, it’s my blog, so here it is again. As we celebrate the 4th of July, of course...

The tension between doing & being

Written by Seth Barnes on July 3, 2010. Posted in Lordship. 8 Comments on The tension between doing & being

Jesus said a lot of provocative stuff that makes it hard to follow him. Almost half of the book of John takes place in the last week of his life, a time when he was extremely focused....

Living on $2 a day

Written by Seth Barnes on July 2, 2010. Posted in Simplicity Liberates You. 4 Comments on Living on $2 a day

Provocative article from Wrecked: My husband, Joe, has been reading a bit about monastic tradition and spiritual disciplines lately. I think this is what brought on the $2 a day...

The pain of difficult people

Written by Seth Barnes on July 1, 2010. Posted in Lordship. 8 Comments on The pain of difficult people

The bottom line of yesterday’s blog post is that God can’t trust us with his dreams until he can trust us with pain (particularly the pain that difficult people inflict). My...

Talking to God about people who bother you

Written by Seth Barnes on June 30, 2010. Posted in Dealing with junk in our lives. 22 Comments on Talking to God about people who bother you

Every now and then people like John get under my skin and I have to talk to God about them. Conversations go something like this one: “Okay, Lord. I need to talk to...

Not enough authority these days

Written by Seth Barnes on June 29, 2010. Posted in Parenting. 4 Comments on Not enough authority these days

50 years ago, if someone proclaimed, “I’m going to call the authorities!” you were in trouble. Authority used to be important, but lately it’s fallen on hard...

Microfinance loans can bring hope to Haiti

Written by Seth Barnes on June 28, 2010. Posted in Justice issues. 3 Comments on Microfinance loans can bring hope to Haiti

Poor people don’t have access to a lot of things, and for a long time, one of them was access to credit. If a poor entrepreneur had a successful pushcart business that she...

Your need for validation

Written by Seth Barnes on June 27, 2010. Posted in Identity issues. 8 Comments on Your need for validation

I love Seth Godin’s blog – I read it every day. He’s a marketer, but his world is bigger than marketing. He does so by keeping it real. He writes in a human way...

I’m a missionary – get out of my way!

Written by Seth Barnes on June 26, 2010. Posted in Missions. 8 Comments on I’m a missionary – get out of my way!

*The Very Worst Missionary is a blog from Jamie Wright, a missionary wife and mom in Costa Rica. Missionaries have a bad brand and Jamie’s wonderful honesty helps update our...