How to Hear God (Part 1 of 4)

hearing God's voice
Psalm 119:24

There’s been so many times in life where I said, “How can I hear God’s voice? I just want to know what God is saying to me so I can make the right decision! Which way am I supposed to go, Lord?” When there’s a big decision to make in life, you want nothing more than to simply know for certain what God is actually saying to you.

Read more

Intertwined (2 Free Sample Chapters)

Read two free sample chapters from my newest book, Intertwined: Our Happiness Is Tied to God’s Glory (Two Free Sample Chapters PDF)

Intertwined by Mark Ballenger
Click the book cover to read two free sample chapters.

As children we imagined we would find the perfect spouse, the perfect job, buy the perfect house, go on perfect adventures, and well . . . have the perfect life. Somewhere along the way, however, we quickly realized we will experience many things on this earth, but perfection is certainly not one of them.

Read more

Private to Public Is Always God’s Order

God private public
“And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.” -Luke 1:80

Whatever you want to be in public, you need to start training for it in private.

When you start studying the lives of those God has used greatly and told us about in his word, you notice a similar theme in all of their journeys. The details are different but every one of those men and women who God has used in significant ways have always gone through a period of private training with the Lord before he used them publicly.

Read more

Why Good Works Still Matter

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.-1 Corinthians 15:9-10

In some evangelical circles, it can feel like you are saying a naughty word when you mention “good works.” I understand, however, why Christians start fidgeting whenever these two words combine. Because of legalism, poor teaching, and unbiblical emphasis on works in the equation of salvation, the alarm bells begin to go crazy inside of many Christians when they hear someone explain that our actions really do matter.

Read more

50 Easy Ways to Waste Your Life

easy ways to waste your life bible
1 Corinthians 10:31

When I was 19-years-old, a deep fear came over me that I might waste my life. I had just spent the last four years of high school goofing off, living wild, partying with friends, and basically ignoring God. In our senior class yearbook, I was voted with the best laugh. That was my legacy thus far. Thankfully, however, God was not laughing with me or ignoring me.

Read more

2 Reasons that Disprove Meaninglessness

reasons prove there is meaning

    Acts 17:20-23

If you listened to the world, you’d come to the conclusion that the earth was made through a big, random explosions and through the course of time, organisms slowly evolved into all that we see before us. Random, dumb luck is the reason you and me are breathing oxygen this very moment. And if everything happened by luck, then there can’t really be any true meaning to life – only subjective meaning created in each individual rather than objective, global meaning applied to every human by a higher power.

Read more