Posts by Ben Hicks
Harness the Power of Failure
I was listening to a podcast with a successful entrepreneur who gave what I thought was interesting advice. He told young entrepreneurs that they needed to get started early because they would likely fail several times and it was best to get those failures out of the way. He implied that there would likely be…
Read MoreThe Faith of Jacob
I want to be like Jacob. That might seem like a strange statement if you know the story of Jacob. Jacob’s name means “heel-grabber” or “trickster,” and Jacob lived up to the name. Jacob tricked his own brother and his father before fleeing for his life. In a move of brilliant poetic justice, God brought…
Read MoreIn Defense of Purity Culture
I grew up during purity culture. I didn’t know it at the time, because purity culture was all I knew and a fish doesn’t know he’s in water. I have since learned that what I was surrounded with growing up was something called “purity culture,” and that it was apparently very, very bad. I didn’t…
Read MoreWould Christianity Be Worth It If There Was No Resurrection?
“You know, kids. Your mom and I were talking about it recently, and we agreed that even if in the end, Christianity ended up not being true, it was still worth it.” I don’t remember how old I was when my parents told me that one morning on our way to church. I do remember…
Read MoreTruly Grasping God’s Character
Sometimes we can know things without really understanding them. We might say that we know something, and we might really think that we do know it, but our knowledge is surface-level and incomplete. We might know something is true, but we don’t realize how true it really is. Someone might tell a visiting friend that…
Read MoreYou Don’t Need a Therapist, You Need Relationships
“It took me several therapists before I found one I liked.” I heard this statement in an ad I saw a while back as I was patiently waiting for my video to start. I had already seen quite a few ads for online therapy. I’m not sure what that says about my online behavior or…
Read MoreListen to People You Disagree With
When Elon Musk purchased Twitter and promised to open it up to free speech, I heard a word I have never heard before: Bluesky. Bluesky was essentially a social media clone of Twitter, but the crowd on Bluesky trended much more heavily in a left-leaning direction, and that included the moderators. Think of it as…
Read MoreThe Most Joyful Part of Ministry
Imagine what it would have been like to be one of the twelve. When we think of their time during Jesus’ ministry, we often picture them following Jesus everywhere and sitting there quietly while he teaches, heals, and casts out demons. Now, that isn’t entirely off. Much of their ministry did involve following Jesus around…
Read MoreWhy Did God Reject Cain’s Offering?
The first sin in the Bible is Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree, then running from God’s presence and passing along the blame. The second sin in the Bible is Cain’s anger at and murder of his brother. This story is both incredibly relatable, as is seen from the scores of families that…
Read MoreIn Defense of High School Preaching Competitions
Last week our Christian school participated in our state’s Fine Arts, Bible, and Academic (FABA) competition as part of the Indiana Association of Christian Schools (IACS). I know, lots of acronyms. Since I’ve been on staff at our church/school, I’ve had the privilege of coaching guys preparing to preach for this competition. This was quite…
Read More