The Bible tells us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). God is certainly benevolent and generous to us. He gives a variety of good things, from the gift of life in a newborn baby, to... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Proverbs 13:12 says that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” While that principle holds true for all varieties of hopes and desires, the ultimate hope of the Christian life is bound up in the arrival of... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). That kind of straightforward evaluation should not only be applied to “them,” but also to us. In the upper room, not long before his crucifixion, Jesus told his twelve apostles,... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
God, by definition, is “Almighty.” In our desire to “humanize” God and relate to the softer and gentler side of Deity we often lose sight of the fact that the God who actually exists is a God who possesses all authority, all power, and all dominion.... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
We all experience life’s detours—those unexpected twists and turns which disappoint and frustrate us because they’ve disrupted our well-laid plans. When the next one comes our way, let’s be careful how we respond. If the disappointment turns into... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Here is one of the most simple, yet most serious warnings found in the Bible: “God is opposed to the proud” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). The last thing we as God’s children should want is to dabble in the archetypal sin that was the initial cause of... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Worship and good theology must go hand in hand. When Jesus dialoged with the woman at well in John 4, he reprimanded the Samaritans with the words, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know” (John 4:22). Paul did the same when he... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Sometimes the way we read the Bible becomes a disservice to our Christian life. When a tension is presented in the plot of a biblical narrative we naturally “can’t wait” to see how it will be resolved; so we rush on to see how God works it all out.... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
We live in a violent and tumultuous world—for now. Surprisingly, it’s one of the byproducts of grace. Had God chosen to destroy every sinner at the moment of his or her sinful intent, our world would indeed be free from all the horrible headlines,... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
The Apostle Paul actively engaged the people of his generation, logically and persuasively “destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Such... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
