Category Archives: Theology

God Is Father

Posted on July 24, 2025 by salooper57

Our biological parents often don’t really know us. They make the mistake of treating us as if we were younger replicas of themselves. “But you like to fish. I’ve been taking you fishing since you were in diapers!” “Of course, you’re going to play the piano.”
… But our heavenly Father knows who we are. Continue reading →

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How Did Sin Lead to Jesus’s Death?

Posted on July 19, 2025 by salooper57

The crucifixion is a microcosm of sorts, displaying how human sin, from envy to ethnic and racial hatred, results (both immediately, at the time of the crucifixion, and over the millennia of human rebellion) in rejection of, and hatred toward, God. J Continue reading →

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The God Who Is Light

Posted on July 16, 2025 by salooper57

He took all the things he ever heard Jesus say about God and, after spending decades thinking about them and talking to God about them, he summarized them in ten words (in Greek): “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Continue reading →

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How Do You Identify?

Posted on July 12, 2025 by salooper57

Poised between two identities, we are faced with the decision to repent, which is so much more than turning from our sins. It is a turning from our identity, a losing of ourselves (our soul, our ψυχή) in order to become someone new… Continue reading →

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Jesus: The Divine-Human Interlinear

Posted on June 14, 2025 by salooper57

We don’t see it because we think of glory as glitz and hype and notoriety. Glory, in our minds, is being selfie-stalked on the street, going viral on social media, entreated for interviews and autographs. Continue reading →

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Where Do You See Yourself in the Good Samaritan Story?

Posted on June 7, 2025 by salooper57

…people who write Bible studies like to ask questions like, “Where do you see yourself in this story? Are you most like the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan?”
I think they should add, “Or are you most like the expert in the law?” Continue reading →

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The Ascension and Spiritual Gifts (Eph. 4:7-16)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by salooper57

Who would have guessed? Those little pieces were important. And so are the gifts that God gave to each of us. You can say, “My gift is probably not important,” but Jesus gave that gift to you for a reason, and gave you to us for a reason. Continue reading →

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John 3:16: The Bible’s Most Popular Verse

Posted on May 30, 2025 by salooper57

The words “believes in him” deserve careful attention. A strictly literal translation would go, “believes into him.” This is a Johannine phrase, used only in this Gospel and in the First Epistle, but used more than twenty times. What does it mean to “believe into” Jesus, and why did John latch onto this preposition? Continue reading →

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Is There an Old Testament Confession of Faith?

Posted on May 24, 2025 by salooper57

I once took a class from a teacher who described the God of the New Testament as loving and forgiving, but the God of the Old Testament as angry and vindictive. He had not read the Old Testament carefully enough. Continue reading →

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A Change Is Coming

Posted on May 22, 2025 by salooper57

I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I am going to die on June 23, 2031 – at least according to the website, http://www.deathclock.com … I’ve got 6 years left on earth. They have me dying seven days before our 52nd wedding anniversary. I first read that about 20 years ago, and 2031 seemed a long way off. Seems a lot closer now. Continue reading →

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