Tag Archives: Christianity

Every Christian Experience Spiritually Dry Times

They trust God when they feel trusting. They are kind when they feel kind. They are grateful for God’s salvation when they feel saved. But this is not enough: God will have us trust him, and not just our feelings about him. Continue reading

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Why Can’t I Forgive?

If I am going to forgive you, I must not only forgive you for what you did, but for what you caused. This is often the missing link in forgiveness, and the reason for our seeming inability to forgive. Continue reading

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Covenant: What It Is, How It Works

The God who would become a man – a descendant of Abraham – represented both parties on the perilous walk. God called the curse down on himself should the covenant be broken. And the One who sees the end from the beginning knew exactly where that would lead. Continue reading

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The Family Business: A Sermon from John 5

When bad things happen in our lives, we might think about God the way my parents thought about the police: Why isn’t he doing something? Someday, we’ll discover that he was. But, unlike the police, he wanted us to join him in his work. Continue reading

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Paths The Lead Nowhere

Humanity walks on a ruined earth, the result of Adam’s rebellion and the long, devastating war that followed. The paths we take frequently lead nowhere. We lose ourselves and we cannot find our God. Continue reading

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Fascinating Storytelling from Matthew 28

This is only one expression, and the least obvious, of the parallel lines of storytelling by Matthew in chapter 28. The twin storylines follow the women and the guards, and … Matthew structured his narrative this way on purpose. Continue reading

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God Is Father

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?

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

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?

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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