Tag Archives: Faith

Is This How Christians Can Reach the World?

We want to keep our dignity in place and our options open—and dignity and options are not characteristic of slaves and servants. (Or so people think who have never been slaves and servants.) Continue reading →

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Put It Where It Belongs: Where the Incarnation Fits in God’s Big Story

They think that if the faith is true, they should see evidence for it everywhere – a thousand … astonishing healings and nature-defying answers to prayer. Those things certainly happen …, but they usually happen in clusters around significant actions (some might call them intrusions) of God in history. Continue reading →

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This Is Your Brain on Jingles

If we are spending more time with Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow than with Jesus and Paul, it won’t be long before our thinking is out of kilter. Continue reading →

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Don’t Give Up on God (2 Samuel 7)

God hardly ever does things the way we think he should. What kind of kingdom is ruled by a crucified King? Continue reading →

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All Things Are Yours: A Compelling Vision of the Christian Life

In Paul’s glorious vision of the Christian life, Jesus’s people have the power to force the world, life, death, things present, and things to come to serve their purpose. But Christians can only do this if they know their purpose and where they fit in the divine scheme of things. Continue reading →

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The God of Second Chances (Joshua 3-4)

When another chance – second chance or hundredth chance – will be helpful, it will be given. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of Second chances. Continue reading →

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Ungraven Images (Exodus 19-20)

The form we have here comes from the kingdom of the Hittites and the so-called suzerainty treaties that conquered nations were required to sign. But there is a difference: God did not conquer Israel and force them into a treaty. Rather, he rescued them and offered them the choice to be his people. Continue reading →

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Christians: Navigating the Approval Process

That symbol gives merchants and consumers confidence in the product they are selling and buying. God wants his people to have confidence in him and in his work in them. And he wants their friends, neighbors, and co-workers to be able to trust them. Continue reading →

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The Passover: He Delivers (Exodus 12)

He did everything God told him to do … and things got worse! Much worse. And what’s more, the Hebrews blamed him (which is just what Pharaoh intended)! In frustration, Moses lashed out at God. He said (5:22), “Why did you [even] send me? . . . you haven’t rescued your people at all.” Continue reading →

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When Jesus Blew the Apostles’ Minds (John 4)

As she lowered her container into the well, she would have kept an eye on him. You can’t trust a Jew, she would be thinking. Continue reading →

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