Tag Archives: Jesus

When Worlds Go Out of Phase: Physics, Faith, and the Fall

Of course, I am using the “phase” terminology metaphorically, but that does not mean it is merely an illustration. Something similar to phase differences in the natural order has occurred in the spiritual order. Its effects have been deleterious, inhibiting humans from hearing God and seeing him even when he came among them in the person of Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

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The Fruitful Disciple (John 5:1-8)

A fruitless disciple is a contradiction, an unfulfillment, a broken promise. If the life of Jesus is not producing fruit in us, something is not right. If we belong to Jesus, we should be fruitful. Continue reading →

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“Help My Unbelief”: How Great Figures in Faith Navigated Doubt

What most people don’t know is that a year after his Aldersgate experience, Wesley wrote in his journal, “I know that I am not a Christian. I know it because I do not feel that I love God and his Son Jesus Christ as my Savior.” Continue reading →

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Peeling the Onion of Fear: How Christ Reclaims the Human Heart

I am still peeling the onion of my fears. I’ve been at it for a lifetime, and I expect it will take a little longer than that. Currently, I am trying to peel away the layer called claustrophobia. (I had a small victory: I got into an MRI machine, which is something I swore I would never do!) Continue reading →

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I Am the True Vine (John 15:1-8)

…it seems to me the church has made precisely the opposite mistake. We have not reached back into old covenant concepts, teachings, sayings, and narratives nearly enough. We’ve reached back to the evangelical trailblazers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Continue reading →

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The God Who Isn’t Finished: Hope for Those Who Think It’s Too Late

I saw B in a Walmart a few months after her mother died. I turned down an aisle and caught a glimpse of her at the other end. I thought that I should go and speak to her, but I chickened out and slinked into a different aisle. Continue reading →

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Restoring Our Center of Gravity

Politics cannot do it. Neither can education or social activism. Medical and psychological treatment are not equipped for it. These things are all good and helpful – even necessary – but they cannot, in and of themselves, provide a solution. Continue reading →

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The Church Since 9/11: What Is Going On?

Churches today are less full than they were twenty-five years ago – marking a nearly 30% decline in attendance. Smaller churches, according to the sociologist and pastor Ryan Burge, are on the verge of extinction. Continue reading →

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Why We Underestimate Ourselves—and Why God Doesn’t

You and I are ideas – God’s ideas – whose time is yet to come. When it does, everyone will be amazed—and no one more than you and me! Continue reading →

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I Am the Resurrection (Part 1) – John 11:1-16

In the first century, every Jew understood what resurrection is, even those who denied it was a real thing. Resurrection was the end-of-the-age, God-staged event in which all people who have ever lived come back to life. How could Jesus claim to be that? Continue reading →

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