3 Ways People Responded to the News of Jesus’ Birth
How do we respond to this Jesus, the King?
If the wise men experienced great joy when they saw the star leading them to the child Jesus, what greater joy must they have felt when they saw the King of the Jews. They were so overcome that they “fell down and worshipped him,” and then offered him their treasures. As you read Matthew’s account, you... Continue Reading
Christian Friendship, and 3 Reasons Why 2 are Better than 1
Now, more than ever, we need to deeply believe and live out this reality of relationship.
We are forgetful people; we find ourselves in a season of difficulty, of trouble, of sadness or mourning, and we tend to forget what we know to be true about God and His love for us. It’s then when we need someone to remind us of these things. To comfort us. To defend us. To help... Continue Reading
The Pursuit of Pleasure
It is vital for Christians to determine the proper place for pleasure and then confine it within those boundaries.
God has given us work to do, so we should take pleasure in that work because it is a gift from God. The abilities and resources that allow us to work come from God just as much as the produce of our work. Therefore, we should approach the pleasure our work produces with humility and... Continue Reading
Male Headship or Servant Leadership? Yes.
Male headship in the church and home is a reflection of created order being restored.
Deformed masculinity results from affirming a false antithesis. In so doing, two complementary aspects of manhood are wrongly made out to compete with one another inherently. When it comes to principles such as male headship and servant leadership, we must be quick to celebrate and affirm what God calls good. Simply put, we cannot pick... Continue Reading
The Warmth of the Local Church for the Suffering
While God calls us to sacrificial love, he never intended us to bear this weight alone.
God made the local church to be a body that operates together, and we behold its beauty in the way each member works together (Rom. 12:4–5). Throughout our circumstances we all take turns in various roles. One season might find us able to become the sister or brother of great support for a church member,... Continue Reading
How to Respond to Those Who Hurt Us
Do you trust God to execute His vengeance, or do want to rob God of what rightfully belongs to Him by taking matters into your own hands?
When enemies harm us, instead of retaliating, let us remember that, unless that person repents, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. As the Preacher of Ecclesiastes said at the very end of his book, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 12:14). It... Continue Reading
Rethinking the Kind of Person God Uses and the Kind of Work God Blesses (3/3)
You have a calling. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, however celebrated or ignored that calling may feel, it has one unique quality.
Paul, as Jewish man, would have been raised to pray daily thanking God he wasn’t a slave, a Gentile, or a woman. In Acts 16, we find these are the first three categories of people who respond to Paul’s message. Wow! Not only are these people recipients of God’s grace, they also serve as conduits... Continue Reading
Secularism Be Damned
Recovering a sense of biblical reality.
In a culture that is currently engaged in a futile effort to push God to the periphery of public consciousness, it’s important for Christians to recover a sense of biblical reality. Despite what our unbelieving world would tell us, neutrality is a myth. Every human action — from making love to drawing up the building... Continue Reading
Karl Marx Has Won the Culture, But He Will Not Win the War
The water in which we swim is a toxic brew of Marxism, postmodern philosophy, and expressive individualism. It is an alternative religion, a false gospel.
God’s Christ has conquered, and he will return to consummate his inaugurated kingdom. While we wait, the nations are raging, trying to burst his bonds and cast away his cords. It is ours to understand and embrace the interpretive perspective of the biblical authors, to see the patterns in the narrative and then to align... Continue Reading
The Blood that Brings Peace
The message of the cross gives us a deep foundation and a vital framework for making sense of issues of conflict in our world as well as in our lives.
The gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection teaches us that we’re greater sinners than we can ever imagine. It also teaches us that our salvation is greater than we can ever imagine. Therefore, it teaches us how to relate to others. It enables us to forgive even those we see as our worst enemies; after... Continue Reading
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