The Identity Beneath Your Identities
My identity changed when I moved and became a wife and then a mom
“Life transitions remind me that identity is a complex topic and not something that can be reduced to one or two things, like being a wife and mother. There are many layers that make up who we are, but one most important layer is the foundation. What is the foundation of your identity?” I... Continue Reading
Didn’t Jesus Hang Around with Tax Collectors (and Real Estate Developers)?
Why do Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne think followers of Jesus would repudiate Trump?
“Condemning Trump and what he represents plays well to half of America. But isn’t the point of being a Red Letter Christian to follow Jesus, not gain the approval of the New York Times editors?” Then why do Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne think that followers of Jesus would repudiate Donald Trump? Evangelicalism was... Continue Reading
The Totalitarian Lie
Totalitarians control thought and action by controlling speech
Pol Pot believed human beings are blank slates who could, with enough force, be molded into any shape he chose. People don’t need friends they can trust or work that matters. To forge the “new socialist man” and enact his utopia, Pol Pot swept away the institutions of the old society—markets, businesses, churches, schools, as well... Continue Reading
The Bible Never Says ‘All Men Are Created Equal’
How the New Testament offers a better, higher calling than the Declaration of Independence
“The New Testament mentions equality once or twice, but when it comes to social relationships, it is far more interested in concepts like oneness, commonness, partnership, union, and joint-inheritance. If you make all those passages about equality, you flatten their meaning.” An Anglican man rang me out of the blue the other day to... Continue Reading
What Should We Remember?
In the Bible, memory is an act of faithfulness to God
“In Scripture, memory has a similar formative power. The Bible depicts believers as being formed by their response to the revelation of God, and the divine Creator and Redeemer exhibits His holy character by His faithful remembering of the people whom He has created and promised to redeem.” Memory of the past—whether corporate or... Continue Reading
Does Perfect Parenting Lead to Perfect Children?
I am a very slow learner in the lesson that God’s power is made perfect in my weakness – ironically, it is the message I seem to experience most in my role as a parent!
“My desire for my two children to turn out to be a Godly young man and woman has actually become an idol. Is this desire appropriate? Of course! However, when I find myself striving and stressing over implementing a rigid parenting regime so I can ensure that my children will turn out spiritually perfect, something... Continue Reading
You Need Not Fear the Future If You Know This
A great spiritual principle is that it’s not what you know but WHO you know.
God compares his people to sheep. In ancient Palestine sheep “were totally dependent on shepherds for protection, grazing, watering, shelter and tending to injuries. In fact, sheep would not survive long without a shepherd. Sheep are not only dependent creatures; they are also singularly unintelligent, prone to wandering and unable to find their way to a sheepfold even when it is within sight”(Dictionary of Biblical Imagery). How we need a shepherd!
In Honor of Thomas Oden: Seven Essential Lessons Learned from an Evangelical Scholar in the Secular Academy
Oden was known for starting out as a classic liberal scholar and later becoming orthodox–a rare feat in today’s world.
The words struck a nerve and Oden began a journey that eventually resulted in a 180 degree turn away from liberalism and towards historic, traditional Christianity. Oden’s story provides a rare glimpse into the world of modern liberal scholarship from the perspective of someone who used to believe all the standard critical views but then changed his mind. Thus, there are a number of lessons we can learn from his journey:
Isaac Watts & How to Think – Part 1
A sharpened mind will bear fruit in all things for which you use your mind.
At times, doctrinal error propagates due to incorrect use of words in argumentation. Watts proposes several errors. First, when words are vague, overly-flowery, or have no idea associated (e.g. “[A]s when the mystical divines talk of the prayer of silence, the supernatural and passive night of the soul, the vacuity of powers, the suspension of all thoughts,” 188). The risk here is an acceptable imprecision of theological ideas and doctrines or a precision, but upon the wrong truth, both of which are entrances to error.
Is the Virgin Birth Essential?
The virgin birth demonstrates that Jesus was truly human and truly divine.
How can the virgin birth be an inconsequential spring for our jumping when it establishes the very identity of our Lord and Savior? If Jesus had not been born of a human, we could not believe in his full humanity. But if he birth were like any other human birth—through the union of a human father and mother–we would question his full divinity. The virgin birth is necessary to secure both a real human nature and a completely divine nature.