“Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world... Read more
Every generation of Christians will face a battle over the value of God’s word. The challenges come in different forms and different ways, but they are every present. I see three in particular when I look across the evangelical landscape. Evangelical revisionists call into question the inspiration of all of God’s word and ask us only to focus on the “red letters,” yet when they finish talking about the “red letters” it doesn’t really sound like the Jesus of the... Read more
Often well-intentioned Christians and pastors use the phrase “God gives second chances” to explain the Gospel and forgivness. Though the following quote is not what led me to write this post, it summarizes the way this concept gets presented. “We are all sinners and even with the best intentions, we continue to sin. But God gives us a mulligan, a second chance to redeem ourselves. As a matter of fact he gives us third and fourth chances as well. Our... Read more
The numbers of digital resources for Bible study has exploded in the last few years. The amount of resources and the speed at which they can be accessed was unheard of when I became a Christian in the late 1990’s. In particular, the availability of good iPhone and iPad Bible apps has seemed to eliminate the need for a physical copy of the Bible. After all, why carry around a one thousand page book when you can access it on... Read more
The sports world buzzed the last few days with the story of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Sterling’s longtime mistress recorded him telling her not to bring black men with her to his basketball games. Players, commentators, coaches, and other owners reacted swiftly to his comments and called for action from Commissioner Adam Silver. (Today Silver banned Sterling for life and will move to force him to sell the Clippers.) Even President Obama weighed in on his trip to... Read more
Ask someone how they are doing and the answer you are most likely to hear is “busy.” We appear to be a generation who has crammed our schedules full and believe we have no choice in the matter. This problem grows when you live in an area where you have to drive to everything. Staying too busy has devastating effects. You carry more stress than you should, have less time for things that are most important, and end up relationally... Read more
Sometimes we make mistakes for all the right reasons. Christians in the Reformed tradition want people to understand that their hope of acceptance before God lies not in the good things they have done, but through faith in Jesus alone. To remind people of this, we point them to Jesus’ death, and so we should. Jesus, in His death on the cross, bore our sins in His own body. He died, not for any sins He had committed, but for... Read more
The New Testament does not say a lot about marriage. Jesus talks about the permanence of marriage in the Gospels. Paul addresses married couples in 1 Corinthians 7, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 2. Peter and the writer of Hebrews speak of marriage in 1 Peter 3 and Hebrews 13. Marriage is good and should be permanent since it is a one flesh union picturing the relationship between Christ and the church. The marriage bed must be held in honor. Husbands... Read more
As I blog through the Bible chapter by chapter, there are going to be occasions where it is necessary to stop and work through several chapters together before looking at them individually. The flood in Genesis 6-9 begs for a larger consideration before working through the details in each individual chapter. Often when we think of the flood, our minds turn to Sunday School images of animals climbing on two by two. As we get older, we start to think... Read more
Living in Alabama can sometimes be a strange thing. Every election cycle, commercials air for political candidates that you probably would not see in any other state. Judicial candidates list teaching Sunday School as one of their qualifications for office. Men running for State Senate show video of their families walking out of church with a Bible under their arm. Even though Alabama is becoming increasingly unchurched, the state is still quite conservative and candidates know that showing their religious... Read more
One Degree to Another
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