"Whenever you find a man of God, you will also find an overwhelming passion for God that is almost beyond control" ~ A.W. Tozer "Almost beyond control": the Christian's passion for God should never be under the control of the flesh, so that it is subjugated to the will of the flesh, nor is such …
Kingdom Case Makers: Apologetics 101
Worldviews are complex. In this post we talk about how to be Kingdom case-makers who engage the whole person with the good news of Jesus!
Rethinking the “Church / State” Divide
I think we need to challenge the way of thinking that divides life into different spheres and then attempts to assign Jesus' various teachings to their relevant spheres. Jesus is not just Lord over one or two spheres of life, he is Lord over All!
The Gospel of Peace
Christians adopt the same attitude as that of Christ, who did not come with a sword to crush the unjust, but became a man of sorrows to overcome sin's tyranny. This, not by war, but by peace, is how Christians overcome injustice.
Greed and Debt: the American Way
omething has been bothering me for decades. Something that I think is at the very heart of our problems. But as serious as this problem is, no one is really talking about it. And this is very surprising to me because the Bible says a lot about this subject: "greed". You read that right. We have a serious "greed" problem in America.
Peacemakers in the World of Vaxxed vs. Unvaxxed
We're living in a world of increasing hostility and division. People feel threatened by those who choose not to get vaccinated because they see their choice as being reckless and cavalier with other people's lives. And they're frustrated because they feel that the unvaccinated are prolonging the pain of the pandemic. Others see the coercive force being implemented to pressure people into getting vaccinated as threatening the foundations of our civil freedoms. And they feel threatened by the potential dangers of the vaccine given questions about its long-term health impacts. As Christians we find that it is through the chaos of all these questions and doubts that we are called to become peacemakers!
Reverence: Our Forgotten Worship Towards God
Today's world looks on the concept of reverence with disdain as inauthentic and actually puts a premium on irreverence as signaling authenticity. But reverence is central to the heart of Christian worship. So I want to ask the question "what does reverence look like in the assembly?"
Why Simple Answers?
Life moves at dizzying speeds. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up. We are constantly confronted with a deluge of ideas and demands competing for our attention. We may find ourselves wanting to go one way but believing that we should go another. Sometimes we even find completely opposite ideas equally compelling! Simplicity. When …
Four Principles For Spiritual Combat: Exposition of Matthew 4:1-4
https://youtu.be/qsDFMRXXckQ OPENING TEXTUAL NOTES You will notice as we get into Matthew’s gospel that one of his literary formulas is the word “Then” (GK τότε) This word is frequently used to progress the narrative forward by connecting the preceding account to what follows. “Then” opens the first two temptations and is duplicated in the third …
Continue reading "Four Principles For Spiritual Combat: Exposition of Matthew 4:1-4"
Blessed Poverty: Matthew 5:3
Matthew 5:3 (CSB) — Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Brokenness is so beautiful to Jesus that he blesses it first and foremost among all spiritual conditions. RICH IN SPIRIT People who are "rich in spirit" are those who we look at and say, "now there's a leader!" …