That God is not dependent on human faith for accomplishing His work is clear from the accounts of other miracles recorded by Matthew. The transfiguration of Jesus immediately prior to the healing of the boy is a prime example. It was a spectacular miracle; yet no human faith was involved. This is also true in... Continue Reading

So before we look to fathers in this world to define God, let’s start where we must: with God who was Father before the creation of the world. The Father gave, gives, and will continue to give life to the Son for eternity. This nurturing and sharing love of the Father defines our task of... Continue Reading

Jesus is the antithesis of the kind of president or world leader we all long for. We want a powerful, wealthy, strong leader, but Jesus comes to us powerless, poor, and weak. We want a God who glories in the great and mighty in the highest of places; we don’t expect him to choose the... Continue Reading

Paul understood that our hearts are easily drawn astray by outward appearances. What we need is not a distraction-free “experience” that wows us, but an encounter with the truth that transforms us. Slickness in presentation calls our attention to the human messenger. A more modest approach — one that is okay with a little human... Continue Reading

We often feel compelled to balance two passages as soon as they are read, and we run to the place of least tension. This is the business of systematic theology. It’s a worthy task, if handled wisely, and sometimes quite satisfying. But there is a danger­­—this method often takes the sharpness of the text away.... Continue Reading

When we meet week-by-week to worship God we don’t do it because it’s tradition or mere formality. Rather, we do it because God is worthy to be worshiped: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). When we come together... Continue Reading

Accountability is good and right. A denomination or network would be foolish to give away Kingdom resources without certain standards. Expectations should be expected. My concern is not with accountability. When I worked for McDonald’s and Burger King, I had to wear the appropriate uniforms for the appropriate places. I knew such expectations existed before... Continue Reading

Although used in the Old Testament, the term disciple is primarily a New Testament concept. There we find it is a very common word; John and many other rabbis had disciples, too. It was historically used to describe dedicated students following a particular teacher. In fact, both the Hebrew and Greek terms come from the... Continue Reading

In a year and a half, we could be starting over completely from scratch. And that is so very daunting and scary. Especially considering that we’ll have one child starting high school and two others in middle school. Not exactly ideal ages for massive life upheaval.   I was awake for hours last night, frustrated.... Continue Reading

As we grow up in the Lord, we begin to think maturely and this allows us to behave maturely. Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Corinthians 13:11). This... Continue Reading