What Does Paul Mean When He Says ‘Let a Woman Learn Quietly?’
God intends a certain order in the husband-wife relationship. The order of creation establishes the husband as leader in the first marriage and in all marriages to follow.
This verse is one of the most controversial texts in all of the NT, mainly because there is such a difference of opinion over what it is that Paul is disallowing. The literature on this verse is voluminous, and adjudicating all the competing interpretations would be beyond the scope of this commentary.(4) Nevertheless, we can... Continue Reading
Cancer and God’s Sovereignty
Everything changed when I received a cancer diagnosis on the day before my thirty-fourth birthday.
Over the months of treatment and years of survivorship since that day, I’ve wrestled with God’s sovereignty. I don’t question the truth of His rule and reign over all things. I’m grateful that He provided a solid biblical understanding of His character before the phone call came. But I’ve often struggled to find lasting comfort... Continue Reading
The Picture of Hope in Suffering
God uses trials and hidden things to draw us closer to himself, and even when we can’t understand the outcome or the purpose, joy is revealed in the process.
In his first letter to his exiled and suffering readers undergoing trials, the Apostle Peter reminds that these trials are only “for a little while” (1 Peter 1:6-9). This is not Peter’s attempt to minimize them or belittle the pain and challenges they produce, but to offer another bolster of hope that even the longest... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know About Shame and Guilt
Shame and guilt are not the same thing.
Guilt is the objective reality of being liable to punishment because of something we’ve done. Shame is the subjective feeling of being worthless because of who we are. As someone said, it’s the difference between making a mistake and being a mistake. Feeling guilt when we sin is a good and godly and healthy response. So we run to... Continue Reading
I Can’t Do This, God
God is only impressed by one human strength: strong faith.
“Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (Exodus 4:13). Please send someone else. This is the fearful response of a person who not only feels but knows he is too weak to do what God is assigning him to do. Yes, the response lacks faith, but it is an accurate assessment: in his own strength, Moses will not be able to... Continue Reading
Abortion, Human Dignity, and Jesus
In a world that has embraced a culture of death, here’s where God would have us look: on his Son, Jesus.
When you lose dignity and purpose, death is lurking nearby. The Scriptures are clear that God condemns the slaughter of children and will judge it. He abominated the ancient pagan practice of child sacrifice in the Old Testament (2 Kgs. 17:17), and the early Christian church repudiated the common Roman practice of child exposure, whereby... Continue Reading
3 Crosses of Discipleship
It's important to return to the basics regarding the Christian life, which starts with discipleship.
Christian discipleship is a call to renounce our affection for this present evil age. As the author of Hebrews states, we do not have a permanent city in the world, but we are looking for the city that is to come (cf. Hebrews 13:14). We know that this present evil age is under the sentence of... Continue Reading
Two Went Up to Pray
The parable is setting out two ways of salvation, the way of merit and the way of mercy.
What we need to realize after hearing this parable is that the thing that makes the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector is the One telling the parable. When the tax collector beat his breast and cried out to God for mercy, he was really asking God to give him an atoning sacrifice... Continue Reading
A Short Dictionary on Trinity Words
For the sake of knowing God, our faith, and avoiding error, consider then the following short dictionary of Trinity words.
One reason to use Trinity words is to know God. They provide a big picture understanding of God based on the whole Bible and spiritual reflection on the Bible’s meaning. Since the Bible’s story unfolds over centuries and its themes unfold across sixty-six books, it can be hard to keep track of everything. That’s why teachers... Continue Reading
Honor and Its Decline
Honor once served as a barometer of the virtue and vitality of both men and nations.
It is important to remember that any attempt at sundering truth into separate upper and lower categories is merely a pretext for unbelief. The decline and fall of honor in our day is not the second- or third-order consequence of the new fundamentalist dogmas of our abortion-affirming, LGBTQ+, or postmodern soothsayers. Instead, it is unbelief... Continue Reading