“My Soul Refuses to Be Comforted”
A Song for Long Nights in Darkness
Something happens that shakes our confidence in what God has said, causing us to waver over what we’ve understood to be true about him or his character. This uncertainty produces anxiety and fear. In an effort to quell our anxiety, our mind becomes an incessant investigator, diligently searching for answers that will restore our confidence... Continue Reading
Does God Judge Nation-States Today?
We must be exceedingly careful about speaking for God, as he could be doing something entirely different than we think.
Maybe the place to begin is with a premise: if we believe the Christian teaching that God is just, all-wise, and the creator of all things, then it is His prerogative to judge human beings. The bracing claim that Christianity brings to us is that we are all sinners, that none of us have lived... Continue Reading
The World is Not my Parish
My job is to be faithful to the Lord Jesus in the place he has put me, with the gifts he has given me, to serve the people he’s given me to love.
Especially in these days of online services, there is a temptation for me to think the whole world is my audience! But no! my primary responsibility in a smaller sphere of relationships with people whom God has given me to love. We quote our heroes for inspiration. Or we sometimes mis-quote them, but nevertheless,... Continue Reading
Social Media: When a Distraction Starts to Feel Like an Obligation
When it comes to social media, the benefits rarely outweigh the costs.
Social media has a way of making us feel like we have more on our plate than we do, and it gives us next to nothing in return. It can also give us a false sense of accomplishment because we think we somehow have met our social media obligation. The problem is, in the end,... Continue Reading
When Your “Boundary Lines” Don’t Feel Pleasant
The Bible is clear that the blessing of the Lord’s goodness is not just seen in Heaven, but is our reality now.
We know our heavenly inheritance is beautiful beyond comprehension, but we are also able to fully rejoice in our earthly inheritance, as well! But for some of us, these days have been hard. Really hard. The boundary lines have reminded us just how difficult our lives are. Do you ever read Scripture and think:... Continue Reading
Ethnic Harmony as An Undeniable Effect of the Gospel and the Proper Pursuit of Gospel People
Jesus comes to purchase a people from every tribe and tongue.
Because we love God and love our neighbors, we walk into the hard conversations with the gospel on our lips. Whether the issue is politics, or gender identity, sexual orientation, raising children, international war, the death penalty, or racism, Christians prayerfully and carefully show how the good news of Jesus addresses the issues of the... Continue Reading
What’s Left When Everything’s Taken Away? (2 Timothy 1:8-12)
When everything’s stripped away, those who trust Christ still possess a complete transformation initiated by God, and a deposit that can never be taken because it’s guarded by God.
You learn a lot about someone when you take everything away from them. I’ve been learning a lot about myself lately, and I haven’t even lost that much compared to Paul. One day all of us have to face the question: what’s left when everything is stripped away? It’s happening to all of us in... Continue Reading
Ethics in Flux
As hope for a rational justification for Christianity as a divinely revealed religion crumbled, confidence in the existence and knowability of a rational moral order remained high.
Early in the modern era, some rational theologians seemed sure that they could justify belief in the main tenets of Christianity on narrow rationalist premises (e.g., William Chillingworth, John Tillotson). But by the end of the century, even John Locke, the would-be rational defender of the faith, could not see his way through to justify... Continue Reading
Man and Woman: A Biblical Systematic Anthropology
With regards to creation, Paul believes that the husband stands in the “Adam” role, while the wife stands in the “Eve” role.
The Apostle Paul employs two primary paradigms for understanding men and women. He points backwards to the original creation and the figures of Adam and Eve, and he points forwards to Jesus Christ and the Church in their soteriological-eschatological state. The former approach can be seen in 1 Cor. 11:8-12 and in 1 Tim. 2:12-15.... Continue Reading
Myth and Archetype: Response to Steven Wedgeworth
Mr. Wedgeworth misses both the purpose and the logic of the Apostle’s teaching here.
Much of the modern controversy over men and woman centers on the interpretation of one text in the Pauline corpus. 1 Timothy 2:1-15 gives us the Apostle’s teaching on the contribution of men and women in the church. In verses 9-15, the Apostle deals with women and restricts their function in the church based upon... Continue Reading