Case of the Reluctant Forgiver
When it comes down to it, only the Holy Spirit can open her eyes and soften her heart to allow the root of bitterness to be pulled up.
The counselor tried to get her to open up and to express the hurt, still fresh after all these years. But Ellen would have nothing of it. When the counselor probed, she didn’t merely skirt the subject; she guarded it like a pit bull. She made it clear that she hated her father and would never... Continue Reading
Seven Prayers for Those You Love
One of the best ways to stoke the fires of our big prayers for others is to praise God for what we see him doing in and through them.
Because Paul wrote to churches, almost all of the prayers we have in his letters are for believers. We can be sure he prayed persistently and passionately, with many tears, for the lost (Romans 9:2–3; Philippians 3:18–19). But most of what we know about Paul’s prayer life centers on what he prayed for his brothers... Continue Reading
A Charge Against God’s Word Is a Charge Against His Character
Do we really believe God has spoken to us through His Word?
Because Satan’s true aim was even more sinister than leveling a charge at the word of God. Behind the simple question the fork-tongued liar was leveling charges against the character and nature of God. What came off like a question was really an accusation. The charge against God’s Word was really a charge against God’s character.... Continue Reading
Theological Education and the Christian Life
Theological education contains an inherent warning to the Christian.
The connection between theological education and the Christian life is essential. We must love God in order to know God and we must know God in order to love God. Hovey’s warning that the failure to comprehend the ways of God will test our faith should not be lost. The difficulty of theology and the... Continue Reading
The Old Testament Law and Women
God’s laws express His values. They define the moral character of a just and righteous society.
Once we Western interpreters recognize the influence our individualistic bent has on how we read biblical law, we can discover the moral values it expresses. Unimpeded by our biases, we can recognize Old Testament law’s humanistic quality. Or, as one scholar described of Deuteronomy, its “progressive and protective attitude to the legal status of women.”[5]... Continue Reading
What Is the Gospel of John about?
What we have in the Gospel of John is eyewitness testimony.
The Gospel book splits into two halves. Chapters 1–11 narrate seven miracles of Jesus that John calls “signs.” Each sign signifies that Jesus does the works of the Father so that readers might identify the Son with the Father (John 10:37–38). The Gospel of John aims to persuade readers that “Jesus is the Christ,... Continue Reading
After the Love is Gone
Spending your life with another fallen human being will require more than emotional love.
The love that God demands of husbands and wives is a love that goes far beyond mere emotions and feelings. It is a love that willingly takes up its cross and carries it—as Jesus did—even unto death (Philippians 2:8). That kind of selfless and sacrificial love is beyond the capability of any man or woman... Continue Reading
Luke’s Secondary Audience
Luke is deeply concerned with salvation.
Luke constantly appeals to the Jews—perhaps even the same Jews who now accuse Paul before Caesar—to find the very hope they seek (Acts 26:6-7). But to find it, they must stop doing what they are doing (Luke 3:7-8) and receive cleansing on the inside from the mighty one (Luke 3:15-16). Upon analyzing Luke’s treatment... Continue Reading
What Came Before God?
If there ever was absolutely nothing, then nothing could possibly be now, because you cannot get something out of nothing.
God alone is from everlasting to everlasting and possesses the attribute of eternality. That majestic aspect of God’s nature so far transcends anything that we have ever conceived of in this world that it alone should be enough to move our souls to praise and adore Him. People may argue that if every effect... Continue Reading
What Is A Biblical Theology Of Sexuality? Part 2
For both Jesus and Paul, sexual immorality, along with other vices like greed and malicious thoughts, has the power to ‘defile’ and prevent our inheritance of the kingdom of God.
Paul’s explanation of his understanding of the gospels to Christians in Rome starts by demonstrating (in chapter 1) how Gentiles are captive to sin and, in parallel, how God’s people the Jews are also mired in sin—so that he can conclude that ‘all [i.e. both Jew and Gentile] have sinned and fallen short of the... Continue Reading