Your Ambition Might Be Satanic
Our culture values hard work, and for many Americans busyness has become a status symbol.
Who doesn’t want to be in demand? Thus we adore ambition and the ambitious. It’s here that the Bible gives us a serious word of caution. Not all ambition is good. In fact, there are some kinds of ambition that are really evil. There is such a thing as satanic ambition. If you were to... Continue Reading
God Does Not Re-Define Sin Or Righteousness
“Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.”
The human story in Genesis chapters 2 and 3, compressed as it is there, comes to sin right away. Adam and Eve were created righteous, holy, and good. They had the ability to choose righteousness but they chose disobedience and death. The Lord had said, “the day you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen... Continue Reading
How Should Sanctification Affect the Tongue?
Not only is a loose tongue nothing to boast about, but it’s simply not the way a Christian should behave.
With man, taming the tongue is an impossible task indeed. However, with God, nothing is impossible. Even the tongue can be tamed by the work of the Spirit in sanctification. In Romans 8, Paul contrasted the life that is controlled by the flesh versus the life controlled by the Spirit. One leads to death while... Continue Reading
MIA: The Kingdom of God
The phrase the kingdom of God can seem allusive term because it is multi-faceted.
We read about “the gospel of the kingdom” because the good news of Jesus cannot be separated from the kingdom. Often times, the gospel and the kingdom are synonymous, such as in Luke 9 where it says that Jesus sent the apostles out to proclaim the kingdom and God and it then states that they... Continue Reading
Dwelling on Death
We should spend more time considering death and how its certainty impacts how we live our lives now.
In our culture, we do everything we can to avoid thinking about death—at least in a positive sense. We do, however, spend a lot of time thinking about how we can delay or avoid it. We pour our money and time into gym memberships, diet plans, and self-help books in hopes of staving off death,... Continue Reading
What Gender Is the XXY Chromosome?
It is a trap for Christians especially to fall into the notion that biology and chemistry simply define sex contra notions of constructed gender.
The end of sex is union with God in Christ (Eph 5:32). Sexual capacity no matter our chromosomal makeup points in this direction. No matter our genetics, we all have one human nature. And Christ united to that nature through his hypostatic union. And by the Spirit, Christians with one human nature (the same as... Continue Reading
What to Do with Your Wavering Faith
We should remember that the Christian faith has a specific object: Christ.
“Do you remember, in the stress of your trial, how faith comes? Let me remind you, although you know it. You know we are sanctified through the truth. Sanctification is just the growth of the particular graces of the spirit, of which faith is one. Just here is where Christians make a great mistake. When... Continue Reading
Should Christians Fast or Feast?
We are Christ’s bride, being redeemed by him and having a place at his everlasting wedding banquet.
Just as it is inappropriate to mourn and fast at a wedding when the groom is present, so it is inappropriate to mourn and therefore fast, when Jesus—the great bridegroom—is present. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah and the bridegroom of his people. Jesus’ coming as the Messiah means that he is lifting the wrath and... Continue Reading
The Insanity of Trusting Yourself
God is at war with mere human wisdom — our rebellious leaning on our own understanding.
God did design us to think for ourselves. That’s one reason the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was present in the garden. God simply did not design us to think by ourselves. It is not irrational for very limited, contingent creatures to depend on the guidance of an omniscient, self-existing Creator to... Continue Reading
6 Effects of God’s Power
This world reveals our weakness and exposes our need for a strength and power greater than our own.
What does it mean for God to be God? In this world of rapid change, technological advancement, and medical breakthroughs, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of that which makes God God. So read this slowly, and hear the claims of the Divine: So in this world that is infatuated with all things new, let... Continue Reading