Worst-Case Scenarios: 3 Truths to Keep You from Despair
What if the worst-case scenario occurred? What will keep you, as a Christian, from despair?
What would keep you from despair in this kind of worst-case scenario? What prevented the Stams and the Scotts from losing their faith in God? Still reeling from the news of their children’s barbaric deaths, these grieving parents left a written record of three truths that kept them from despair. In the past few... Continue Reading
Feeling the Truth
Our emotions are intended to complement our thoughts and actions.
God created us with emotions because He delights in our worshipful appreciation of the beauty of who He is and how He will redeem. This means that, in the end, every emotion, even every dark one, is an opportunity to engage with Him and “pour out [our] heart[s] before him” as our act of trust (Ps. 62:8). He... Continue Reading
Communicable Attributes: What Is the Mercy of God?
Mercy is first and foremost an attribute of God.
So in one sense, mercy is not getting what we deserve, as our penalty was paid for by another. But it is so much more. The children of Israel came to a designated place once-a-year through an intermediary. We come to a person. Our mercy seat is Jesus Christ. He has opened the way for permanent and eternal... Continue Reading
Responding to Death: The Case of Lazarus
Jesus wept because, as God, he knew the meaning of and reason for death.
If Jesus only had the goal of inspiring human kindness, no one would have responded with resentment to Lazarus’ resurrection. But some did. They understand what the the resurrection of Lazarus meant. It meant, as Jesus had been teaching, that man’s only hope to escape the clutches of everlasting death was faith in Christ Himself.... Continue Reading
When You’re Tired of the Battle, Persevere in Prayer
Perseverance is the fruit of faith and love
Jesus also endured through love. How could he stay on that cross? People were shouting for Him to come down. What made Him stay there? “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for His friends” (John 15:13). Christ persevered through faith and He endured through love. When others see... Continue Reading
Heaven’s Message to All Us Rebels (Ps 2:4-12)
We must see our lives, history, and culture in terms of the conflict between heaven and earth.
The faithless want to live life not on God’s terms, but on their own terms, in pursuit of rights, privileges, and “cancel culture.” David reminds every one of us: on the authority of God’s written word, heed His warnings of wrath, embrace His promises of pardon. Wise up, repent, and take refuge in God’s Anointed... Continue Reading
Jesus Didn’t Die on the Cross for Our Sins?
The progressive Christian is uncomfortable with the idea of a punitive, wrathful God.
The evidence against the progressive view of the Cross is overwhelming. I’m reminded of Luke 24:25-32, The Road to Emmaus(link is external). Christ had to suffer, and He did so willingly. Christ paid for our sins because it’s impossible for us do it. We cannot earn our salvation, or even stay saved without Christ. The Beliefnet... Continue Reading
For the Glory of the Lord
Proclaim the free gift of God to others, not for financial gain, but for the glory of the Lord alone!
On that day near the Jordan river Elisha refused the gift of Naaman because he desired above all else for the Glory of the Lord in its fullness to be on display to Naaman, the Syrians, and all those that were with Elisha. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is free grace. It is... Continue Reading
Lord, Give Us Discerning Love: A Prayer for Divisive Days
The complexity of our challenges and sorrows uncovers two dangerous and rival impulses in us.
Practicing — really practicing — love and discernment is not merely about winning an argument or being on the right side of history, but about being right before God for eternity. If we want to glorify God in all we do, we cannot settle for discernment without real love. If we want to be more and more... Continue Reading
Testing of Your Faith
When we respond to our trials correctly, in joy, God will build up or increase our “endurance” or “patience” or ”perseverance.
The Spirit-filled believer is so because he or she has not stumbled and fallen while going through tests and trials. They have confessed their sins and repented of them. They are not conformed to this world. They have permeated their lives with the Word of God. They are drawing near unto God in prayer and... Continue Reading
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