Jesus reiterates a similar point when he says, “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defiles him” (Mark 7:15). Does this, therefore, mean that it doesn’t matter what we expose ourselves to? What we watch? With whom... Continue Reading

It was the meaninglessness, the outright rebellion, and stupidity of what I was doing. I remember thinking that I just plain wasn’t living according to who I am. I thought I was being authentic, having been sick of hypocrisy. I thought I got a pass because I was young. I had all along been planning... Continue Reading

Goodness is one of God’s attributes. And, the only way that people can be good is via God’s constant grace in their lives. Goodness, a fruit of the Holy Spirit within us, reflects God’s character. “Whoever does good is from God.” (3 John 1:11) Every child of God is created for good works.   People... Continue Reading

Every few weeks I’ll tweet the following: “People, pray for your pastors!” I mostly do it because I need to be reminded to do so, but also because I know how much it means to my pastor friends to know they are prayed for by their people. You can look in any direction today and... Continue Reading

FOCUS + FORCE can be a horrific combination, if not combined with FAITH. Without FAITH, without the blessing of God, FOCUS + FORCE will produce nothing, or at least nothing worth having. Sure, you might make a pile of money, but what shall it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?... Continue Reading

When the OT and NT canons are considered together, it seems the overall biblical canon would have had a seven-fold structure. Given the well-established biblical usage of the number seven as representative of completeness or wholeness, a seven-fold canonical structure would speak to the overall unity of the biblical canon and provides further reason to... Continue Reading

“…We have the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called ‘our washing’ (Titus 3:5), and that he is. Now if we think we are cleansed of our filth by the water of baptism, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ loses the honour which must be attributed to it. Such, therefore, is to... Continue Reading

“Spiritual depression is real and can be acute. We ask how a person of faith could experience such spiritual lows, but whatever provokes it does not take away from its reality. Our faith is not a constant action. It is mobile. It vacillates. We move from faith to faith, and in between we may have... Continue Reading

“As a multi-racial, African-American New Testament scholar teaching in a core theological discipline in the oldest school (the school of theology) at the flagship and once segregated Southern Seminary, I am regularly moved with emotion and deep gratitude to my great God, the Father, and my Lord, Jesus Christ, when I think that there was... Continue Reading

“So how do we respond? Well, the temptations abound, and the natural responses are, well, natural. We can become bitter, self-consumed, tired, discouraged, or even depressed. All of these things will naturally happen when we find ourselves inwardly focused and dressed with thin skin. But is this God-honoring? Is this biblically right?”   It is... Continue Reading