“Oh, he is so heavenly minded, he is of no earthly use!” the cynic snipes. We have all heard that charge, haven’t we? It’s an easy one to make and a hard one to defend. But is it ever true?
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What costs us nothing to receive, cost God His Son to offer. Surely, we must ask the question, why? Why would God go to such lengths to provide such an easy, such an undemanding way of salvation?
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I love the festive season the feast of Thanksgiving ushers in. Gathering around a table full with family and friends to give thanks to God is both intrinsically right and personally satisfying.
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“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV)
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Sometimes the doctrine of election can get in the way of experiencing God. How can truth, I hear you ask, get in the way of our relationship with God? An obvious answer is when either we don’t understand a given truth properly, or when we use it at the wrong time to answer the wrong questions.
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One of the perennial dangers facing the Christian is to separate the benefits of the gospel from the Christ who gives them. Thinking like this tends to make the gospel transaction impersonal and, in the worst of cases, legal in nature.
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With Reformation Sunday almost upon us, and our annual remembrance of Luther’s famous protest, nailing 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenburg, we might well ask: was it all necessary?
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Prayer is a conversation that begins with God. We speak to a God who has first spoken to us. The first word is not your responsibility.
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"And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” (Exodus 2:25, ESV) Does your Calvinism get in the way of your prayers?
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“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV)
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We all like to believe our own hype, don't we? -- that we are better than we really are. In particular, we cherish the hope that our deeds don't tell the truth about us.
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““Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. (Matt 5:9)"
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Christianity has always emphasized the mind, our piety has a distinctly intellectual component.
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“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30). When it comes to ultimate things, no one is really neutral —particularly when the ultimate thing in question is God.
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Have you ever noticed, Jesus is never in a hurry? You never see Him rushing around, flapping about in a tailspin of anxiety.
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““Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”” (Acts 16:31). When Paul says these words to the Philippian jailer, what does he mean?
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It is not at all uncommon for me to hear Christians express the fear that one day they will make Saul’s mistake, and that God will depart from them forever (1Sam. 15:22-23).
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God’s law forms a fence around our freedoms. We are not free to live as we please, to do whatever we want. In God’s universe, freedom is always enjoyed in paradox.
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I sometimes meet Christians who are caught in the vortex of legalism. Their thought process goes something like this: “If I don’t do_______________ (Insert an often good, even necessary spiritual activity) then God will be displeased with me.”
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C.S. Lewis's classic The Great Divorce details the fictitious account of day-trippers from hell (Grey Town) visiting heaven. Although they can remain as long as they want, only one of their number chooses to stay.
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