For God’s Sake
While most people believe God saves people for "people’s sake" (i.e., because of his attraction to them and his inner compulsion to promote and honor them), Psalm 106:8 tells us that God is in the business of saving sinners...
Righteous Anger
While most Christians are chasing a modern fantasy of an irenic and affable day-to-day Christian experience, may we recognize the truth that we cannot be godly without regularly feeling and periodically expressing righteous anger...
Love
Love is not as easy or pleasant as it sounds. It is effortless to say “I love you” but so hard to demonstrate in real life. The Bible calls Christians to love “not with words or speech but with actions and truth” (1Jn.3:18). It is not that the words are wrong, but they...
Unwholesome Talk
God’s word commands followers of Christ to “not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” (Eph.4:29). Often the Bible gauges our spirituality by our vocabulary (Jms.3:2-12). If our words are unsavory Jesus provides the needed...
Christian Life
Some have tried to avoid the concept of “Christ’s life for me and my life for Christ” depicted in the gospel exchange (cf. 2Cor.5:15; Mt.13:44-46; Lk.14:28-33; Mt.10:37-39; et al.) by imagining a dichotomy in the Christian life. They suggest that there are...
Forgiveness
God’s forgiveness is complete. Because God is too pure to approve or tolerate what is evil (Hab.1:13; Ps.5:4-5; et al.), to say that we are God’s beloved children because we are accepted by God in Christ, is to make a gigantic claim that assumes that our...
Our Sin
The Bible says we are all born with a built in double standard – the one we apply to those around us and the other we apply to ourselves. We are innately proficient in detecting the sins and transgressions of others, but we are inept in perceiving our own. Consider the freeway foibles...
Rebellious Decisions
Recently the Supreme Court summarized another decision to move our country and its laws further from biblical principles by stating that their ruling epitomized “the progress of a maturing society.” As we often see throughout biblical history in general, and the book of Judges in...
Truthfulness
In Psalm 15 David recounts key virtues of a godly character – a kind of character that he says will experience intimacy with God. At the top of the inspired list we find the attribute of truthfulness, as we might expect. How can one claim to
Coveting
Do you covet? Most would say, “not really” or “not too often.” But I wonder how in tune we are with the presence of this subtle sin? Even when we recognize its presence in our hearts, how quick are we to minimize its gravity? It seems we will more readily admit...
God’s Ownership
Living the Christian life as we ought requires that we periodically ponder the significance of the biblical statement: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1Cor.6:19-20). When we recognize that God not only gives us...
Resting
Taking a break was God’s idea. It assumes we are diligent in our work. Even the statement he uses to institute a weekly break is couched in the reminder that we were never designed or commissioned for a life of luxury “six days do your work” but then we must...
Get Wisdom
The Bible repeatedly tells us that God’s wisdom is readily available to us and would enhance our lives in countless ways, including the expansion of our lot in eternity, but sadly we choose to leave much of it unclaimed. The diagnosis? We love our sin way too much. We’re told that...
Live by Faith
The Bible tells us that, for the time being, we have to function in the Christian life without the benefit of “seeing” the important and eternal things that we live for and live by (2Cor.4:18; 5:7; 1Pet.1:8; et al.). Our hope in God – his forgiveness, his blessing and his presence, just to name a few...
Baptism and Salvation
“Does baptism save you?” The best answer is actually a question: “Which one?” Unfortunately, the word “baptism” causes students of the Bible a lot of confusion because, like a few other select Greek words, it is not translated – it is simply transliterated. Were it translated it would
God’s Dwelling
When King Solomon had completed construction on the most magnificent, costly and beautiful edifice Israel had ever seen, he admitted during his dedicatory prayer that their new and expansive house of worship was far too...
Perfection
It has been observed that our insatiable appetite for what is perfect should be a clue that this world is not our home. Who can argue with the fact that we all spend plenty of time and effort imagining and pursuing flawless realities that...
Biblical Tension
It has been rightly said that we should never use biblical truths in unbiblical ways. We make this costly error at times without knowing it. We may be hailing some aspect of God’s word with a resolute focus while unwittingly beginning to utilize that affirmation to deny some other forthright teaching of Scripture. Take for instance our confidence in the sovereignty of God, which is of course a...
Self Examination
The Bible often reminds us to not forget. It tells us to hang on to what we’ve learned and to build on the gains that we’ve made in the Christian life. The goal is not to be nostalgic, but to be sure to “live up to what we have already attained” (Phil.3:16) “remembering what we’ve received and heard” so that we can “obey it” (Rev.3:3). This requires purposeful...
Money
Most of us at, one point or another, have said in frustration “I hate money!” While that may sound better than the alternative which is prohibited in Scripture (1Tim.6:10), it is obviously not how God would have us live. God knows we will have to...
Bible Reading
When God is at the center of our theology and Christ is at the head of our lives we begin to understand the Bible as it was intended to be understood. Approaching Scripture as God’s self-disclosure instead of our tool for self-improvement will undoubtedly open up an entirely new experience of Bible study. It is not hard to see the extreme difference
Christmas Forgiveness
In this season of giving and receiving gifts, let us never lose our focus on the incomparable grace that was bestowed on us when God decided to give us everything that was needed to free us from the consequences of our sins through the life and death of Jesus Christ. It would seem only right...
Christmas Plan
Christmas was required in God’s plan because the righteous life he requires was not attained by Adam or any of his fallen descendants. God, prompted by grace, chose to fulfill the holy human standard himself. The incarnate Deity chose to live the life we should have lived – the perfect childhood, the spotless...
Christmas Giving
The relationship of Christmas with gift-giving may be bemoaned by many, but the connection is a biblical one. I am not referring to the crazed run through the mall in late December or the White Elephant gift exchange at the office party, but the concept of generously...
Pagan Christmas?
There are several modern-day Gnostics who, in the name of Christ, seek to dissuade us from celebrating the birth of Jesus each December. They go to great lengths to enlighten us regarding the pagan associations of the winter solstice, the worship of Druid gods, and idolatry...
Joyful Thanksgiving
Psalm 96 calls us to “Sing to the Lord” (Ps.96:1a). Regardless of our present pains or disappointments, the Bible assumes that if we are recipients of his grace and mercy, we have a lot to sing about. And the focus should not only be historical (i.e. what God did for us in years past), but our attention should also be on...
Grace
God’s grace is the theme of the New Testament and yet with all this scriptural emphasis it seems we are still slow to rightly understand it. We either tend to think that it is some kind of extra credit that adds to our goodness, thus making us acceptable to God. Or we secretly tend to believe it is a “get out of jail free” card that allows us to dabble in sin without consequences. Both are obviously a...
Worship Always
The suffering of Job was intense. To bury all of your children after a catastrophic storm is doubtless a devastating pain that would cause many to shake their fist at God. Instead, as you know, Job did not. He did take on the ancient near-Eastern sign of a person in...
Truth
Truth is not always popular. Depending on the environment, statements that reflect absolute truth can be downright offensive to many. That is one reason the Bible instructs us to make sure our hearts are centered on pleasing God even before we open our mouths. We need to keep in mind the ultimate goal of our conversation so we don’t get entangled in personal...
Privileged Access
The priests of the Old Testament held a special and privileged position among their contemporaries. They lived as those who were granted an exceptional depth of access to God’s presence and God’s blessings. As such, they were held to a higher standard as compared...