By:
On:
In: Faith, Gospel

“I hope this doesn’t offend you, but . . .” Whenever I hear phrases like this, I can almost guarantee you what will follow will be unkind, hurtful, and rude to the point of offensive. It’s pretty much an apology in advance meant, we hope, to excuse us for daring to speak our minds. Sharing an honest opinion isn’t wrong in and of itself, but apologizing for it while taking a tone and posture that dares the person to get offended is problematic to say the least. So is speaking without any regard for the other person and how they might be benefited or hurt,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Bible and Theology, Faith, God's promises, Guest posts

By Adam Elijah Graham During Christmastime, the prophecy of Isaiah of the Virgin Birth from Isaiah 7:14 is often called to mind. However, this past week, I was struck by the context of the verse. It was delivered to King Ahaz of Judah. The Bible tells us that Ahaz was a wicked king, but in the first part of Isaiah 7, Ahaz was promised that Judah would be delivered from the hand of the invading Syrian Army. (Isaiah 7:1-9). God even offered Ahaz a rare opportunity which Ahaz declined: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the Lord your[f] God; let itRead More →

By:
On:
In: Faith, Family and Friends, God's promises, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

November 27, 2014 is Thanksgiving in the US. It is a day when Americans gather around a big turkey feast, thus it is also known as Turkey Day to those who forget this day is about more than food and football. It is about remembering the first settlers’ difficult fight to survive a harsh winter, one many of them lost. The first settlers managed to bring in a successful harvest the following autumn and celebrated this by holding a traditional English harvest festival. It is that event which the Thanksgiving feast commemorates. The original community who gave thanks to God for their life-saving harvest had buried over half ofRead More →

By:
On:
In: Bible and Theology, Faith, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

Christians like to argue over the nature of the thorn in the flesh, whether it’s physical disease or a demonic assault. My response: who says we can only have one thorn in our flesh? I have several of the chronic illness sort. Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome is a hormone problem that can cause depressive moods. On top of that, I have inattentive-type ADD, which can cause meltdowns, especially if I get over-stimulated, and I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which again has triggers that can cause me to regress back to the way I thought as a child. When that happens, I’m stuck thinking like an ADD child/teen inRead More →

By:
On:
In: Devotional Writings, Faith, Fear and Anxiety, God's promises, Suffering

Some fear Ebola. Some fear nuclear attacks on or our own governments attacking their own people. Some fear disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Some are so afraid, they ignore that in Mathew 24 Jesus said such phenomena are not signs of the end, implying they’re instead the status quo on the way to the end. It seems to be getting worse since we get reports from further away, faster than ever. If these are “birth pangs,” the earth has been already having contractions for millennia, and we haven’t been measuring long enough, widely enough, to really have any idea how far apart the contractionsRead More →