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In: Abuse, Adultery, Bible and Theology, Gospel, Marriage, Post-Modernism

“Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.” (Proverbs 21:21) So pursuing righteousness gets me righteousness and life. Pursuing kindness gets me honor? Interesting. The Church today has a hard time pursuing both righteousness and kindness. The devil fights us because either one  isn’t enough. We need both to find life righteousness, and honor. So all he has to do is keep us from being one or the other–and we can be more easily tricked into thinking we’re following Jesus properly in either half way state. The devil also likes to get us focused on the opposite problem than the one weRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Gospel

Today I’ve been searching the scriptures to unravel which passage labeled in my bible as “the calling of the first disciples” is actually their first meeting of the Lord. Trivia perhaps, geeky of me almost certainly, but it has me most curious since, in my lifetime, I have heard each of the accounts of the first disciples’ early meetings with the Lord preached on as if it was the first time Peter, Andrew, James, and John had met the Lord and got up to follow him without hesitancy, and even bible scholars expressing amazement at such recklessness of following some Rabbi they’d never heard of before. However,  three ofRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, God's Character, Gospel, Grace, Lament, Prayer and Devotions

What keeps us from praying and abiding with God? Sometimes, we like to claim we’re simply busy, but we make time in our busy schedules for the things and people we love, don’t we? So why do we avoid God? What are we afraid of? What are we hiding? Is it just God, or do we draw back from close, intimate relationship with others for fear of being exposed? Even the Lord Himself did not entrust himself to men, for he knew what was in the hearts of men, but we were created for fellowship and communion with God and our brothers and sisters inRead More →

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In: Gospel, Grace

Dear Andrea, I feel like such a hypocrite. I’m a 30-year-old mother of two. Never very religious except for a vague belief in God. Family and exercise are my passions. A few days ago I was robbed at home by a pair of intruders. I was unhurt but left very tightly bound and gagged, face down and hogtied, in a closet. I struggled for awhile but soon realized I’d have to wait there for three hours until my husband and children returned. I’ve always been a very competent person and being all tied up was a blow to my pride and my dignity. (As theyRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Gospel, Grace, Post-Modernism

 Gentle readers, Lately, I’ve been hearing, in one way or another, and from diverging sources, a single cry, ringing out. Namely, that the Church is supposed to be a family, but too often in America, it has more in common with daycare, a country club, thrift store, pick the business metaphor of your choice. Too many churches today are literally run as non-profit commercial enterprises and mean “when you’re here, you’re family” in the same spirit as the Olive Garden. We have people in the Church today, raised in it their whole lives sometimes, who have no, or little, understanding of the gospel. The surroundingRead More →