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In: Bible and Theology, God's Character, God's love, Sin and Holiness

Peace, brothers and sisters in Christ, peace.   Lately, I’ve encountered a disturbing amount of Christians bickering amongst ourselves, sometimes with the eyes of a lost world literally watching, and likely thinking if our unkind, unloving, disrespectful attitudes in the moment represent what Christ is about, no thanks. They can get plenty of that without the Lord. Meanwhile, often, everyone involved in the fussing is sure they’re right and the other person is wrong, no one is respectfully listening and respectfully responding to each other, and everyone feels justified in their bad behavior by the other side’s bad behavior, and this ugly cycle just goesRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Faith, Fear and Anxiety, God's Character, God's love, Gospel, Grace, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

Modern Christian music sometimes gets criticized as mostly shallow, “Jesus is my boyfriend” love songs. And some are. Yet I turn on Pandora and set it to shuffle through my Christian stations and I easily find music that feeds the soul, lifts me up out of funks, calms fear and anxiety, and reminds me of eternal truth. For example: While “Dreaming Jacob’s Dream” with Michael Card, he encourages me, “We all need dreams to seek Him.” We adore the eternal holy one who sits on Heaven’s Mercy seat in “Revelation Song” with Philips, Craig and Dean. “In Christ Alone” reminds me “Up from the graveRead More →

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In: abuse, Bible and Theology, Forgiveness, God's Character, God's love, Gospel, Grace, Post-Modernism, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

Brothers and sisters in Christ, forgiveness is plentiful and free. Grace and mercy are equally extended from the Lord to all. All we must do to receive it is humbly acknowledge we need it. As God’s children, we all know this well. So why do we ever pridefully insist God is wrong and any number of pet sins are right actions for us? Look at the machines we have made. What computer program would dare say to its coder, “You have coded me wrong. I will ignore your instructions and do what is right in my own eyes”? Today’s machines have no ability to disobeyRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Marriage, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

First, my apologies for the meme’s attention-grabbing nature. True love for God does wait for marriage to have sex, and it is best to be prepared to enter into marriage before doing so. However, it seems we need to start preparing kids to marry at younger ages. If the reports are true that upward of 80% of Christian evangelical young adults are having premarital sex, that is a rather strong indicator we’re delaying marriage longer than most have the self-control to wait. Based on my experiences, for a young couple deeply in love, following the cultural trend of delaying marriage until nearly thirty and alsoRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Divorce, God's love, Grace, Guest posts, Legalism, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

The Pharisees confronted Jesus over divorce in Matthew 19 asking if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause. Jesus answered in part with a line that would become part of many marriage ceremonies, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:6) The Pharisees raised a reasonable legal point and asked, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” Jesus responded, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”  (Matthew 19:8) The certificate ofRead More →