Do Not Harden Your Heart
A summary of the warnings from the early chapters of Hebrews. ...
A Call to Reflection
How can a holy God deal with sin and still offer hope to sinners? Since it is a paradox that God can’t both give justice and not give justice, which one will God have to forget about, justice or mercy? "...
The Power of Faithful Love: Reflections on Ruth's Story
Jesus often spoke of a paradoxical principle: "The last shall be first, and the first shall be last." This isn't a simplistic glorification of poverty or suffering. Rather, it's a profound truth about the nature of love and faithfulness. Clenching our fists to get ahead often leaves us and our relationships broken. But being faithful, even when it seems foolish by worldly standards, is rewarded....
A Beacon of Faith in Dark Times
The story of Ruth and Boaz is more than just a touching romance; it's a testament to the faithfulness of God and the power of living a life of "hesed." In a time of widespread unfaithfulness, Ruth and Boaz stand out as beacons of light, demonstrating what it means to trust in God and to extend kindness beyond what is required....
The Unexamined Life (from the archives)
If there is no Creator, then there is no moral standard outside of ourselves that we ought to obey. ...
Fruit of The Lips: Gentleness
Gentleness reinforces our genuine affection, allowing someone to take their defenses down so that you can remove the speck from their eye having no log in your own. ...
The Fruit of The Lips: Faithfulness
Faith and faithfulness is a fight. And often the battleground of that fight is what our hearts remember and what they meditate upon...
Fruit of The Lips: Goodness
Thinking about the way that God is good, He goes beyond utility and into the realm of benevolence....
The Fruit of The Lips: Kindness
His love has not ended at the point of patience but has moved beyond forbearance into lavishing those whom he could rightly condemn. ...
The Fruit of The Lips: Patience
God likes being patient. It is glorious to Him that His love is steadfast, dispensing mercy and grace when his justice could have been immediate....
Never Grow Up
When you give a child a gift, they take it with great anticipation. But when you give a gift to an adult, they take it with skepticism and an obligation to return the favor. What happens to us?...
Fruit of The Lips: Peace
Peace is an incredibly frequent word in the scriptures. Often times, our English word (peace) does not quite match the force of a word like shalom– which not only gives the impression of the absence of trouble, but the presence of blessing and reconciliation, especially with God. ...
The Fruit of The Lips: Joy
We glorify the Father by bearing the fruits of love and joy. Or, maybe more accurately, we glorify the Father by bearing the fruit of love in our joy....
The Fruit of The Lips: Love
Today, we will be looking at how to glorify God by speaking in Love. ...
The Fruit of The Lips
Whatever is right at the brim is what spills out when you are shaken. It is what is abundant in the heart that makes its way out into your speech....
A Brute's Strength
A man in the grip of lust cannot see that he is pouring gasoline on his house, his family, and his very life–his only perspective is to play with the match in the red dress....
But Amnon Had A Friend
“Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”” (1 Corinthians 15:33, ESV) ...
Past Reason Hated
This is the moment of clarity in the madness. The moment when Satan switches from bedazzling trickster to accurate taunter. ...
Off-Limits
As all who find once they bite, lust is hollow, poisonous, and fatal–a chocolate covered razor blade...
Curved In Upon Yourself
It was Augustine who coined the phrase “homo incurvatus in se”, man curved in upon himself. This is what sin does, it idolizes the self, sacrificing, manipulating, killing, fighting, charming, ultimately willing to do anything necessary to the barriers that keep it from personal fulfillment (James 4)....
No Secret Sins
Sin is never isolated strictly to the sinner. Like radiation, it poisons those around it, even if they are unaware of what is happening or where it is coming from. Getting rid of Uriah, concealing the evidence, hiding behind walls and doors or cleared search histories cannot seal up the effects of sin. For David, this meant that “the sword would never depart from his house” (2 Sam 12:10), a consequence that plagued the rest of his life....