In Ephesians 1:3, Paul said that we have been “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” Like Mary, we are “highly favored” by God, and “uniquely blessed” by Him. The descriptive phrase, “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,” suggests the size, the substance and the storehouse of our blessings. What an inventory!
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Disordered Love!
Trevin Wax defines sin as “disordered love” - misdirected desire that aims for God and yet boomerangs back to the self in ways that stifle our love for others and squelch our fruitful capacities. Same-sex sexual behavior is just one example of taking an act designed to draw us out of ourselves toward a great mystery and curving back inward toward the repetition and redundancy of sameness.”
Keep ReadingThe Story
Everyone builds their life on a story, a grand narrative that interprets and explains history, identity, future, family, purpose, God, meaning, morality, work, desire, need, hope, and every other thing the mind can conceive. There is only one true complete Story spanning from before origins to beyond destiny. It is the only Story that has the power to rescue and redeem, to save and sanctify, to crush death and give life, to renew and restore. It's the old, old Story. God's Grand Glory Story.
Keep ReadingThe Night When God's Joy Went Public!
Joy to the world still remains God's goal. The Westminster Catechism asks the question: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” (And I add, enjoying Him beginning Now and not just finally in in Heaven!). Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17c, ".... he gives us richly all things to enjoy." We will one day fully and finally “enter into the joys of the Lord.”
Keep ReadingThe First Christmas Album
The Old Testament, beginning in Genesis 5:1, contains the book of the generations of Adam and ends with a curse in Malachi 4:6. But the New Testament begins in Matthew 1:1 with the account of the book of the generations of Jesus Christ and ends with no curse in Revelation 22:3. Jesus birth is the Second Genesis, a new beginning, a new creation.
Keep ReadingNov 14
2024
Beware of Covetousness!
Covetousness is so serious because it precipitates ruin of the soul by installing an idol in our hearts. Paul will say, in reflecting on the tenth commandment, “Covetousness is idolatry” Colossians 3:5. Why? Because idolatry is about worship and worship is simply about value. Worship is our response to what we value most.
Nov 5
2024
Should Christians Be Involved In Politics?
In pre-Nazi Germany, many Christians were under the false assumption that they had to go along with whatever their civil rulers demanded. For decades before the rise of Adolph Hitler, German Christians were subjected to arguments like the following from pastors and theologians: The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with outward existence but only with eternal life, not with external orders and institutions which could come in conflict with the secular orders but only with the heart and its relationship with God.