Therefore, we cannot rightly say, My God is not a God of judgment and anger; my God is a God of love. Such thinking makes it almost impossible to grow in the fear of the Lord. It suggests that sin onl...
The key to learning the fear of the Lord is to stay in Scripture. When you are in the Scripture, pray that God would teach you that he is the Holy One. 1. Review the creation psalms: Psalms 8; 19; 29;...
The gospel is the story of God covering his naked enemies, bringing them to the wedding feast, and then marrying them rather than crushing them.
The fear of man is the sinful exaggeration of a normal experience.
The cure for shame will always be found in how we become connected to God.
Put a dozen relatively like-minded people into the same crisis and you will see a dozen different responses. Some are heroes; others are cowards. Some are leaders; others are followers. Some are optim...
Need theories can thrive only in a context where the emphasis is on the individual rather than the community and where consumption is a way of life.
Joy is not the opposite of suffering. If it were, a person practiced in joy could crowd out pain because one couldn’t exist with the other. Instead, joy can actually be a companion to suffering.
It is only fair to add that you should be undecided about spiritual causes too. By this I mean that you can’t immediately say that there is one core sin that has caused your depression. Some people ra...
Depressed people avoid people and church commitments, but they can also complain about abject isolation. The answer is to humbly accept your purpose. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are i...
Psychiatric diagnoses are considered to be technical and bounded; you are either in or out. In contrast, a biblical perspective puts many interpersonal differences on a continuum: people may have more...
First we saw only our own shame. Now we see that Jesus’ shame was deeper than our own, and we were among the scorners. First we saw only our own alienation and rejection. Now we see that Jes...
In view of God’s sovereign control, God will accomplish his purposes in our lives even when we make decisions we later regret.
Yet weakness—or neediness—is a valuable asset in God’s community. Jesus introduced a new era in which weakness is the new strength. Anything that reminds us that we are dependent on God and other peop...
Watch them as they sit in the filth of their daily lives. Watch them as they hear rumors of someone who cares and has power. Watch them stand up when they receive news that Jesus is approaching. Watch...
To deeply understand fear we must also look at ourselves and the way we interpret our situations. Those scary objects can reveal what we cherish. They point out our insatiable quest for control, our s...
This was Paul’s joy in suffering and shame: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain...
There is something about uncleanness that asks for blood.
The thing or person you trust in is actually the object of your worship. Look
The odd thing is that fear and anxiety are running away from something, but they don’t know what to run to. They know danger, but they don’t know where to find peace and rest.