The Israelites give ample proof that signs may only addict us to signs, not to God.
Taken as a whole, the Bible clearly puts the emphasis on what pleases God—the point of worship, after all. To worship, says Walter Wink, is to remember Who owns the house.
Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.7-19 He lists hope at the end, instead of where I would normally expect it, at the beginning, as the fuel that keeps a per...
Rejoicing in suffering does not mean Christians should act happy about tragedy and pain when they feel like crying. Rather, the Bible aims the spotlight on the end result, the productive use God can m...
People on sinking ships do not complain of distractions during their prayer.
Legalism is a subtle danger because no one thinks of himself as a legalist.
Jesus, who said little about how believers should behave when we gather together and much about how we can affect the world around us.
Jesus gave a vivid object lesson his last night with the disciples by washing their feet, like a servant. Parents know the self-giving principle by instinct as they pour their energies into their self...
It was not pastoral teaching, or small group fellowship, or worship services, or books of theology — rather, they mentioned suffering. People said they grew more during seasons of loss, pain, and cris...
It is dangerous and perhaps even unscriptural to torture ourselves by looking for his message in a specific throb of pain, a specific instance of suffering. The message may simply be that we live in a...
I have mentioned that no one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask the question, Who helped you most? Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whene...
I have marveled at, and sometimes openly questioned, the self-restraint God has shown throughout history, allowing the Genghis Khans and the Hitlers and the Stalins to have their way. But nothing - no...
I have found consolation, for example, in C. S. Lewis's depiction in The Great Divorce of hell as a place that people choose, and continue to choose even when they end up there. As Milton's Satan put...
How differently would the world view Christians if we focused on our own failings rather than on society’s? As I read the New Testament I am struck by how little attention it gives to the faults of th...
God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all...
Democracy requires us to recognize others’ rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them. It requires a civility in which I respect a person’s ultimate worth and seek to persuade but not to coe...
Christians best thrive as a minority, a counterculture. Historically, when they reach a majority they too have yielded to the temptations of power in ways that are clearly anti-gospel. Charlemagne ord...
Can God forgive you? Of course. Read your Bible. David, Peter, Paul—God builds his church on the backs of people who murder, commit adultery, deny him, and persecute his followers. But because of Chri...
But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we’ll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty which is forever.
But the Lord say he won’t put more on us than we can stand. If we can’t take it, he’ll be right there beside us giving stren’th we didn’t know we had.