Christianity does not agree with the optimistic thinkers who say, We can fix things if we try hard enough. Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dystopian future. The message of Christi...
But if you are unwilling to risk your place in the palace for your neighbors, the palace owns you.
And in no way is the gospel story sentimental or escapist. Indeed, the gospel takes evil and loss with utmost seriousness, because it says that we cannot save ourselves. Nothing short of the death of...
A salvation earned by good works and moral effort would favor the more able, competent, accomplished, and privileged. But salvation by sheer grace favors the failed, the outsiders, the weak, because i...
Conversation with God leads to an encounter with God. Prayer turns theology into experience.
Human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our highest love. If our highest goal in life is the good of our family, then, says Edwards, we will tend to care less for other families. I...
When we believe the gospel, the barriers of pride that divide us are taken away (Ephesians 2:14–16), and the lonely are put into families (Psalm 68:6; John 1:12–13). Salvation leads toward more and de...
What is God’s glory? It is his infinite weight, his supreme importance. To glorify God is to obey him unconditionally. To ever say, I’ll obey if . . . is to give something else more importance or glor...
We see, then, that freedom is not what the culture tells us. Real freedom comes from a strategic loss of some freedoms in order to gain others. It is not the absence of constraints but it is choosing...
The reason for this persistent story line in the Bible is not simply because the writers like underdogs. It is because the ultimate example of God’s working in the world was Jesus Christ, the only fou...
Proper contextualization means causing the right scandal — the one the gospel poses to all sinners — and removing all unnecessary ones.
Only if you have learned to serve others by the power of the Holy Spirit will you have the power to face the challenges of marriage.
Lord of the Word, don’t let me be seduced by the world—either naively going with the crowd or becoming a hardened cynic. Help me meditate on your Word to the point of delight. Give me stability and co...
Jesus is not a metaphor. He is real. This all happened.
Idols of power, then, are not only for the powerful. You can pursue power in small, petty ways, by becoming a local neighborhood bully or a low-level bureaucrat who bosses around the few people in his...
I cannot live up to my parents’ standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to your standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to society’s standards – and that ma...
How will you get the strength to be courageous like that? By looking at Jesus himself. Because if you think it takes courage to be with him, consider that it took infinitely more courage for him to be...
Haz de la comunión constante con Dios una prioridad. Deja de vagar como un ave y aprende a vivir cerca de Dios
Havel puts it well—humanity cannot save itself. In fact, he argues, the belief that we can save ourselves—that some political system or ideology can fix human problems—has only led to more darkness.
God’s call to his people (then and now) is to combine spirituality with bravery. True discipleship is radical and risk-taking, because true disciples rely on God to keep his promises to bless them, an...