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 this is an impossibility.23 You cannot get an identity through self-recognition; it must come in a great measure from others.
Building our lives on something besides God not only hurts us if we don’t get the desires of our hearts, but also if we do.
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...
All this I did for thee; what doest thou for me?
According to the Bible, the evil of the world ultimately stems from the self-centeredness, self-righteousness, and self-absorption of every human heart.
God made you to love him supremely, but he lost you. He returned to get you back, but it took the cross to do it. He absorbed your darkness so that one day you can finally and dazzlingly become your t...
Conversation with God leads to an encounter with God. Prayer turns theology into experience.
You hold either position, however, your life will be characterized by fear and insecurity, because you will never feel like you are being quite good enough; or it will be marked by pride and disdain f...
When you try to get payment through revenge the evil does not disappear. Instead it spreads, and it spreads most tragically of all into you and your own character.
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...
Work and achievement, without the peace of God in our lives through the Spirit, will never be enough.
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, then, is marriage for? It is for helping each other to become our future glory-selves, the new creations that God will eventually make us.
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...
To have any kind of livable society some choices have to be restricted, some authorities have to be respected, and some individual responsibility has to be assumed.
This is gospel-humility, blessed self-forgetfulness. Not thinking more of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures. Simply thinking of myself less.
There is a surprise here. The great apostle does not want to visit simply so he can encourage them. He will visit so that they can encourage him, too—that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each...
The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your...
The kingdom of God - God's power to renew the whole of creation - has broken into the old world through Christ's first coming, but it is not fully here.