Growing old is an adventure. No one is good at it. No one has had any experience at it when they first get old, so it takes time to learn the ropes. There are definitely some difficult things that are a pain—terrible balance and mobility, impossible to sleep more than 3 hours at a time, not being able to do things you would like to do after 5:00 P.M. when your energy plug is pulled. However, there are some really good things about growing…
After a big-picture, vision-stretching blog posting like last week’s, the temptation for many of us is to be emotionally challenged to enthusiastically set out to “make it happen”—to become a self-conscious “kingdom-extender.” That is exactly what Satan would love to see happen. The temptation to fall off the wagon of faith and relapse back into living by the drug to which we are all addicted, the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (the law), is always only one decision…
For if the trumpet makes and uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? (1 Corinthians 14:8) Christianity is at war. One of our adversaries in battle, Islam, is a satanic counterfeit of Christianity. It fights with bullets and knives, wielded by men of hatred, designed to bring death to all who are not Muslim. In contrast, Christianity’s weapon is the Word of God, wielded by men of love and forgiveness, designed to bring abundant life to all. This war, like WWII which was waged…
You do not have to know me personally for very long before you will discover that I am a big fan of my alma mater’s football team, the University of Oklahoma Sooners, and their two recent Heisman Trophy-winning and now NFL quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. Last season, In Mayfield’s first year as a pro, he was asked, after a particularly outstanding performance, “How did you do it?” His answer gave me a new insight into exactly what we have recently been discussing…
In our last post, we discussed the fact that we are all addicted to the same addiction—living by “the knowledge of good and evil,” i.e., living by the law. The law of God has been written on our hearts since we were first created in the image of God, but it was not engraved there for us to live by. It was God’s promise to us of what He would do as He conforms us, His children, to His image (defined by His law!)…
God’s goal in His relationship with you is to have, not just a historical or an intellectual one, but a personal, experiential one. To know about Jesus is much different than actually knowing Jesus, which is what experientially “believing in Him” entails. Paul prays for the Ephesians that they would discover this relationship: that God would give them “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Philippians 1:17). The word for knowledge in this verse, epignosis, implies a knowledge “which perfectly…
If someone asks me if I am a Christian and therefore believe in Jesus, my answer is an unqualified “Yes.” I believe He is my Savior, died on the cross for my sins, rose from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and reigns now at God’s right hand. I believe I am therefore completely forgiven for my sins, and the Holy Spirit now lives within me. I am thus qualified to call myself a Christian. But what kind of Christian believer does that make me?…
Previously we have discussed that there is no syncretism between law and grace in the economy of God. There is a clear distinction between God’s law, the foundation for all of our relationships “beneath us” on the earth, and God’s grace, the sole component of our relationship “above us” with God, and they do not mix. Obedience to the law and living by faith are, in fact, exact opposites. The law is what God tells us to do; grace is what God has already…
To discover that the Christian stands before God completely free from the demands of the law in order to please God, as we discussed in our last post, is exhilarating news. Jill and I have been learning this gradually, reluctantly, and painfully over the years, as doing so is a lifetime endeavor. As she often would say in the early years, “This gospel seems too good to be true!” But it is true. The bondage that comes from our inability to please God by…
A good friend of mine is married to a woman who grew up in a very religious, legalistic family. She discovered the gospel of the grace of God through my friend before they were married. She loves her new relationship with God, but often, in crunch time, she reverts back to her old way of life—trying, with diligent effort, furrowed brow, and seemingly with the weight of the world on her shoulders, to please God by doing her very best to obey Him. My…