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“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Luke 18:17). In a nutshell, these two verses completely torpedo the common teaching of sanctification by obedience to the law of God. We naturally think “denying ourselves and taking up our crosses” means disciplining ourselves to do something that…

In these blog postings, we have seen that we were completely addicted to the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by eating it ”in Adam,” in the Garden of Eden at the Fall. As a result, everything we do, think, understand and learn, we visualize in terms of “is this a good thing or is it a bad thing,” and we have done so since we came out of the womb. We are completely unaware that this is not…

When we discovered last week that we have always been addicted to the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it may have been a shock to many. How could always wanting to be “good” be a bad thing! (There I go again, without even thinking!).  For one who is walking by faith in the One Who lives within us, the Holy Spirit, it is neither good nor bad, because we don’t live by trying to keep the law of…

Paradigm shifts are life-altering, mind-changing ideas of which we are unaware when we are experiencing them. In my spiritual autobiography, Waiting for the City,  I realized when I wrote the book the Lord has taken me through ten of those during my lifetime. Last week I shared one of those paradigm shifts in my blog posting, which happened to be an indispensable foundation stone for what I believe is the biblical view of the kingdom edge of the sword of the word of God—postmillennialism. …

If you are a regular reader of my blog postings, you have probably picked up at least a hint of the theological foundation from which I am writing. The title of the blog itself, The Two Edges of the Sword gives that foundation away. I love to be organized, so this posting is dedicated to my readers who are interested in “from whence I come!” “Andrews, where in the world did you get these crazy ideas?” To try to answer that question, let me…

On rare occasions I will release a brief statement of something happening in the culture that demands some recognition and then comment on it. Tucker Carson’s release from his Fox News post last week and his 2-minute response were just such events.  The most cogent, insightful take I have read so far is the following article. After reading it, ideas were exploding in my mind! What if Tucker were Trump’s Running Mate in 2024?  His popularity, magnetism, speaking ability, and humility would be perfect…

The Lord tells us clearly in Genesis 1:26-28 how He will answer the prayer He asks us to pray to our Heavenly Father: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  He is using US to answer that prayer, as we are created to 1.) Reflect His image (Genesis 1:26a – personifying Him as the Holy Spirit expresses Himself through us), 2.) Rule over the earth for Him (Genesis 1:26b – “have dominion,” just as He…

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 three NFL quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts. As I post this, I am decked out in all sooner-crimson, anticipating tomorrow’s televised Spring practice’s wrap-up scrimmage game before 70,000 fans! In Mayfield’s first year as a pro, he was asked, after a particularly outstanding performance, “How did you…

You probably haven’t heard about the original Children’s Crusade of the 13th century,  originating in Germany.  It was a little-known, popular attempt, by thousands of Christian children, adolescents, women, the elderly, and the poor—the “deplorables”—to join in the 200-year battle by the Christians of the day to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims.  The Children’s Crusade of 1212 lasted only five months and never made it out of Europe. On the other hand, today’s “Children’s Crusade” that we have explored in the last…

In our last posting we explored what Jesus meant by “becoming as a little child to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” This week  I want to unveil our perfect model of a full-grown adult who demonstrated for us just how to do that—Jesus Himself. Let’s look at how He describes His relationship with His Father, His Abba (Daddy). Notice that these statements are all from the Gospel of John, which views Jesus from an epiginosko (Gk. for “experiential knowing”) perspective, while the synoptic gospels…