Did Paul Tell Women to ‘Shut Up’ in Church?
I have been somewhat taken aback by the volume of material posted over the last four or five months regarding the oppression of women in the body of Christ. To my shame, I did not recognize this was as widespread an issue as it seems to be. The pervasiveness of the issue is clearly evinced…
Read MoreCalled From His Mother’s Womb
We hear a lot about “calling” from various passages, and equally varied speakers. It’s another one of those religious words we speak and hear and occasionally nod in agreement, doing so whether or not we really understand the word. Sometimes the head-nod means, I’m uncertain what you really mean, but I’m trying very hard to follow…
Read MoreIs the Old Testament God the Same as the New Testament God?
If you have been a Christ-follower for any length of time, you have encountered that critic who decries the Bible as “inconsistent,” because the old covenant God is harsh and wrathful while the supposedly same God of the new covenant is all about grace and love. Almost like it’s two different Gods. I understand how…
Read MoreWhen God Says “I AM”
I AM and Moses God called Moses to act as his messenger to the Pharaoh of Egypt, the nation that had long oppressed and enslaved the Hebrew people. Moses was to be God’s representative to Pharaoh, demanding that Pharaoh let the people of God go free. Amid Moses’ flurry of pathetic excuses for not serving as God’s…
Read MoreThree Deadly Lusts
One of the best-known passages identifying snares for a Christ-follower comes from 1 John wherein John calls out three human lusts that threaten to ensnare and consume the individual. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For…
Read MoreName It & Claim It Praying
Those of you familiar with my writing and speaking know I am nowhere near even the outskirts of the “name it and claim it” movement. Abusing scripture with this theological construct is both insulting to the sovereignty of God and depressing to the one naming and claiming when their claims go unfulfilled. For the eyes…
Read MoreThink on These Things
The longer I live as a Christ-follower, the more I come to realize that the great majority of my struggle to live a life worthy of the calling with which I have been called lies not with what I do with my hands and my feet, but rather with what goes on inside my head.…
Read MoreTriplets of Sin & Triplets from God
More than once I have been involved in discussions with those who mistakenly assert that “sin is sin and all sin is the same; all sin is equal in the eyes of God.” While I agree that all sin is egregious and separates us from God,1 it is demonstrably untrue that all sin is the same.…
Read MoreIn Two Places at One Time
In exasperation, one person may say to another, “Well, I can’t very well be in two places at one time, can I?” Oh, ye of little faith . . . 😉 You can. And if you are in Christ, you already are. Both Here and There …even when we were dead in our trespasses, made…
Read MoreVineyards and Wild Grapes
The vineyard is a staple metaphor throughout scripture. We see it in prophecy, in the parables of Christ, in Genesis accounts, in threats from foreign kings, in the Psalms, and even in the very words of Yahweh. The vineyard is everywhere. Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard:My beloved had a…
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