August 2015 Blog Posts (6)

I know very few people who enjoy waiting. We are an impatient people. A split-second is the time that elapses between the traffic light turning green and the vehicle behind you honking. We fidget at the microwave oven and get anxious at the revolving door. But God is not in a hurry. In “Knowing God” J.I. Packer writes, “It is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but…

Recently we’ve explored how we build ourselves up through our “doing.” This week is more about the “triggers” that lure us into that kind of thinking. Our circumstances are one such set of triggers. Our own passions, and personal ambitions, are another.

First, let’s make one thing clear: God has given us hopes and dreams and ambitions to pursue. Not all of the “good things” we do are bad. Not by a long shot. The struggle is in who gets the credit, and in who’s really…

“I finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts: financial worries.” (Jules Renard, 1887-1910).

“Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of all evil.” (Carl Sandburg, 1936)

“Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God; and over these ideals they…

I have to admit, I’ve always been perplexed by people who talk about the “comfort” of the Christian life, especially in terms of it being the primary reason for believing in Christ. To be sure, there’s “comfort and joy” to be had in knowing Christ, and “a peace that passes all understanding.” But humanly speaking, there’s still life to be lived. And life can be painful—so much so that it cuts through the veneer of all that joy and peace that people both inside and outside of Christianity…

Let’s pick up where we left off last week: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).

Is Jesus always trying to separate us from friends and family? Is that what he really wants?

I don’t think you can make a rule out of this. I think the real point is: We’re always to choose Jesus first. Whatever their proximity, Jesus’…

“The cross is central. It is struck into the middle of the world, into the middle of time, into the middle of destiny. The cross is struck into the heart of God.” (Frederick Norwood)

Centuries of rivers of blood of numberless slaughtered animals never made amends for human sin. The sinless blood of Jesus is the only effective moral…