Category Archives: Christian

There was a fairly lengthy discussion the other day on a blog I frequent about whether or not suicide is evil. There was some interesting discussion, particularly about what sort of medical procedures were considered suicide (e.g., removing life support) … Continue reading →

Sometimes I think God might not sanctify us in certain areas just to keep us humble. One minute you’re thinking “Thank you God that I am not like that publican” and the next minute you realize just how unsanctified you … Continue reading →

At church we’ve been doing Rick Warren’s SHAPE study. My first thought is that my shape is an oval with too round of a middle! I’m generally pretty skeptical of these things, but I have to admit this nailed me … Continue reading →

How do you know that you are saved? How can you counsel someone who is having doubts? Doug McHone relates how a religious call-in show handled this and he wasn’t very impressed. I grew up in typical small Baptist churches. … Continue reading →

The natural way of looking at our lives is that we are born, live a little while, and then are dead for a very long time. The Biblical perspective is that we are _dead_ for a little while, and we will be alive for a very long time. If we could get that perspective it would change our lives. We would not trade eternal rewards for ungodly temporal pleasures. We would not let our pride cause us to become angry. We would not “play politics”. Instead, we would live as people who will be judged. This is both positive and negative. The negative side is that we will be held accountable for our sins. But it also has a positive side – we know that Jesus will rightly judge us when we are faithful, so it takes all the pressure off of making sure others think highly of us. Continue reading →

Molly Aley writes about creating our children’s culture. The world has a culture it would like my children to live in. Most children do, as a matter of fact, their parents not even realizing that a thief has crept in … Continue reading →

David writes at Challies’s new community blog on finding balance. I have observed that in the discussion of various issues that people will compare opposing views and conclude that the correct position is a ?balance? between them. Each view is … Continue reading →

Truth stands on its own two legs. It is important because it is true, and because it is the truth about God, His creation, and the relationship between the creation to the Creator. Our job is come to grips with the truth, then shape our lives accordingly. We, on the other hand, tend to think that truth is only important to the extent that it is directly applicable to me. We want truth to conform to our perceived needs, rather than conforming our lives to the truth.

It’s one thing to teach people the truth, then tell them how it out to work itself out in their lives. God is great (Rom 11:33-36), therefore serve Him (Rom 12:1-2). God is in control (Rom 8:29-30), therefore be at peace (Rom 8:31-39). This is the Biblical pattern. It tells us the truth about God, His creation, and our relationship, and then helps us see how we ought to respond to that. It is honoring to God. It assumes the importance of the truth and calls us to respond.

It’s entirely different to feel like we need to justify telling people about God. As though we must justify teaching ecclesiology because understanding the relationship of Christ to the church will help us have happier marriages. This is insulting to God. It’s prideful. It makes people into little idols. It assumes that we are so important that we can’t be bothered with banal trivialities about frivolous topics such as the very nature of God. We don’t have time, unless it’s immediately useful to us. (The fault here does not lie with those who are trying do whatever they need to do to get people to learn. Instead, the fault lies with those who demand such justifications for learning theology.)

If people don’t think it’s important to learn about God simply because He is God, then I’m not going to bother giving them other reasons. All that would do is puff them up. They need a lower view of themselves, and a much higher view of God. I will try to show them how we ought to live in response to various doctrines (when there are clear ramifications) but I do not think we ought to try to justify teaching theology. Our energy would be better spent addressing the arrogance that demands such justification to begin with. Continue reading →

Brad at 21st Century Reformation calls on God bloggers to be more “purpose driven”. Specifically, he writes Bloggers need agendas. …. I encourage bloggers to define their agenda, their goal, and plead their case and develop their worldview through blogging. … Continue reading →

Ryan Wentzel asks Am I Really an Evangelical? It’s not entirely serious, but he makes an excellent point.