Lighten Up: The Devil Messin’ With Ya

Thankful that God Outsmarted Satan November 24, 2015

Concerning the cross, Paul wrote that God’s intent was “that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places … in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:10-11). One…

Lighten Up: Unconditional Love September 19, 2014

Guest Post: Is Hell the Center of our Faith? May 28, 2015

My husband Andy and I had been living in the slums of North India for over a year by the time we returned to one of our sending churches for a visit. We met with the church staff to talk about what we were doing: learning language, listening to people’s stories, eating together, celebrating holidays,…

Did Jesus Believe in Satan? March 26, 2019

Jesus’ teaching, his exorcisms, his healings and other miracles, as well as his work on the cross, all remain somewhat incoherent and unrelated to one another until we interpret them as acts of war. As in apocalyptic thought of the time of Jesus, the assumption that undergirds Jesus’ entire ministry is that Satan has illegitimately…

Lighten Up: Learning from Kids January 15, 2016

Our football team in Minnesota (the Vikings) lost in the first round of the playoffs last Sunday in a most heartbreaking way due to a missed field goal. The kicker (Blair Walsh) has had to endure some pretty harsh criticism on social media, which is exactly what you would expect. But then these kids come…

Who Rules Governments? God or Satan? Part 1 September 28, 2017

Running throughout Scripture is the motif that depicts God as the ultimate ruler of the nations. On the other hand, the NT teaches that the ruler of nations is Satan. What do we do with these two apparently conflicting motifs? First, because OT authors tended to understand the creation along the lines of a king-centered…