We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
The Nature of Temptation
How does temptation work? Based on James 1:13-16, Greg unpacks the way that desire can give birth to sin. But desire is actually rooted in our longing for God, and the desire itself—and therefore the temptation itself—is not in and of itself a sin. God created us with a “hungry heart” so that he could pour life into it. The question for us is “How will we fill this hunger?
You can catch the full sermon here.
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Desires, Sin, Temptation
Related Reading
What Jesus Revealed About Being Human
According to the creation story, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they essentially ceased being the wonderful, God-centered, God-dependent human beings the Creator intended them to be. They became less than fully human. Instead, they began using everything and everyone in the world as surrogate gods, trying to get from people, deeds, and things…
Generous Grace
Michelle Brea via Compfight Mark McIntyre wrote a piece on his blog called Selective Grace that highlights the ways in which the church tends to more easily demonstrate grace with some than with others. It’s a call to a more generous grace that does not distinguish between particular sins or particular differences in belief. How…
Is it okay to masturbate?
When I as a new struggling Christian raised this topic with my pastor, I was told in no uncertain terms that God struck Onan dead for masturbating. At some point I read the passage for myself (Gen. 38:1-10) and discovered my pastor had mislead me. It’s true that Onan was punished by God because he…
Quotes to Chew On: Desires
Marcos de Madariaga via Compfight Here’s a quote that comes to us via Andrew Sullivan’s blog: “We are rarely presented with an authentically fulfilling trajectory for our desires… If we are created for infinite satisfaction, we really only have three choices about what to do with our desire in this life: We will become either…
Podcast: What is Original Sin?
Greg considers the Augustinian view of original sin in contrast with the Anabaptist view, then offers some of his own specific nuances. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0079.mp3
What Kind of Sinners Feel Welcomed by Your Church?
Perhaps the greatest indictment on evangelical churches today is that they are not generally known as refuge houses for sinners—places where hurting, wounded, sinful people can run and find love that does not question, an understanding that does not judge, and an acceptance that knows no conditions. To be sure, evangelical churches are usually refuge…