Posts
Why Doesn’t God Heal When We Ask?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
If we are called to manifest what Jesus manifested and revolt against what Jesus revolted against, and Jesus carried out the kingdom through healing, then why doesn’t God heal those we pray for? One of…
Is America Uniquely Favored by God?
Category: General
Tags: America, Greed, Poverty
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
The tendency of wealth to entrap people in greed has been confirmed in numerous studies. Research has consistently shown that, generally speaking, the more people have, the less percentage of their income they tend to…
Is Greg Too Progressive for Today’s Evangelicalism?
Category: General
Tags: Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Progressive Christianity, Roger Olson, Thomas Oord
Roger Olson recently posted a very interesting essay entitled Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left where he notes that many influential leaders within evangelicalism are pushing to include fundamentalists while simultaneously excluding those they consider “too…
Did Jesus Say That God Causes Blindness?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, God at War, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: The Problem of Evil
Verse: John 9
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this…
Lighten Up: Every Kind of Drummer
Category: Lighten Up
Tags: Drummer, Greg Boyd, Humor
After years of watching Greg drum, I think he falls most neatly into “The Showoff” category. Thanks for sending this to us Jason Tripp!
When to Do Spiritual Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Demonization, Demons, Mental Illness, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
If the world is engulfed in spiritual warfare, how do we know when we’re confronting a demon that requires deliverance prayer, or simply confronting a “natural” by-product of the fallen world that requires medical or…
Are you Afraid of Demons?
Category: General
Tags: Demonization, Demons, Fear, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
I remember learning about germs in fourth grade. We were told our world was saturated with tiny invisible creatures that can infect wounds and make us sick. I immediately stopped sharing already-chewed gum with other…
The Demonic Affects Us All!
Category: General
Tags: Christian, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Many contemporary Western Christians think we only engage in spiritual warfare when we encounter somebody who is exhibiting bizarre, demonically-inspired behavior, such as the demonized people Jesus confronted in the Gospels. Since most Western Christians…
Can Christians be Demon Possessed?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christian Life, Demonization, Demons, Possession
Topics: Sin
The Greek word that is usually translated “demon-possessed” in the Gospels is demonizomai, which literally means “to be rendered passive toward a demon.” It’s unfortunate, in my view, that the term is usually translated “demon possession.”…
Lighten Up: Listening for the Voice of the Father
Category: Lighten Up
Tags: Love, Love of God
Christian comedian Michael Jr. posted this video last week for Father’s Day. What it says about love and connection and God in just a few minutes is so lovely. Enjoy.
Are the Charismatic Gifts for Today’s Church?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Gifts, The Holy Spirit
Topics: The Church
This week, we have offered a brief series on the Holy Spirit touching on what the Spirit does, how it changes us, and how the fruit of the Spirit is produced. Now we will look briefly at the gifts…
How to Produce the Fruit of the Spirit
Category: General
Tags: Fruit of the Spirit, Imaginative Prayer, Jesus, Peace, Prayer, Seeing is Believing, The Holy Spirit, Transformation
When the New Testament tells us to be loving, joyful, peaceful, kind and so on, it is not giving us a new set of behaviors that we are to strive to accomplish. Striving to attain…
How the Holy Spirit Changes Us
Category: General
Tags: Imagination, Imaginative Prayer, Seeing is Believing, The Holy Spirit
The Bible is full of stories of people who experienced the presence of God. If we are to experience something similar today, we must, through the Spirit, cultivate the spiritual capacity of an inner life…
What Does the Holy Spirit Do?
Category: General
Tags: The Holy Spirit, Trinity, Truth
The true God breaks into our deception-filled world to reveal himself to us in the person of his Son. In and of itself, however, this doesn’t lift the deception of the flesh from our hearts…
Today We Can’t Lighten Up
Category: General
Tags: Racism, Violence
We usually post something light-hearted or funny on Fridays. Not today. Not in the aftermath of the massacre in Charleston. Instead, we wanted to share with you the words of our friend Osheta Moore. You can…
How To Fix The Church: The Kingdom of God (Part 4)
Category: General
Tags: Church, Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living
Topics: Following Jesus
God has leveraged everything on the Church loving like Jesus loved, as outlined in our previous posts in this series. “By this the world will know you are my disciples,” Jesus said, “by your love”…
The Only Thing That Matters Is Love: The Kingdom of God (Part 3)
Category: General
Tags: Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living, Living in Love, Love
Topics: Following Jesus
To say that living in Calvary-quality love is the most important thing in our life is to grossly understate its importance. This stands in distinction from how we typically define the Kingdom of God. But…
The Kingdom of God (Part 2)
Category: General
Tags: Action, Enemy Love, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Self-Sacrificial Love
Topics: Following Jesus
The Church is called to be nothing less than “the body of Christ,” a sort of corporate extension of Jesus’ incarnate body. We are called to replicate who Jesus was by manifesting who Jesus is….
What is the Kingdom of God (Part 1)
Category: General
Tags: Holiness, Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living, National Idolatry, Upside-Down Kingdom, War
Topics: Following Jesus
We all know what the Kingdom of God is, right? But this is precisely the problem. Since we are all to a large extent products of our culture, what seems obviously true and right to…
Lighten Up: Earth Reboot
Category: Lighten Up
It’s a good thing God is so patient and never gives up. But we really should take better care of this place. Cartoon by Shannon Wheeler