Posts

Do You Have Enough Faith?
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Covenant, Doubt, Faith
What does it actually mean to have faith? This is a topic I address at length in Benefit of the Doubt, but this post provides a very basic answer to this question. To appropriately understand…

Our Lives Matter
Category: General
Tags: Robin Williams, Suicide
In the immediate aftermath of the death of Robin Williams yesterday, Eugene Cho wrote a tender piece entitled Remember that our lives matter. Remember to be more human – to loved ones, neighbors, and strangers…


How Can Salvation by Grace Involve Free Will?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Free Will, Grace, Salvation, TULIP
Topics: Death and Salvation, Responding to Objections
How does salvation by grace work if people have free will? If salvation hinges on whether individuals choose to be saved or not, is salvation based on grace or works? If we have to choose…

God is Not What You Expect
Category: General
Tags: Attributes of God, Character of God, God is Love, Jesus
Jesus came, in part, to finally reveal the absolute truth about God. He is the way and the truth (alethia) and the life (Jn 14:6). The word “truth” means “uncovered.” And what we find once…

Sermon Clip: Twisted Scripture Matthew 22 & Romans 13
Category: General
As Christians, can you really be a part of both the kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of this world? How do we love our enemies as a Christian, but despise our enemies as…

Is God Immutable? Part II
Category: Q&A
Tags: Attributes of God, God's Character, time
Topics: Attributes and Character
Yesterday, we looked at the common understanding of divine immutability and the problems inherent to it. Click here to read that post. Today, let’s look at what the immutability of God actually means. Instead of…

Is God Immutable? Part I
Category: Q&A
Tags: Attributes of God, Character of God, God, Jesus, time
Topics: Attributes and Character
For a number of reasons, Plato believed that something changes only to become better or to become worse (Rep. II). Since a perfect being can’t be improved or diminished, he argued, God must be completely…

Lighten Up: Meet Jesus
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Foot Washing, Jesus, Lighten Up, Power, Servant
Not what you were expecting?

What Hinders Answers to Prayer
Category: General
Tags: Angels, Free Will, Prayer, Warfare Worldview
Prayer is powerful and effective, but it’s not magic. There is no automatic guarantee that what we’re praying for is going to come to pass, even when we’re praying with faith and in accordance with…

Analogies For Understanding Prayer
Category: General
Tags: God's Will, Partnering With God, Prayer, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer
God is all-powerful, which means he owns all the “say-so” there is. But when he decided to populate the creation with free agents, he gave each human various units of “say-so.” [Click here for yesterday’s…

Your Spiritual “Say-So”
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom Living, Prayer, Relationships
In yesterday’s post, I summarized what Jesus and the rest of the Bible says about prayer. For many, that is enough. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it for me.” But for others, like…

Does Prayer Really Make a Difference?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Kingdom Living, Prayer
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer, Open Theism
I know the traditional cliché that prayer is for our sake, not God’s. It changes us, not God, or God’s plans. Even C .S. Lewis said that! I have the greatest admiration for Lewis, but…

Lighten Up: Arming Jesus
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Lighten Up, Violence
This is an actual product that you can buy. But don’t. Please don’t.

Changing Your Mind
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Change, Mark Moore, Missio Alliance, Providence, Systematic Theology, Theology, Women In Ministry
Mark Moore is a man who has changed his mind about a lot of things which is somewhat extraordinary these days. Change can be costly and painful and this was certainly true for Mark. He previously…

A Visit to Auschwitz
Category: General
Tags: Auschwitz, Blueprint Worldview, Calvinism, Europe, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Ever since I first learned of the full horror of the Holocaust when I was a freshman at the University of Minnesota I have had a kind of obsessive fascination with it. I’ve studied every…

Revolting Against Judgment
Category: General
Tags: Blessing, Discipline of Blessing, Judgment, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Topics: Following Jesus
A few years ago, I committed to blessing all people at all times. (See yesterday’s post for more about this.) The first thing I noticed was how many “non-blessing” thoughts I had about people. I…

The Kingdom of God While Mowing the Lawn
Category: General
Tags: Blessing, Discipline of Blessing, Ed Silvoso, Kingdom Living
The Kingdom of God is first and foremost characterized by the kind of love Jesus demonstrated on Calvary and throughout his life. Everything we do, Paul says, is to be done in love (1 Cor….

Get LIFE!
Category: General
Tags: Christian Life, Idolatry, Life, Life in Christ
We must always be aware of the fact that there is a constant lure toward idolatry in our demonically-oppressed world. It is profoundly easy to be getting all one’s LIFE from Christ and to be…