General
4 Reasons to Wake Up to the Warfare Worldview
Category: General
Tags: Culture, Demons, Evil, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview, Western Assumptions
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by postbear via Flickr A view of the world that grounds the problem of evil in spiritual warfare is not one that many modern people find easy to accept. To many contemporaries, the notion is…
Dying to Live
Category: General
Tags: Benjamin L. Corey, Christian Living, Death, Experiencing God, Holy Land
Image by Benjamin Corey A few days ago, Benjamin Corey over at Formerly Fundy posted a blog about an encounter he had with God in the Holy Land. He shared that he’s been going through…
Part 4: An Alternative Cross-Centered Approach
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Book Reviews, Cruciform Theology, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, Magic Eye, OT Violence
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Image by Karl Pang via Flickr As I mentioned in Part II of this review, I am deeply appreciative of the fact that Flood grasps the centrality of enemy-loving non-violence in Jesus’ revelation of God. And…
Part 3: Disarming Flood’s Inadequate Conception of Biblical Authority
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Biblical Criticism, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, OT Violence
Image by Ex-InTransit via Flickr In this third part of my review of Derek Flood’s Disarming Scripture I will offer a critique of his redefined conception of biblical inspiration and authority. I will begin by having…
Part 2: Disarming Flood’s Case Against Biblical Infallibility
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, OT Violence, Paul
Image by humancarbine via Flickr In this second part of my review of Disarming Scripture I will begin to address its strengths and weakness. [Click here for Part 1] There is a great deal in Disarming…
Must We Deny Biblical Infallibility to “Disarm” Scripture? A Review of Derek Flood’s Disarming Scripture: Part 1
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture
Image by e³°°° via Flickr Since I’ve been working on my own book dealing with the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament for the last eight and a half years, I was keenly interested…
Lighten Up: If Every Life is Sacred
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Lighten Up, Peace, Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis, War
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Are You Fully Alive? Here’s the Key
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Cruciform Theology, Fully Human, Life to the Full, Love, Love of God, Trinity
Image by rashdada via flickr. The cross reveals the full truth about us. This truth reconnects us with our true source of life, which in turn heals our idol addictions. This dimension of the cross is frankly…
The Jesus Story is a Myth!…And History
Category: General
Tags: C.S. Lewis, Gospels, History, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jesus, Legend, Lord or Legend?, Myth, Resurrection, Truth
Topics: Christology
Image by Len dela Cruz The Jesus story has a curious, and fascinating, relationship with myth and legend. The story of God coming to earth, being born of a virgin, manifesting a heroic, counter-cultural love toward…
On the Other Side of the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Blessing, Easter, Jesus, Resurrection
Image by -Reji via Flickr Bless you all this Easter. He is risen!
On This Good Friday…
Category: General
Tags: Good Friday
Image by Renaud Camus via Flickr …may you know the love of the one who gave his life for you.
Performance Christianity—Getting Over It
Category: General
Tags: Experiencing Jesus, Identity in Christ, Imaginative Prayer, Picture of God, Seeing is Believing
Image by Martijn Braat via Flickr Many Christians feel empty, tired, and apathetic, if not positively angry, though few express this out loud because it’s usually taboo to do so within Christian circles. These believers often fault…
9 Things That Are True of Us When We’re Saved
Category: General
Tags: Gifts, Identity in Christ, Jesus, New Humanity, Salvation
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by rAmmoRRison via Flickr The New Testament has many amazing things to say about who we are as believers because of what Christ has done for us. When the Lord saves us, he doesn’t just…
Goodbye Beloved “Friend at First Sight”
Category: General
Tags: Death, Europe, Friends, Gaby Hitipeuw, Love
I don’t believe in “love at first sight,” but I do believe that once in a great while, some fortunate people encounter “friends at first sight.” Maybe you know what I’m talking about. There are…
Love OR Judgment – You Can’t Have Both
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Living in Love, Love, Repenting of Religion
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by Morgan Sessions We cannot judge others because it is not our place as humans to function as the center—because God is that center—and judge other people. In addition, we cannot judge others because we…
Lighten Up: Other People’s Sins
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Judgment, Lighten Up, Sin
Cartoon via Adventures of the Holy Ghost Thanks for the heads up @andrewhaak!
Repent! … From the Sin of Religion
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Living in Love, Love, Religion, Religious Idolatry, Repenting of Religion, Servant
Topics: Following Jesus
People often think that being Christian is about “being religious,” but loving others in the way that Christ instructs us is about as far removed from religion as anything could be. Religion, as I use…
“Natural” Evil? 7 Arguments Implicating Satan
Category: General
Tags: Creation, God at War, Natural Evil, Problem of Evil, Satan, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Creation Care, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by Jmos® via Flickr We believe that God is the Creator of nature, but nature simply does not seem to point to a God of love. Parasites, viruses, bacteria, diseases and cancer kill millions and torment…
Christians and Creation Care
Category: General
Tags: Animals, Creation, Kingdom Living, Myth of a Christian Religion
Topics: Creation Care
Image by Ali Inay While the mustard seed of the Kingdom has been planted, it obviously hasn’t yet taken over the entire garden (Matt 13:31-42). We continue to live in an oppressed, corrupted world. We live…