Search Results: getting%20honest%20about%20the%20dark
How Judging Blocks Love
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Kingdom Living, Love, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Topics: Following Jesus
…solution for sin was to become good—but our getting life from what we believe is our knowledge of good and evil. Our fundamental sin is that we place ourselves in the position of God and divide the world between what we judge to be good and what we judge to…
Becoming Like the Accuser
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Violence
Topics: Following Jesus
…emphasis added). Eve in turn also refused to own up to her sin and instead placed all the blame on the serpent (Gen. 3:12). Though the couple was created to bear God’s image, the Accuser succeeded in getting them to take on something of his image, reflecting his ugly, accusatory…
Cheap Grace and Consumer Christianity
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Consumerism, Kingdom Living, Penal Substitution View of Atonement
Topics: Atonement and The Cross, Following Jesus
…transaction in heaven that took place when he died, then the main thing the Church is about is getting people to give mental ascent to this. The Church thus becomes mainly a religious society consisting of people who believe they are saved by believing Jesus gets them “off the hook.”…
9 Reasons Faith ≠ Certainty
Category: General
Tags: Apologetics, Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Religious Idolatry
Topics: Faith & Doubt
…When people feel they are loved, have worth, and are secure before God (they are “saved”) because they embrace the right beliefs, they are getting their life from their confidence in their beliefs about God rather from a relationship with God. —Adapted from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 75-77….
Repent! … From the Sin of Religion
Category: General
Tags: Judgment, Living in Love, Love, Religion, Religious Idolatry, Repenting of Religion, Servant
Topics: Following Jesus
…getting life—whether this be feeling close to God, one with the universe, or righteous before others. While all religions, including the Christian religion, contain much wisdom and do much good in the world, they also can do much harm. The harm is not only in the vast amounts of blood…
God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God
Topics: Open Theism
…getting me fired, by the way), I found I had created a little book on Open Theism. Since all the published material on Open Theism was up to this point rather academic, I concluded that my little book might fill a niche. And this is how God of the Possible…
Burnout and Rest
Category: General
Tags: Benjamin L. Corey, Rest, Spiritual Care, Spiritual Formation
Topics: Following Jesus
…to check these out. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find there: Well, it seems that Jesus had built into his life a habit of getting away from whatever things existed in his life that could have led to spiritual burnout. In the book of Luke we find a very…
The Ultimate Criteria for Theology
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God's Character, God's Love, Theology
Topics: Theological Method
…to become outrageous lovers. The only hope we have of getting out of this fallen condition and walking in the ecstatic love of the triune God is to resolve that God’s revelation in Christ is true, however much it may contradict our fallen, worldly expectations. When the deceptive veil over…
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
…Instead of simply claiming America should be at war because they think it’s “just” or “in the best interest of our nation,” many Christians, especially Christian leaders, invoke God’s name. The long and bloody history of war has shown that it’s hard to motivate young people to risk getting killed…
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
…able to play like other kids and not have to get pushed around anymore. Please.” Since Mai was an illegal refugee and had no documentation whatsoever, we were told that getting her to the States would be impossible. And in this case Dr. Tranberg told us that Mai’s condition was…
When the Bible Becomes an Idol
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Religious Idolatry
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
…This is what made them confident they were okay with God. This episode demonstrates that the way we believe what we believe can transform what we believe into an idol that actually blocks us from getting life from Christ—even when what we believe is completely true! And this happens whenever…
The Bible is Infallible NOT Inerrant
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Covenant, Cruciform Theology, Faith, Inerrancy, Infallibility
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
…the trustworthiness of Scripture is that it is much more at home in the language of covenant relationships (i.e., covenant-making and covenant-keeping). The concept of inerrancy seems more at home in fields of discourse in which getting things exactly right is a highest priority. It feels natural for scientists engaging…
The Starting Point for “Knowing God”
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God, Jesus, Luther, Transcendence
…other” transcendence is to refuse to speculate about a hypothetical transcendence over-and-against this revelation. Instead we must seek to discern God’s transcendence in the “wholly other” quality of the revelation of the crucified Christ. As I interpret him, this is close to what Luther was getting at with his first…
God’s War on War
Category: General
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Though the OT portrays God as not only tolerating violence but also in many cases various narratives quote God as getting his hands dirty and actually promoting and commanding acts of violence, this is not the true character of the God of the OT. Throughout the OT we find passages…
The (Spiritual) War on Terror
Category: General
Tags: Open Theism, Prayer, Warfare Worldview
…contingent upon our prayer. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective (James 5:15-16). Whether we pray, how faith-filled our prayer is, how persistent it is and even how many people agree together in prayer are all factors that have a real effect in getting God to move and…
Faith or Magic?
Category: General
Tags: Covenant, Doubt, Faith, healing, Homosexuality, Magic, Salvation, Sin
…significantly different from those who engage in magic by performing certain behaviors to get the spiritual realm to benefit them? Faith is not primarily about getting our behaviors and our beliefs right—as if God is some kind of heavenly evaluator who is obsessive about whether your actions don’t cross any…
Dismembered: The Church and Individualism
Category: General
Tags: Body of Christ, Church, House Churches, Individualism, Western Assumptions
Topics: The Church
…of church is getting together with people you hardly know once a week for a religious service that allows for little if any meaningful social interaction. Conversely, when people try to apply some of the “one another’s” of the New Testament to people they aren’t in relationship with, it comes…
Friday Lights: Perspective
Category: Lighten Up
Tags: Friday Lights, Inspiration
…a season of uncertainty and confusion. One morning this week I woke up and, instead of getting right to checking emails and voicemails and bank statements, I went to my family room and saw it with fresh eyes. I saw it for what a blessing it is to have such…
Nations and Violence
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Nationalism, The Sword, The Work of the People, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
…that turn the other cheek, love their enemies, or lay down their sword as Jesus commanded. They exist because they use the sword. Nations and violence go hand in hand. Our hope is not found in nations finally getting it. Our hope is found in Christ and his kingdom alone….
Lord Willing?
Category: General
Tags: Death, Jessica Kelley, Problem of Evil, Suffering, Warfare Worldview
Topics: The Problem of Evil
…his parents’ and doctors’ valiant attempts to find a cure, Henry was now quickly approaching death. I recall getting a lump in my throat when Jessica and her husband, Ian, wondered if I would be willing to videotape a short eulogy to be played at Henry’s funeral. I was humbled…