Love
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…
Spiritual Warfare: What is it?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Humility, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Love, Myth of a Christian Religion, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The Kingdom is “not of this world,” and neither is its warfare. Jews had always believed that God confronted spiritual opposition in carrying out his will on earth. In the Old Testament, these evil forces…
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…
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…
Is God All-Powerful?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Letters from a Skeptic, Love, Omnipotence, Open Theism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will
I want to answer yes and no. God is all-powerful in the sense that God originally possessed all power. Before Creation, God was the only being who existed, and thus had all the power there…
Who You Are Reflects the Kind of God You Worship
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: God, Love, Picture of God, Seeing is Believing, The Image of God
We always reflect the mental picture of God that we envision, for better or worse. If you have a fear-based picture of God, it will even affect the structure of your brain. You become the kind…
Jesus Did Not Teach Ethical Behavior
Category: General
Tags: Ethics, Judgement, Love, Repenting of Religion
Image by a2gemma via Flikr Paul teaches that love is not rude (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). If we forget that the New Testament is about the new life given us in Jesus Christ, we easily misinterpret this passage…
Why Did God Allow Evil?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Evil, Free Will, Love, Problem of Evil, Satan and the Problem of Evil
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, The Problem of Evil
Is it possible to force people to love? Powerful people may be able to force others to do just about anything. Through psychological or physical torture, they may succeed in forcing them to curse their…
Featured Sermon Series: Scandalous Love
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: God, Greg Boyd, Kingdom Living, Love, Sermons, Theodicy, Theology, Woodland Hills Church
The Scandalous Love series is often considered one of Greg’s and Woodland Hill’s most foundational series. In fact, it was so important that it subsequently led to the Can’t Stop the Love series. Defining…
5 Differences Between The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the World
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Enemy Love, Jesus, Kingdom, Kingdom Living, Love, Myth of a Christian Nation, Upside-Down Kingdom, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Following Jesus
Image by matthijs rouw via Flickr The kingdom of God looks and acts like Jesus Christ, like Calvary, like God’s eternal, triune love. It consists of people graciously embracing others and sacrificing themselves in service to others….
The Goal For Your Life in 2015
Category: General
Tags: Love, Love of God, New Year, Repenting of Religion, Trinity, Triune Love
Topics: Following Jesus
Love is the reason anything exists. God created the world out of love—to express his love and to invite others to share in his love. The central goal of creation is succinctly summed up in…
Is Having the “Right” Theology the Core of Christianity?
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Love, Non-Violence, Repenting of Religion, Violence
Last week, we posted a piece by Greg that challenges the practice being violent “in the name of Jesus” toward others who err theologically. (Click here to read this post.) Being that this piece got…
Judgment and Idolatry
Category: General
Tags: Adam and Eve, Idolatry, Judgment, Love, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Topics: Following Jesus
Why was the forbidden tree in the center of the garden called The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Since the Bible depicts eating from this tree as the reason humans are estranged…
What Motivates Torture “In Jesus’ Name”?
Category: General
Tags: Holiness, Humility, Idolatry, Judgment, Kingdom Living, Love, Religious Idolatry, Torture
Topics: Following Jesus
Why has the church, at times, tortured and murdered people? What motivates killing and persecution “in the name of Jesus” or “for the glory of God”? (See the post from yesterday about how the church…
Why Are We So Mired in Violence?
Category: General
Tags: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Flood, Love, Relationships, Trinity, Violence
Topics: The Problem of Evil
In his marvelous little book entitled The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis envisioned hell as a realm in which people are forever moving farther away from one another. Hell is the ultimate, cosmic, suburban sprawl!…
Participating in the Divine Nature (Love)
Category: General
Tags: God, God is Love, Jesus, Love, Love Your Neighbor, The Holy Spirit, Trinity
Topics: Following Jesus, Trinity
When God created the world, it obviously wasn’t to finally have someone to love, for God already had this, within himself. Rather God created the world to express the love he is and invite others…
The Most Beautiful Truth
Category: General
Tags: God, God is Love, Jesus, Love, The Holy Spirit, Trinity
Topics: Trinity
Jesus was God incarnate. Yet he continually referred to, and prayed to, God the Father as someone who was distinct from himself. He also continually referred to, and claimed to be empowered by, God the…
Sermon Clip: How Christians Should Respond to Ferguson
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Christian Life, Greg Boyd, Kingdom Living, Love, Non-Violence, Peacemaking, Sermons, Social Issues, Woodland Hills Church
In this clip from this weeks sermon, Greg Boyd comments on how Christians should respond to the events in Ferguson St. Louis and how that response should always be in love and to help heal…
Sermon Clip: Dear Abby
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Christian Life, Kingdom Living, Love, Sermons, Woodland Hills Church
In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses Matthew 7. The infamous “plank in your own eye vs a speck of dust in your neighbors. He clarifies what this verse means when you have a…
Sermon Clip: Tough To Love
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Christian Life, Kingdom Living, Love, Sermons, Woodland Hills Church
Learning how to love the people in our life that we find challenging to deal with is often very difficult. This week in Heart Smart Greg Boyd looks at some biblical examples and instructions on…