Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image. The flesh whimpers against the rigor of God’s inexorable sentence and begs like Agag for a little […]
Sexual Assault Defined
A definition that is too narrow can cause some victims of assault and those who should be supporting them to downplay the experience. Our definition of sexual assault is any type of sexual behavior or contact where consent is not freely given or obtained and is accomplished through force, intimidation, violence, coercion, manipulation, threat, deception, […]
Godly Resolution of Conflict
In fact, trying to avoid the godly resolution of conflicts just builds a dam between ourselves and others, allowing a reservoir of misunderstanding, bitterness, unforgiveness, and/or resentment to form. The dam eventually bursts, producing problems far more serious than ay we would have faced by dealing with our differences or concerns in the first place. […]
The Fixed Center
In determining relationships we must begin somewhere. There must be somewhere a fixed center against which everything else is measured, where the law of relativity does not enter and we can say ‘is’ and make no allowances. Such a center is God. When God would make His Name known to mankind He could find no […]
Jesus Entered Her Pain
However, there was one who later came and entered her pain and shame [II Sam. 13:1-22]. Jesus Christ was killed, not for revenge but to bear her shame on the cross and to offer her a new robe of righteousness to replace her torn robes of disgrace. How Tamar felt after the assault, described in […]
heaven has begun
When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is ‘Thou God seest me.’ When the eyes of the soul […]
sweetest love of Thee
Nicholas (of Cusa) was a true follower of Christ, a lover of the Lord, radiant and shining in his devotion to the Person of Jesus. His theology was orthodox, but fragrant and sweet as everything about Jesus might properly be expected to be. His conception of eternal life, for instance, is beautiful in itself and, […]
Thoughts on Death
The following is part of a letter I wrote to a friend who was concerned about death, but didn’t want to talk with me about it. That death thing can certainly bring thoughts about eternal things into much clearer focus, can’t they? We have a church of over 800 people now and a sister church […]
the body of Christ
The Bible says that “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). It says this is because we are one body, the body of Christ, and individually members of that body (1 Cor. 12:27). There are connections like this all over the Bible. When one […]