This much everyone agrees with—Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). But what exactly does that mean? How did His death bring us life? Here is the atonement in four parts. 1. Jesus honored God and His purpose in creating man fully and completely. He lived to do His Father’s will in a way that no oneContinue reading “Thinking About The Atonement (2)”
Category Archives: Coming to God
A Roman Cross and a Jewish Carpenter (2)
If you take this political/religious template and lay it over the New Testament, it opens another dimension of understanding. Jesus’ birth becomes a political event. He was born to overthrow Rome. Not in the civil sense of occupying an earthly throne, but in the sense that He was to be everything Rome was pretending to be.Continue reading “A Roman Cross and a Jewish Carpenter (2)”
You Can Be Good Without God (2)
The new atheism is like a lot of things wearing the label—there’s really nothing new about it. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, and others are simply this generation’s militant atheists. They are to their time what Madelyn Murray O’Hare or Robert Ingersoll was in their day. They’re churning up the same arguments and objections toContinue reading “You Can Be Good Without God (2)”
The God Who Believes in Man (2)
The book of Jonah provides a wonderfully rich case history of the God who believes in man. It begins with God commissioning Jonah to “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). God’s purpose in sending Jonah was not to condemn but to convict the NinevitesContinue reading “The God Who Believes in Man (2)”
Sin and the Cross (3)
In the first two pieces, we looked at sin as a relational act of rebellion against our Father that exists at the community level as well as a personal level. We’ll build on this as we think about sin at the cosmic level. This is challenging because what we’re told in Scripture leaves us withContinue reading “Sin and the Cross (3)”
Sin and the Cross (2)
In the previous piece it was suggested that the ultimate way to look at sin and understand it is through relational terms. Sin is pictured in many ways in the biblical witness: financially/as wages, legally, spoilage, etc. These are all helpful in unpacking certain aspects of sin and enabling us to understand it from variousContinue reading “Sin and the Cross (2)”
Opening Our Eyes
Our faith is founded on wonder! The Story isn’t the Story without the creation of the cosmos, Noah’s ark, Isaac’s birth, the ten plagues, the Red Sea deliverance, the manna in the wilderness, the spectacle at Mt. Sinai when the law was given (and that’s just two books into the Bible!). These things and othersContinue reading “Opening Our Eyes”
‘Seeker’ Is Our Status
It was a warm, sunny Saturday morning in early December— the kind of day you’re not going to get very often. We were taking full advantage of it by doing some things out in our back yard when I saw a hawk fly in and perch in one of our pine trees. Over the years we’ve livedContinue reading “‘Seeker’ Is Our Status”
More Like Jesus
Devon Still and Lauren Hill met today. They’re both athletes—he is on the practice squad of the Cincinnati Bengals and she plays basketball for Mt. Saint Joseph University, also in Cincinnati. Okay, actually Lauren hopes to play for the Lady Lions. She’s a freshman and their basketball season hasn’t started yet. It’s not so muchContinue reading “More Like Jesus”
Lotteries and Lousy Lords
There was a big celebration going on among the workers at a restaurant in New Jersey. Okay, make that a HUGE celebration. Forty-two employees had pooled their money together to purchase $210 worth of tickets in the Powerball lottery that had a jackpot of nearly $1 billion. A friend texted the winning numbers and theyContinue reading “Lotteries and Lousy Lords”
