heart shaped fingerprint

Love is Our New Identity

[1Jo 4:16 NASB] 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. There is a fundamental simplicity to the gospel to which it seems all of my discussions about things […]

Whose grace is it anyway?

Let’s be clear: there is no harsher law than this kind of “grace”. It says, no matter how horrible and crazy and insane and rotten and sinful someone is to you, you have to “accept” them and love them and forgive them and redefine the law for them on their terms as they see fit.

Judgment and the Schizophrenia of God

Grace overcomes at the exact point where judgment has its power. Under the law, we cannot and must not let go of our capacity to judge. It is the one thing we have which is right! So we see, where judgment thrives, grace wins.

Hello, My Name is Almighty God!

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On […]

Here am I. Send Me!

4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have […]

Woe is Me!

“Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken […]

You’re Not a Good Person

In numerous conversations recently, the idea has come up that we are each essentially a good person. Numerous people in our fellowship have expressed surprise that I teach against this idea that we are fundamentally good, and instead press the seemingly ugly idea that we are fundamentally sinful. Why is the assertion that we are […]

Is Grace Empowerment for Good Works?

When I talk about grace (which is pretty much all the time), I sometimes get some helpful advice from people who want to clean up my message. Grace doesn’t just mean that God forgives us, ha ha ha. Grace means that God empowers us to actually be righteous. It is righteousness gasoline. They seem to […]

Authority to Forgive

I am just returning from the Mockingbird Spring conference in NYC, where I heard Nadia Bolz-Weber give a talk. Of course, I should be doing a whole conference review, and maybe I will. However, she told some extremely powerful stories that hinged on confession. Confession is of course a HUGE part of my idea of […]

captain buzzkill and the Bringdowns

The Resurrection as Buzzkill

The law demands that we seek God, but the gospel declares that God seeks us! Death can’t even stop Him! We are so distracted, so sinful, so fearful, and so bad at persistence. We never seek with enough genuine fervor. We have not really striven to find God or obey Him (Hebrews 12:4, 1 John 1:10). But even death can’t distract Jesus Christ.