Ha ha, I made you look! I’m only giving away infinite joy and eternal acceptance and everlasting paradise, nothing “real”. It’s Christmas and let’s face it, we’re all thinking about presents. It’s OK, presents are a perfect metaphor for the gospel, and the more you dig into really enjoying that aspect of the season, the […]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this: Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacraments; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace […]
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; […]
This is all from a conversation on Facebook; anything not in blockquotes is from me. I thought it was good enough to share. Is it possible to feel sure of our salvation even though we are not truly saved? If you trust Christ and Him crucified for your justification, if you believe that the blood […]
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-rWNAQx1ZE’] The way You look at me When you think I’m not looking…. Tells me…. Your heart’s A sleeping giant Worn out By someone You loved before me. I see you’re scared Unconvinced by What I’ve tried to say; That I am yours And that nothing Will take me away. I know that […]
38 “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. 39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have […]
Most churches would hesitate to label themselves as legalistic or law-centered. I want to take a look at a typical ‘seeker-friendly’ helpful life-focused practical sermon meant to help normal average people lead better lives. Let’s suppose our friendly and kind of cool pastor has chosen to do a series on marriage. This is a popular […]
It is strange but true that one of the biggest objections people have to the message of radical grace is that it doesn’t seem to emphasize holiness and repentance. This is due to several factors: They think grace and mercy means that justice is ignored. They think grace and mercy means means that sinful behavior […]
If we are going to use the word “assurance”, we should use it in a meaningful way. It means you are sure of something, you are confident of it. If you keep thinking that your salvation is unsure because you sin, that is up to you, but realize you are no longer able to talk […]
What good is forgiveness if it doesn’t ‘work’ when you actually need it? I raised this question in response to some negative responses to this awesome blog post by David Zahl: The Subjective Power Of An Objective Gospel I thought the response was important enough to repost on my own blog, so I’m sorry in […]