I’ve been looking at the story of Abraham and Isaac, and what it teaches us about spiritual surrender and release. Naturally I started to think about my son Jonathan and Batman. When my son Jonathan was younger, from about 18 months until he was around 10 years old, he was completely and absolutely obsessed with […]
More meditation on the faith of Abraham. Genesis 22 God, in His love and favor over Abraham, gave him this bizarre task, to offer his son as a burnt offering. This is on the surface one of the craziest and most difficult stories in all of scripture. How could a good and loving God ask […]
He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” From the first taste of forbidden fruit we have been imbued with firsthand knowledge of good […]
I am a huge Apple customer. I work at a place that is swimming in macs, I have 4 on my desk alone. I am typing this on my beautiful 15″ Macbook Pro. I got my first mac in 1992, a Classic II. I still remember how excited I was to get that machine! I […]
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 […]
On the Free Grace Alliance web site, the president of the organization recently posted a letter from a younger member of the organization which included this quote: ●The Free Grace Movement and FGA are not reaching the younger generation like the Neo Calvinist movement is. I sense there is a serious problem in the Grace […]
I keep going back to the amazing parable of the pharisee and the tax-gatherer who go up to the temple to pray. last time I talked about this, I said, Notice some things here. This does not imply that tax man ever says, I suppose God likes my sin. Nor does he say, God justifies […]
Fasten your seatbelts everyone, this is a heavy one. The doctrine of the trinity as I understand it goes like this: The Father is God The Son is God The Holy Spirit is God The Son is not the Father The Son is not the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is not the Father The […]
When we encounter something which invokes a sense of wonder, it means we have encountered some kind of splendor or beauty which is quite beyond us. We can marvel, but we cannot grasp. The sense of wonder releases us to enjoy, to worship, to have awe, without having to understand. We do not need to […]
I have been in so-called accountability groups in the past. They really should call them “guilt-inducing liar clubs.” Have you done [sin X] this week? Have you kept your nose clean? Did you just lie to me? How is your relationship with your wife?” OH … MY … GOODNESS. You’re going to bash me over […]