Recent Posts
Ephesians 1:8-9 All Wisdom and Insight
There is a vast difference between walking around thinking that you have made a decision for Jesus, and thinking that God chose you in Christ before the foundation of the cosmos.
Ephesians 1:7 – Lavish Forgiveness
We tend to downplay the value of forgiveness. We want our redemption to be about our “sanctification.” But Paul says here that our redemption is all about forgiveness. It was bought with blood and it is lavish.
Ephesians 1:5-6
Because of His great love for us, God (in His infinite knowledge) determined to adopt us as sons as into a very prestigious family. It turns out, God delights in us and finds great pleasure in us! He considers the adoption to be a great praise to Himself.
Ephesians 1:3-4
It is the whole lot of us that He intends to be holy and blameless. There cannot be a few mature and successful while others are struggling with unholiness and blame. As I always say, if there is a little drop of pee in your coffee, the whole cup is disgusting. If all are not holy and blameless, the whole lot of us together are unholy and blameful.
Apostles, Saints, and the Faithful – Ephesians 1:1-2
I’m starting a new sermon series at Bread and Wine Fellowship on the fabulous book of Ephesians. We already started last week, and I’ll post some things from my introductory and overview thoughts later. Today I want to jump into the text. I’m posting stuff from my study process in case someone might enjoy or […]
Answers to Top Bible Questions
How can I overcome the fear of failing an Almighty God? God is indeed almighty! You don’t understand God’s kind of love if you don’t understand that He is all-powerful and constantly ready to judge you for your secret shameful life. After all, you wouldn’t even be asking this if there wasn’t obvious sin in your life. But if you repent and make it stick, and get rid of the habitual sin in your life, and really make your life to be all about loving God and loving others, and never do any obvious sins like sexual sins especially, you can feel good about knowing that you are not failing God.
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 […]
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.