If Christianity is something great but you do not need it, then who cares about it? If Christianity is something great but it’s not for you, there is no joy in that either. But what if Christianity is something great, and you need it, and it’s for you? Luke 2 shows us what Christianity is all about and how it comes crashing into the lives of people who desperately need it…
For many of us, Christianity feels like a great escape. But is this what Christianity is like? Is this what Christianity is about? Is escaping the reality and result of sin about a strategic plan carried out with intense effort, driven by fear? What is Christianity all about?
Our story begins with a theological argument. All good church stories begin that way: “Now an argument arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew (John’s code for religious leader) over purification” (v. 25). In other words, they were debating whether good people (like the religious leader) need the grace of God or not….
Seeing more changes everything. 2 Kings 6.8-23 employs language for sight fifteen times. This is a story about seeing more. But what happens when we do not see enough?
Alexander the Great changed the world single-handedly, however, in the end there was a final enemy he could not vanquish. He conquered the whole world, but could not conquer himself. Welcome to the story of a lost servant of God in 2 Kings 5.15-27.
“Hell is being looked at,” said the famous existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte. I went to Gettysburg College, and you guessed it, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for two reasons: to play football and to wrestle. A severe neck injury my first year ended both. The next year I transferred to the University of Massachusetts. Why? I did not want to be looked at, looked at as the kid who got injured, looked at as the ex-athlete. The experience of being looked at can be traumatic….
Romans 7.13-25 is not telling us everything about the Christian life, but it is zeroing in on something central: the normal Christian life is a heroic struggle with sin. This being the case, how do we now struggle with sin heroically?…
Can too much grace be a bad thing? Won’t too much grace simply produce sons of anarchy, sin gone wild? I mean, c’mon, if it’s grace, grace, and more grace, what’s going to keep people in line?..
Frank was baptized as an infant and confirmed at the age of fourteen within the Episcopal Church. During his first year in college, he left the church and became agnostic. At a point of crisis in his sophomore year, Frank had a religious experience through an evangelical campus ministry; to mark this experience he was re-baptized in a river…
Springs in the Valley tells the story of a man who found a barn where Satan kept his evil seeds stored, ready to be sown in the human heart. After a quick survey of the barn, the man discovered that the seeds of discouragement were more numerous than all the other seeds stored in the barn.
