Life is the Purpose
Life is the Purpose You are likely confused. And why shouldn’t you be? Everyone is talking about purpose. I agree with Westminster that the primary purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But just beneath that is a penultimate purpose. What is your purpose? Is it helping people? Is it world…
Understanding Systems Will Change Your Life
Systems Everything is a system. Life is a system of systems of systems. Think about it. Everything comes about by a 1-2-3-4…progression of events. Everything abides by certain rules. I’ll give credit right here to Sam Carpenter for opening my eyes to this. His book Work the System red pilled me from thinking things were…
How Do You Know if You Love Money?
Do you love money? Do you like money? How would you know if you love money in the way the Bible warns us against? “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you’” (Heb 13:5). Here are some questions: Do you…
Christian Businesspeople are Handicapped
Christian businessmen and women have a handicap. They are confused. They waste a lot of mental energy trying to justify things that don’t need to be justified. For instance: Making money — No matter how well we teach that the Bible says money itself is not evil, but rather, “the love of money is a…
Buddhism, Christianity, and Love
I can’t remember if I have shared this on this blog. But before I was a Christian, I was a Buddhist. Before I was a Buddhist, I was a Methodist. I am not saying that you can’t be a Methodist and a Christian. I know many good ones, but I don’t think I was. Growing…
Purpose
Because I get confused easily in this fallen world with my fallen emotions, it helps me to repeat things I’ve said before. Apparently there was a time when only God existed. God always existed, so existence always existed. God existed perfectly true to his nature, so he created. He produced and blessed. He created all…
The Secret to the Christian Life
We have not done the hard work of prioritizing our life and values. So our “pleasures” are out of whack, so we murder, at least in our hearts.
Principles are Better than Laws Part 14, Do Not Covet
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” We are considering some of the most important biblical laws as principles by which to live. Once again, and…
Principles are Better than Laws Pt 13 Don’t Bear False Witness or Lie at All
I was watching a short clip on YouTube by Harvard Business School professor and author Clayton Christiansen on religion and capitalism in America. He was recounting a conversation with a graduate student from China who had come to America to study capitalism. When Christiansen asked him what was the most surprising thing he’d learned from…
Principles are Better than Laws Part 12 Don’t Take People’s Stuff
God protects our property because he protects our life. What should that mean for us?
Principles are Better than Laws Part 11, No Adultery
God gave his people hundreds of laws and commandments in Scripture, and while as Christians we don’t observe as many as the Jews did under Mosaic law, we still have plenty. We’ve been discussing the major ones in this series, and today we’ll continue through the Ten Commandments with Exodus 20:14. “You shall not commit…
Principles are Better Than Laws Part 10
How is God’s command not to murder a principle to live by?
Principles are Better Than Laws, Part 9 Honor Your Mother and Father
Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” In these posts we’re exploring some of the key laws of God in the Bible and considering them, not only as commands of God, but also as principles for how…
Principles Are Better than Laws Part 8, Sabbath
The Sabbath as a principle and gift from God.
Principles Are Better Than Laws Part 7
I have been using the last six posts to explore some of God’s key laws in the Bible and consider them not only laws that should be obeyed, because they are God’s laws, but also principles to follow in order to live the kind of life God had in mind for his image bearers when…
Principles are Better than Laws Part 6
I’ve been discussing God’s laws as principles for how he would have us live on the earth. I have posited that God designed us to have magnificent (abundant), eternal life that starts now, even here on earth. I mean that even if we suffer, which we will, or even suffer a lot, we can still…
Principles Are Better Than Laws – Part 5
God gave us commands that if followed, lead to life as he intended it.
Principles are Better Than Laws Part 4
Loving something a whole lot is not idolatry in and of itself.
Principles are Better Than Laws Part 3
How to make the first commandment a principle.
Principles are Better Than Laws Part 2
In part 1 of this post, I said that God has given us laws to obey, and I said that I wanted to also consider these as principles for living the life he originally designed for us. In this part I’d like to start looking at some of his laws, and consider them as also…
Principles are Better than Laws, Part 1
We’re Christians. We have laws. We have the Ten Commandments. They are not called The Ten Principles. Still… Principles are better than laws, even when our principles happen to be laws. The nice thing about laws is that they don’t require thinking. We just have to be afraid of the law giver, and voila, order. …
Loving the Truth
Love the truth and come into the light.
Sin is a Mayonnaise Sandwich
Christians only sin because they are terribly confused.
Self Esteem for Christians
Where should a Christian human get self esteem?
Brainstorming on Parenting (after five kids)
I really like my kids…
Abide
There is one word that sums up the Christian life.
Jesus is a Charismatic Leader, and You Should be One Too
Jesus was a charismatic leader and you should be too.
The Is-Ought Dichotomy
…they walk in constant contradictions, anxious, confused, fearful, depressed, falling way short of the glory of God.
How Not to Glorify Yourself
There is a wrong way to glorify yourself, but there is also a right way.
Life Together
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thinking about Christian community captivated me, and has never left me.
Concretization of the Abstraction of God
Jesus concretized God. Man is supposed to concretize Jesus. When God created the universe and the earth, he did not consider it to be complete unless he gave the creation a way to know him and what he is like. God is a real person. He is invisible, yet concrete. But to most of us…
A Christian Approach to Relating to Others Part 5, Treating Others as Better than Yourself
Christians are called to put others first. There is a way to do that doesn’t cause inner conflict and self hatred.
A Christian Approach to Relating to Others Part 4, The Outcome of the Truth is the Right Outcome
The Outcome of the Truth is the Right Outcome One main reason that people lie is that they are attempting to control outcomes. But outcomes are never really in our control, and thinking they should be is a recipe for misery. We don’t need to think about outcomes because God is already doing that. “The…
A Christian Approach to Relating to Others Part 3, Discrimination for the Sake of Justice
When is it good to discriminate?
A Christian Approach to Relating to Others Part 2, Justice and Value
Yesterday I wrote about horizontal versus vertical relationships and Jesus’ call not to “exercise authority” over others in part one of a multi-part post about how Christians should relate to other people. Today I want to talk about the concept of “Justice,” a word that I’m sure we misunderstand quite a bit. Justice (Value for…
A Christian Approach to Relating to Others Part 1, Horizontal vs. Vertical Relationships
In God’s economy, no one is to dominate another.
How the Holy Spirit Helps us Grow and Have Abundant Life
To truly grow and live the abundant life we need the Holy Spirit.
Choose to Grow
Even Jesus had to grow, so why shouldn’t we?
How Jesus Restores Mankind Part 6, Anxiety and Freedom
Yesterday in part 5 we started to look at how Jesus wants us oriented when it comes to finances. We saw that greed is evil, money is neutral, and it should be handled as though all we have belongs to God, because it does. Today we’ll go on to what Jesus says next in relation…
How Jesus Restores Mankind Part 5, Anxiety about Provision
Jesus calls us to seek the kingdom and never worry about money.
How Jesus Restores Mankind Part 4, Freedom
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus shows a radical way to freedom.
How Jesus Restores Mankind Part 3, on Lust and Sexuality
Jesus radically redefined sexual purity and revealed something amazing about freedom.
How Jesus Restores Mankind Pt. 2 The Sermon on the Mount – Anger
To hear Jesus talk about the ways of the kingdom of God must have been frustrating to the unsaved, as it is today. But having accepted salvation and received the Holy Spirit, we can see Jesus’s teaching as more than just the proof that we need a savior. We can see it as the ways…
How Jesus Restores Mankind
Jesus came not just to get us into Heaven, but to restore in man the image of God.
Why is it Not OK to Love the World?
Loving the world might not mean what you think it means.
Manifestations of a Broken Image Pt 3
We are made in the image of God, but that image was broken and there were consequences.
Manifestations of a Broken Image Pt. 2
We were made in the image of God, but that image was broken, and there were consequences.
Manifestations of a Broken Image Pt. 1
How do most people think of work? Most people think of work as something that you have to do, so that you can afford the things that you want to do. They work for the weekend. But the weekend is often just as hard, if not harder, at least for those with families. There are…
Principles vs. Vision
What is your vision? What is your five year plan? Where do you see yourself in ten years? What do you want to be when you grow up? What are your goals and how do you plan to reach them? These are the questions that make the world go round. Everybody who is anybody knows…
Pride: Two Kinds
There are two kinds of pride. A good kind and a bad kind. What is the difference? Indeed, what is the difference? The Good Kind God created man in his image. He delegated him to rule the earth in his name, to subdue it. To make things of it. To steward it. He gives him…
Dear friend who is falling apart while sheltering in,
I’ve been thinking about you since our conversation this morning. Anything I could tell you you probably know already. But this verse came to mind: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). There are some habits in your life that are specifically designed by you for the purpose of avoiding the…
The Unworthy Servant and Non-Contradiction
Christians are not as happy as they should be, given reality. For a while I wrestled with some nagging thoughts that were far enough in the back of my mind that I could not quite articulate them. They would wake me up in the middle of the night and rob me of rest, but they…
For My Own Sake, For His Sake
God does everything for his own glory. Another way that God says he does everything for his own glory is to say that he does everything “for his own sake” (Isa 48:11). And why wouldn’t he? He is God. He does things for others, for sure, but even that is for himself. I think most…
I Am
God is I Am and so am I. So are you; an image bearer with an assignment to produce. Life is the standard. Existence exists, so accept that and get after it. In the beginning, God created (Gen 1:1). There was only one God in three persons, and then he created everything that exists. …
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