While we don't merit salvation by our works, Christianity is a religion. To be sure, it's more than a religion but it's not less. We are held accountable to obey God, because Christ bought us at the price of His blood. We are not our own.
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If you're a young professional on Instagram, or just about any social media really, you've no doubt seen creators share videos about the corporate working experience. Whether they're laughing about common corporate jargon (like "What did you do over the weekend?") or satirically complaining about customers at work, this media is popular because it is relatable. Who among us hasn't gotten frustrated about some detail of our work?
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As Christians, we know that the Fall introduced sin and toil into the world, and our workplaces are not immune. One example of such sin and toil in the workplace is discrimination, which is defined as the prejudicial treatment of different categories of people.
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I want to be a psychologist. I want to work as a psychologist. The above two statements are representations of my thoughts concerning my future career choices. While they are overwhelmingly similar, they have a subtle distinction that helps frame my work into a proper perspective. The first statement makes my career choice an identity. The second statement identifies my future work as a role - something I assume in a particular situation, and then complete. The bottom statement is the one I want to think and speak.
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Sometimes, the Christian story seems fantastic. By the word "fantastic," I mean it seems fanciful, imaginative, too good to be true. God the Father, who just is, creates a perfect world for the Son whom He loves (Colossians 1:16), with no need or obligation to do so but by necessity a desire.
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This first verse of a lyric I recently wrote represents for me the reality that God is transcendent - completely different from us, being infinite, holy, and perfect - but also immanent - close to us. This is something I don't think I'll ever fully understand this side of heaven, but it is wonderfully, amazingly true.
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I wrote this verse wondering why it is that we grieve when tragic things happen to us - why should we care when tragedy is part and parcel of this world, that we created? This is the question I am essaying - attempting - to answer today. In the end, we grieve because we care about our relationships. Whether it is estrangement, divorce, or death, we grieve because we love the one who is now lost. How is it, then, that we as Christians can grieve with hope?
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This chorus to the song “Lamb of God,” by Vertical Worship encapsulates beautifully just what Christ did in dying for our sins on our behalf. In connection with this passage, it serves as a reminder that Christ’s death was a gift. For us.
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Imagine yourself in a courtroom where you are being judged – perhaps by God (yes, I am aware that no one has seen God at any time; just imagine the context of the scene). You know that you are guilty of disobeying the law – again. You know there is no hope for you, and shame and fear fill your insides as you contemplate the just punishment that awaits. Maybe this is something you know is wrong, but keep doing despite your desire to do the right thing (Romans 7:15-17).
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In Acts 8:26-40, we see that an angel of the Lord told Philip to go south along the road that went from Jerusalem to Gaza, to a deserted place. Philip obeys and encounters a prestigious Ethiopian official, a eunuch who had charged all over the Kandake’s (Candace in Latin) treasury and was returning to Jerusalem. Ethiopian doesn’t necessarily refer to the modern country of Ethiopia; the Greeks used the term to refer to all of Africa south of Egypt (likely similar to Sub-Saharan Africa today). In this case, this eunuch came from the kingdom of Kush - we know that from the word Candace, transliterated from the title Kandake, which the Kushites used as their term for the queen.
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John 4 tells us that Jesus had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee from Judea. When you consider the subtext, that fact shines brilliantly with beauty. Jesus, as a Jew, would have been perfectly justified in not going to Samaria. The Jews hated Samarians, who believed only in the first five books of the Old Testament and were considered (prejudicially) half-breeds, being Jewish and Gentile. The Samaritans, too, hated Jews.
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Just as this woman saw her daughter restored to wholeness, dare to believe that God cares for you and will help you - because He is love and loves us - when You need Him.
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At its simplest level, being a daughter means belonging to a family - a girl or woman in relation to her parents. However, connotatively, being a daughter means not only belonging to someone, either by nature or adoption but being accepted. Beloved, not for what you’ve done, but simply for who you are.
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I love the New Testament. That’s cool, but we’re studying yet another Old Testament text, Ozi, you might be thinking. Hear me out. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that all of God’s promises in Christ are yes and amen - yes and indeed, essentially. These two texts contain a total of five promises.
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Song of Solomon is correctly read as a book about the romantic love a husband and a wife have toward each other in marriage. However, being that the Bible is the book about Jesus (Luke 24:44-45), I want to read this verse in a Christocentric way. When we do so, we find that it is a beautifully redemptive one.
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“Because your love is better than life, my lips shall praise you.”-Psalm 63:3
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