The kingdom of heaven, Jesus taught, is a kingdom of grace. And this means that when we are coming into the presence of Christ, the prince over this kingdom, we are not coming into the presence of an unforgiving scorekeeper. We too often project our lack of forgiveness onto Him. We assume that He is …
False Alternatives
Emergent thinkers like to believe that they are advocating a move from the “absolute to the authentic.” But of course, the fact that these are a couple of adjectives being used as abstractions means that we do not yet know what we are talking about. Moving from the “absolute” to the “authentic” blends right in …
Definitions of Arrogance
“We see the same thing in the conflict between biblical and modern theories of preaching. The biblical preacher is a herald, a steward. He has been entrusted to declare something that would have been true if he had never been born. He is to preach it with a strong view of his own ultimate irrelevance. …
Prophets and Court Jesters
This particular version of this particular thread, which generally draws a lot of interest, began with my observation that Jesus taught with authority, and not like the scribes. I want to return to this for a moment. If we acknowledge, as all Christians must, that any given action that could be righteously done could also …
Hubrizo Like Crazy
“One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. “Woe to you …
Christ the Un-Christ-like
“Instead of seeking to learn our paradigms of behavior from the Scriptures, we tend to bring our assumptions, learned elsewhere and from others, and view the Scriptures through those assumptions. This is not a superficial problem; it goes down to the bone. The prophets, the apostles and our Lord Jesus all exhibit a vast array …
Our Foundation Stone
Our Father and holy God, we rejoice that You have given us so much to be grateful for, and we thank You in the name of Jesus Christ. This Sabbath day is our foundation stone, upon which we build the rest of the week. We look forward in faith to the week You have given …
Can’t Argue With That
A certain man once claimed that he had a special kind of fish net, one that could capture any kind of fish in the lake. A friend asked to see the net, and was astonished when the proud fisherman brought out a net with a mesh that had openings that were two inches square. “Don’t …
What Do We Imitate?
“And this is because certain non-Christian assumptions have come to dominate how we read the Bible. When Jesus looked on the rich, young ruler and loved him, it is very easy for us to say that we should be loving as He was. When preachers make such applications, no one thinks anything of it. But …
Kindness and Truth Together
One of the ways that we avoid biblical balance in speaking is by assuming some kind of distance between truth and kindness. But Scripture says, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart” (Prov. 3:3). Merciful kindness and truth go together. They are …