The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
What God’s Grace Teaches Us, Part 1
Throughout the Epistles, biblical writers greeted their readers with the desire that they receive grace and peace. Since Scripture is clear that salvation is an outcome of God’s grace, how would the believers who were addressed in the New Testament letters not already have grace? Like most aspects of our salvation, there are multiple meanings for the biblical term “grace” and they relate to differing tenses. In the past, the Grace of God…..
Faith in God Who is My Rock and Strength
Metaphors of God’s strength appear throughout the Psalms: my Salvation, my Strength, my Rock of Refuge, my strong Refuge and Guide, my Strong Habitation, Shelter, and Tower, my Shield, Help, Maker, and Deliverer. During weeks such as this one, in which my husband was in the hospital from Monday through Thursday during Covid when there are no visitors (even spouses) allowed in hospitals, those metaphors become very real to me. God…..
A Template For Praise
Psalm 8:1-9 …
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is our name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you might still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man, that you are mindful of…..
Planted! (originally published Dec. 29, 2017)
One of my favorite verses is Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain you: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The New Testament version of this is found in 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”
Websters dictionary lists at least ten synonyms for the word “move”. They include proceed, persuade, activate, drive, impel, start, stir, act, budge, and…..
Whether We Like It or Not
When Paul stood before the High Priest, Ananias, he did not know who it was in front of him. There were no electronics back then and no visual news platform for him to have seen Ananias or to know who he was unless someone had pointed him out on the street or in the temple prior to this incident. At the command of the chief captain of the Roman military contingent in Jerusalem, Paul…..
Psalm 27 is one of my primary go-to passages when I can’t see past the chaos and need encouragement.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 22-23).
Christianity in the Long Run
Acts 6:31 tells us “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” At that point of belief through which we enter into Salvation, we are redeemed, adopted, and sanctified. Our lives don’t freeze in that moment. Except in the case of eleventh-hour deathbed conversions, we generally aren’t carried to Heaven in that moment. We continue to live on this earth as spiritual newborns in Christ growing in the knowledge of God.
Scripture…..
Forever
When I was ten years old, my fifth grade teacher asked the class what we thought we would be like or be doing at the turn of the century. The purpose of the exercise was her philosophy that, having lived a full decade, we should know what we wanted to do as adults and focus on that for the rest of our academic careers. When I thought about the year 2000, all I could imagine was my age. I…..
Earth Takes a Sabbath
As the earth begins to wind down for winter, it is a good time to, once again, remember the Creator and rejoice in the work of His hands. We see the amazing colors that precede the Sabbath rest of creation – the gold, scarlet, orange, and brown leaves preparing to fall, bequeathed to the ground to nourish next year’s growth, and the trees primed for cold slumber. COVID-19 cannot change the beauty or timing of this…..