The LORD says,“Come, let us talk about these things.Though your sins are like scarlet,they can be as white as snow.Though your sins are deep red,they can be white like wool.” ISAIAH 1:18 Happy is the personwhose sins are forgiven,whose wrongs are pardoned.Happy is the personwhom the LORD does not consider guiltyand in whom there isContinue reading “Better Than You See Yourself”
Category Archives: hope
The Key to Your Rest
(Heb. 4:1–13)Have you ever noticed that when you read the Bible, you tend to imagine a tone of voice? Reading some passages, like Psalm 23, we imagine a warm, loving tone. Reading other passages we can almost hear disapproval or anger. Actually, the tone of voice we imagine is most helpful—or harmful—when it comes toContinue reading “The Key to Your Rest”
When We Don’t Realize What We Have
To me … this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. (EPHESIANS 3:8) Years ago our pastor told about a southern plantation owner who left a $50,000 inheritance (perhaps equivalent to half a million dollars today) to a former hired hand who’d served him faithfully all his life. TheContinue reading “When We Don’t Realize What We Have”
No Hopeless Situations
Proverbs 28:1 When will we ever learn that there are no hopeless situations, only people who have grown hopeless about them? What appears as an unsolvable problem to us is actually a rather exhilarating challenge. People who inspire others are those who see invisible bridges at the end of dead-end streets. There was a CabinetContinue reading “No Hopeless Situations”
Our Digital Future
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception is a brilliant, often uncomfortable portrayal of a future world where sophisticated technology has unlocked the ability for people to escape reality. Through a fictional “dream-sharing” device, the characters in Inception can create, manipulate, and even invade people’s dreams. At one point in the movie, the heroes visit a scientistContinue reading “Our Digital Future”
When the Bible Is Pornography
Printing Bibles is an activity strictly controlled by the authorities in Xi Jinping’s China. Solving the problem of the limited supply of Bibles by just contacting a printer is not a good idea. Just ask Yang Jianxin, the pastor of a Reformed house church in the county-level city of Lingbao, administered by Sanmenxia city inContinue reading “When the Bible Is Pornography”
Our Anchor
The word picture of an anchor is used often in ancient literature, but it’s used only once in the New Testament in picturing hope as an anchor for our soul. Lots of hymns and gospel songs make use of this anchor metaphor. Every one of them comes back to Hebrews 6:19: “This hope we haveContinue reading “Our Anchor”
When Death Is No Accident
This world exists with its pain, with its horror, and with its death to make a place for Jesus Christ the Son of God to suffer and die. If a world like this didn’t exist, Jesus would have no place to suffer and die. If there were no suffering, Jesus couldn’t suffer. If there wereContinue reading “When Death Is No Accident”
When All Else Fails
Somewhere along the many miles of southern California shoreline walked a young, 20-year-old woman with a terminal disease in her body and a revolver in her hand. She had called me late one evening. We talked for a long time. A troubled young woman, her mind was filled with doubts. She had advanced leukemia. TheContinue reading “When All Else Fails”
The Prosperity Gospel in Today’s World
As the entire world faces a public health and economic challenge the likes of which none of us has ever seen, we can, sadly, see the hucksters and grifters of the “prosperity gospel” movement, and their enablers, taking every opportunity, once again, to destroy lives and enrich themselves. This ought to matter to every discipleContinue reading “The Prosperity Gospel in Today’s World”
Intentional Faith 