God Told Abraham That He Would Bless Him and Through Him Bless All Nations How often do we ask God to bless us? It’s a request I make most every day. Sometimes more than once. I suspect you may often ask for God’s blessings too. What do we mean when we ask for God’s blessings? […]
Jesus Welcomed and Embraced Everyone, Especially Those on the Fringes Have you ever gone to a new place where people warmly welcomed and embraced you? A place where people warmly welcomed and embraced everyone? It’s not the location that matters. It’s the people. I’ve been in groups like this. Everyone’s accepted as they are. They […]
Our Actions and Our Words Determine Our Reputation In the post “They’ll know we are Christians by our love” we talked about the importance of our Christian witness. This is best accomplished by our love and our unity. Unfortunately, the world rarely sees our love and unity. Instead we model hate and disagreement. That’s what […]
Followers of Jesus Should Carefully Consider the Message We Send to the World A song from my youth carries the title, which repeats in the chorus, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” If you’re not familiar with this song, check out the lyrics or watch a video. Though not the style of music […]
God Calls Us to Move Beyond Tolerance and to Love Others Our culture today talks a lot about being tolerant. Our politically correct society upholds tolerance as a virtue. It’s a position held by so-called enlightened people that we are to tolerate others regardless of their belief, behaviors, or ethnicity. It all seems so right, […]
There’s Nothing We Need to Do to Earn God’s Love In the book of Deuteronomy, a book of the Bible that most people skip, God explains his relationship to his people. He starts by saying that he didn’t choose them because of their numbers or greatness as a nation. In fact, they started out as […]
The Most Important Thing in the Bible Is Love Though the Bible has many commands, love is the greatest command of them all. Check it out: The Old Testament Law In the first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the Torah or Pentateuch, God gives instructions to Moses. The people refer to this as […]
Though God Doesn’t Change, the Way People Perceive Him Does I enjoy a good book, one with a satisfying story arc. The Bible has an arc, too, a biblical story arc. Some people see the Old Testament as focusing on God’s rules and judgment, with the New Testament focusing on God’s love and freedom. Though […]
Being both honest and kind is how we grow in our faith and mature through Jesus When Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he tells them to speak what is true with love. This should be our guide in all that we say. While this makes sense, it’s harder to put into practice. Truth […]
Paul tells us that faith and love is what matters most In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he opens chapter five with a discussion about freedom and slavery, about following the law and not following the law. He says that in Jesus these things have no value. So what counts the most? His explanation of […]