Satan will tell you that your worth lies in how many zeroes your pay check ends in, or how many women you’ve held in your arms, or how many square feet your house contains.
If he’s feeling clever he will tell you your worth lies in how much time you spend with your family, or how many lives you’ve touched, or how many hours you spend helping other people. Continue reading “on self worth”
What does it mean to have a relationship with someone?
Spending time with them, getting to know them. But will this person love you less if you spend less time with them or put less effort into the relationship than they do? Continue reading “on a relationship with Jesus”
Consider: nothing that the Christian does or fails to do can condemn him before God.
What are the biblical grounds in support of this statement? Continue reading “on the abuse of indelible grace”
I’d been having trouble figuring out why exactly Christ’s sacrifice entitled us to oneness with God and eternal life.
I understood the concept and system and logic behind penal substitutionary atonement, double imputational justification, sacrifice, temple/tabernacle mechanics, etc., but it still escaped me why we should be allowed to come to God once sin was dealt with. Why does the removal of sin automatically place us with God? Why do we deserve to rise from the grave just because God raised Christ from the grave? Continue reading “on our right to eternity”
Son of God with flint-like eyes
Falter not though men despise.
Son of God, march to the fray
And may the King grant you this day.
A friend of mine was telling me a while ago about the sacraments: The obvious ones are the communion, the many sacrifices outlined in the latter half of Exodus. There are also less obvious ones, he said, such as the rainbow: It is a weapon of war (wrath) that is strangely pointed toward its wielder, prophetic of God’s atoning self sacrifice.
At that moment I was convinced, but less so now. Still, it was interesting. How about the sun? Continue reading “on the sun”
Every Classics student worth his salt (and the general public now too, thanks to the film 300) has heard of the anonymous Spartan mother’s command to her son after handing him his battle shield:
“Either with this or on it.” Continue reading “on greek shields”
I heard a recent prayer for people willing to accept Jesus into their hearts. One thing that irked me about it though was its handling of sin. The prayer talked of sin as doing bad things, and asked of Jesus’ help as more behaviour changing than the radical change and metanoia described in the Bible.
What does behaviour modification look like?
Thirty years ago it was commonly held that outside stimulus shaped a person’s character: hence the kerfluffle about rock music, violent tv shows, etc. These days it is increasingly held that though violent and disturbing media does corrupt those who are exposed to it, it’s more about those people wanting these things in the first place. Someone who loves horror and violent films is probably just a disturbed person whose attraction to these things is a manifestation of inner troubledness. Continue reading “on behaviour modification”
A friend of mine once asked me which of my historical heroes I would dine with if I could choose.
Strangely enough I had no answer. I didn’t want to dine with any of my historical heroes. Continue reading “on the heroes of the past”
Why is the Bible compelling? Many reasons: it’s a message of love, hope, the correct way.
How about a message of realism? One thing that strikes me is how well God knows us. Better often than we know ourselves. If all gods are figments of our imagination, what does one call a god who is in many ways quite un-godly? What kind of a god says things no human priest would ever dream up? Continue reading “on realistic gods”
Remember, My Lord 