As you think about the Christian life as a lifelong process of change, what things stand out as the key ingredients for change? Most of us focus on the “means of grace”: Bible study, prayer, fellowship, reading Christian books, the sacraments, service, and witness. God has provided these as means to an end, but they are not the end! All the means of grace are good and necessary for change, but...
“The gospel” is a phrase that Christians often use without fully understanding its significance. We speak the language of the gospel, but we rarely apply the gospel to every aspect of our lives. Yet this is exactly what God wants for us. The gospel is nothing less than “the power of God” (Romans 1:16). In Colossians 1:6, the apostle Paul commends the Colossian church because the gospel has been...
Have you ever considered that God values your body and wants you to do the same? He created you as an embodied human being, where your soul and body are equivalent components of your personhood. In other words, both your soul and your body are equally valuable and essential to your existence. At times, however, Christians focus so much on spiritual matters that we forsake physical matters—tending...
A few years ago, I was attending a conference with a bunch of college students, and the speaker on stage asked the crowd if anyone in the room had trouble with decision-making. A vast majority of the people in the room raised their hands, and then he asked if any over-analyzers were in the room. Again, a lot of hands went up, this time coupled with some nervous laughter. Finally, the speaker...
What do you think when someone you know is diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder? Or has started to take a psychoactive medication? Do you say to yourself, “Finally, he is getting the help he really needs!” Or do you feel skeptical about either the diagnosis or the solution (or both), and wonder if what the person really needs is simply to trust in Jesus more? It doesn’t take too many...
