The Bible’s sexual ethic is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people investigating the Christian faith. It goes completely against the grain of our culture and, if we’re honest, of our own heart’s pull. Complicating matters, many Christians have been loudly unhelpful in the public square, acting as if others’ sins are worse than theirs or demonstrating profound ignorance about these issues...
Have you ever had your plans altered or challenged? Sure you have! We all face that in life. But what about those plans you meticulously thought out? What about the plans you spent hours, days, weeks, or even years putting together? And right when you are ready to launch your plans, God throws you a curve. Sometimes it’s a small adjustment. Perhaps you were looking in one direction, and God took...
It was the Fall of 1999, and I was entering the final stretch of my MA program in counseling. My zeal to become a licensed professional counselor had been waning in light of being exposed to many psychological models that seemed to oppose my values and beliefs as a Christian. This crisis magnified with my ethics class where I learned of the discipline’s views pertaining to bringing one’s...
That was the question I asked the nine- and ten-year-old Sunday school class I was teaching. I wondered if they knew the answer. When I was ten, I thought I knew. After all, I was a pastor’s daughter and went to a Christian school. But I didn’t. I had learned a gospel, but not the true gospel. What Was My Gospel? It started out right: You are a sinner whose only hope is to trust in Jesus, ask him...
In no other book of the Bible is God’s pattern for redemption laid out more clearly than in Exodus. We have the Israelites, who continuously spurn God’s love even though he chose them to be his children. And we have God, who despite the Israelites’ grumbling, complaining, disobedience and false worship, is faithful in his steadfast loving-kindness. But the journey of the Israelites out of slavery...
