The Church: A Family of Redemption

The Church: A Family of Redemption – “The local church paints a picture of a greater reality: God takes broken people and makes them whole through the family of God. He has sent his son Jesus Christ to redeem a people—his people—to himself that they might enjoy him forever. This is an eternal and unfading family, but it’s also a family for the not-yet season that we live in.”

Redeeming Love Has Been My Theme and Shall be Until I Die

Redeeming Love Has Been My Theme and Shall be Until I Die – “Faith reflections from a cancer oven.” I very much agree with the author that when songs at church touch on death, it resonates with me more and more.

The Basics -- The Cross of Jesus Christ

The Basics -- The Cross of Jesus Christ – “Why did the story of our redemption take such a dark and foreboding turn? Why did Jesus need to die? Thankfully, throughout the New Testament, the biblical writers tell us why Jesus died and what his death means for us.”

Why’d The Pigs Have to Die?

Why’d The Pigs Have to Die? – “Why’d the pigs have to die? Because that’s what the demonic does. And we need to know that. Humanity cast our lot with darkness and this is part of the consequence. We also need to know and see that redemption is costly.”

Warring with All of Creation

Warring with All of Creation – “I have been in a cosmic battle with principalities and squirrels. I’m not kidding—it has begun to feel like creation has a vendetta against me. It’s an ongoing conspiracy.”

What Does It Mean That All of Creation Groans?

What Does It Mean That All of Creation Groans? – “Amid the shouting and rejoicing of the heavens and the earth, you can hear another sound. Creation groans. Why does it groan? How does it? And when, if ever, will creation’s groaning end?”

Yesterday Happened, But This is Still True

Yesterday Happened, But This is Still True – Whatever the faults and failings of yesterday, lay hold of God’s truth today.

What Jesus Saw When He Looked at Peter after the Rooster Crowed

What Jesus Saw When He Looked at Peter after the Rooster Crowed – “How do you think Jesus looked at Peter? Was Jesus surprised? Frustrated? Ashamed? If you are a Christian, then your understanding of how Jesus looked at Peter is foundational to your perception of how he looks at you when you sin.”

Reaching for the New Day

Reaching for the New Day – “In His hands, our worst sins, pains, and sorrows are re-woven into a new and glorious creation. Every broken relationship, illness, tear, and sin is bound together in God’s redemptive way and made beautiful in Christ.”

 

Are You Looking Forward to the Earth’s Redemption?

Are You Looking Forward to the Earth’s Redemption? – “As the entire creation, including animals and plants and nature itself, fell on humanity’s coat-tails, so the entire creation shall rise on our coat-tails, the beneficiary of Christ’s redemptive work and resurrection. As creation wasn’t only about us, so redemption is not only about us.”

Failure Need Not Be Final

Failure Need Not Be Final – “How did Peter come to believe this grace-truth that failure isn’t final, that a failed Christian isn’t a finished Christian?”

Your Darkness Is Not Dark to Him

Your Darkness Is Not Dark to Him – “The Holy Spirit used my darkness to illuminate for me the Bible’s clear witness that, for various and deeply good reasons, God sometimes ordains dismaying dark nights of the soul to descend on his children for redemptive purposes.”

You Are Redeemed by the Son

You Are Redeemed by the Son – “Redemption is freedom from slavery by the payment of a ransom; it is the purchase of liberation resulting in new ownership. That is what Jesus accomplished for us.” 

We Don’t Need To Rescue Biblical Characters From Themselves

We Don’t Need To Rescue Biblical Characters From Themselves – “If we understand that the Bible is not a book of heroes to emulate, but sinners in the need of Jesus, our outlook changes a bit.”

Why Should We Try To Add One Stitch To a Finished Garment?

Why Should We Try To Add One Stitch To a Finished Garment? – “We must accept the finished work of Christ. He has ceased from the work of our redemption, because there was no more to do. Our sins and the sins of the world were put away. The power of the adversary was annulled. The gate of heaven was opened to all that believe. All was finished, and was very good.”

An Historic Faith

An Historic Faith – “From the opening chapters of Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation, the entire dynamic of redemption takes place within the broader setting of real space and time, of concrete history.”

What Makes Jesus’s Commission So Great Anyway?

What Makes Jesus’s Commission So Great Anyway? – It is time for each of us to step into the story that God has for us. It is time for us to listen to Jesus, and learn what makes this commission truly great.”

 

God Can Redeem Your Family History

God Can Redeem Your Family History – “Family dynamics have intensity built in. No surprise, then, that family joy is wonderful, and family pain is horrible.”

 

Christianity Is About Saving Sinners

Christianity Is About Saving Sinners – “How we assess the central plotline of redemptive history will define the Christianity we live and the Christ we proclaim.”

How to Redeem a Wasted Life

How to Redeem a Wasted Life – “No one wants to waste his life — but what if you fear that you have? The thief who died next to Jesus on the cross, and lived a most ravaged and pitiful life two thousand years ago, stands out like a flower grown between cracks in the pavement, showing how, even on life’s final page, even in its final lines, a wasted life can be redeemed.”