These days I’m itching quite a bit. I’ve battled eczema for 30+ years and winter is particularly troublesome. Even though scratching ceaselessly is terrible for my skin, scratching the itch is satisfying. It feels good. C.S. Lewis uses this imagery to describe pride. He writes: “The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching….
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Did you know magazine ads and press releases once celebrated the health and lifestyle benefits of building with asbestos and smoking? Decades later we look back on that and think, “How silly!” But at the time, people who smoked or handled asbestos had no idea what they were dealing with. This was a significant cultural…
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The year: 1777. The pastor: Nicholas Street. The place: East Haven, Connecticut. The situation: The Revolutionary War. Just months after the American colonies declared independence from England, Street preached a sermon that applied Old Testament Bible stories to Revolutionary War events. The title of the sermon: “The American States Acting over the Part of the Children of Israel…
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“Always trust your feelings.” This is one of the great “untruths” of our time. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt penned a book last year entitled, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. Even though this book isn’t written from an explicitly Christian perspective, it’s a…
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We are addicted to outrage! There are days when I feel like I’m living in a foreign land. I scan the comments’ section or social media feed of a news outlet (yes, even this blog) and I’m jerked awake stunned over the intensity of rage that can result from the slightest provocation. How did we…
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Rest. You probably want or need more of it. You’re tired of the rat race. You always seem to be proceeding full-throttle. But resting…easier said than done? I spent some time reflecting on this over the holidays – which was a time of rest for me. Out of this time of restful contemplation came a…
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Numerous Christian websites publish their “Top Books” list during this time of year. Rather than a “Top 10” list, however, I’ll encourage you to consider reading the following in the year to come. 1. Sipping Saltwater: How to Find Lasting Satisfaction in a World of Thirst – Steve Hoppe We all have a thirst for paradise that…
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Jesus said the two greatest commands are: to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Our best energy should be used in the pursuit of these two commands. I want to take a moment to offer one reflection on how to do that. Take a…
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There are subtle ways we functionally abandon Scripture’s authority. We’ve been looking at those over the past few weeks. Way #4: Reading books about the Bible more than one reads the Bible When it’s stated like this, it’s a head-scratcher. But for how many of us, is this true? Spending more time reading books about…
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There are subtle ways we functionally abandon Scripture’s authority. We’ve been looking at those in my previous two posts. Let’s consider another, m0re complicated and little known, way today… Way #3: Unfamiliarity with historical theology I need to define “historical theology”. I’m sure you would agree there were Christians who lived in the 1800’s and…
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