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A New Life

unless one is born again . . . (Jn 3:3) Father, I praise you that in Christ you have made me new.  By your grace, please set my eyes on your glory, your kingdom, and the work you have done through Jesus Christ. I want to begin talking about the Christian life – what it is and how to live it.  And right away, I need to say two things.  The first is that the Christian life encompasses everything: your work, your money, your relationships, your family, your sex life, how you use your time, what you read or what…

Christmas or christmas

At Christmas the world changed.  At Christmas God became man.  At Christmas God so loved the world that He gave His son.  Christmas is, after all, a love story. If Christmas is true, then your king and mine was born in a stable.  If Christmas is true, then Jesus is the center of everything.  If Christmas is true, then the only appropriate response is to bow and worship.  But this world doesn’t want to bow and worship, so it ignores the central fact of Christmas and celebrates instead its own christmas.  You and I are then left with Christmas or…

What Does the Bible Say?

I sat on a student panel tasked with investigating the morality of abortion.  It was the 1970s, and I was in high school and had not yet made up my mind on the issue.  As the panel discussed the various arguments flying around the culture, one student asked a question that hit me like a bucket of water. “What does the Bible say?” I was just beginning my Christian life, and I didn’t know what the Bible said, but somehow I knew that if the Bible addressed abortion, that student’s question was the key to this issue.  Not everyone on…

Wanting God’s Word

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. (Job 23:12) I love you, O Lord.  Therefore, I love your Word.  Feed me on it. The Bible is God’s Word.  Many voices deny this fact.  They claim that the Bible is man’s book, not God’s book.  They claim that the Bible is culturally conditioned and, thus, suspect when it comes to addressing people today.  They claim that the Bible is full of contradictions or that the events it relates never happened.  They claim that the…

Jesus is Everything

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  (Matthew 8:21-2) Jesus is everything or Jesus is nothing.  He is more important to you than your mother, father, son and daughter, or you have missed Him (Mt 10:34-9).  He calls you to unwavering allegiance to Himself. Modern Christianity has glossed over the radical nature of Jesus’ Christianity.  Modern Christianity is merely respectable.  It wants the comforts of home, the entertainment of Hollywood, the approval of society, and,…