Category: Faith Under Pressure
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The Tyranny of Visible Fruit
The reality of life is that people implicitly assess Christian ministry through visible fruit, institutional momentum, relational success, and perceived stability. Even when they explicitly deny that—they do it. Even Christians who highly value the Bible do it. Because, as much as people may say that faithfulness is measured by the Bible: when pressure is…
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Promises for a Ruined Reputation
You may be reading this because you know the huge pain of a ruined reputation. The Bible doesn’t shy away from how difficult this experience is: Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. (Psalm 69:20) Here,…
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When God Commanded Genocide: 2 Jesus Died for Every Amalekite
God commanded ancient Israel to commit genocide. You and I are rightly troubled by that. In our first post, we looked squarely at the most clear and difficult passage in the whole Bible on this, 1 Samuel 15:1-3, where God commands Saul to slaughter the Amalekites: every “man and woman, child and infant, ox and…
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When God Commanded Genocide: 1 The Judge of the World on Trial
You are completely right to feel troubled by genocide in the Old Testament. Let’s not be mealy mouthed about this: God really did command Israel to commit genocide. This really did happen. Probably the starkest example is from 1 Samuel 15:1-3, which I’ll quote here in full: And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent…
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You Can’t Stop God’s Word
You can scatter Christians.You can shut down the church.You can try to silence the preacher. But you can’t stop God’s Word: …the word of God increased and multiplied. (Acts 12:24) Persecuting the church doesn’t slow the Word. It’s one of the ways God spreads it. You can ban the Bible.You can censor Biblical ideas.You can…
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Why the Crowd Is Wrong
There are so many churches. So many religions. So many claims. Which one is right? The question is not: Which group is biggest?But rather: What is God actually saying? A wise man called Martin Chemnitz once observed: That is exactly the pressure everyone thinking about “truth” feels today. Our church practices close communion, meaning that…
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Life’s Unjust. God Isn’t.
Life is not fair. The strong win. Lies succeed. And things often don’t work out the way they should. God does not promise to fix the injustices of life in the present. Those that claim he always will are preaching a “theology of glory”—but God is not revealed in power, but in Jesus dying on…
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Spoken, Not Seen: 6-Day Creation
My atheist friends often present Genesis 1 as the ultimate proof text that God doesn’t exist. It goes like this: 1) The Bible says God created the universe in 6 days, 6,000 years ago.2) We clearly observe with our eyes that the universe appears much older than this.3) Therefore the Bible must be wrong, and…
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The Effectiveness of Inaction
We all have the same instinct: If something is wrong → act. If people put you under pressure → respond. If the future is uncertain → take control. You feel that. I feel that. This is part of the human experience. Psalm 62 says the complete opposite: Do nothing—and wait. Not as a “tactic” or…