Tag: Christian Faith
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Is God Really Good?
We often imagine God as a harsh, distant, or easily disappointed dictator. But that picture doesn’t come from God himself. It’s not how his Word reveals him. In fact, that picture comes from our sin. In the Garden, Satan introduced the idea that God has bad intentions towards us. In the form of a serpent…
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God Is Not A Bully
One of the most striking differences I have observed between people who have faith and those who don’t is the different ways they view God’s power. Yes, God is powerful. My atheist friends find this idea offensive, antagonistic, and morally repugnant. If God is powerful, then evil must be his fault, suffering must be his…
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Why Should I Believe in Jesus?
Many people expect the answer to be: because the evidence is strong, because Christianity makes sense, because the Church says so, or because faith will improve your life. But none of these things give faith. The Bible gives a deeper answer, with two parts. It says you should believe in Jesus because God tells you…
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How Can I Understand the Bible?
You can read the Bible cover to cover, repeatedly, in multiple translations… and still not understand it. At the end of Luke’s Gospel, some of the disciples who’d been with Jesus for years, heard his teachings, even seen his miracles, still did not understand. Even after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them,…
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What Does the First Commandment Mean?
What does it mean for us that God is God? We often imagine God as a harsh, distant, or easily disappointed dictator. But, that picture doesn’t come from God himself. It’s not how his Word reveals him. In fact, that picture comes from our sin: In the Garden, Satan introduced the idea that God has…
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Why hasn’t the church collapsed?
The church is full of rubbish people. People making mistakes.People struggling with doubt.People who behave badly. How on earth is it still here? That is the question that Mark answers at the end of his Gospel. I was taught my whole life that the end of Mark’s Gospel is not original. Because the ending is…
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God is Good. I Am Not.
God’s positive attitude to you doesn’t depend on you—not even on your faith. So much so that in Our Father, when explaining the request about forgiveness, Martin Luther—the “justified by faith alone” guy—doesn’t even use the word “faith” once! In life, people are so used to conditional relationship and qualified love, that God’s unconditional, unqualified,…
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God Is Not Angry with You
You assume God is angry with you and that you need to do something about it. That assumption is the problem. It’s understandable why you think that way: We often feel like God is angry with us.The world often looks as though he’s angry with us.And the Bible often sounds like he’s angry with us.…
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I’m Scared of People
Sometimes another person can make your whole body feel unsafe. Perhaps someone has threatened you. Perhaps someone has lied about you, or turned others against you. Perhaps it is not one event at all, but years of pressure, conflict, accusation, or fear. And so you feel scared. That kind of fear is not abstract. You…