Tag: Gospel
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God’s Not Waiting to Vent
God is not frustrated with you, waiting to vent. He doesn’t have mountains of pent up anger and frustration. If you come to him, he doesn’t need to unload on you before you can both be square. Other people in your life are like that. And—at least to some extent—you are like that. Human beings…
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I Don’t Feel Good Enough
Everything around you, and inside you, is screaming that you have to measure up. You need to meet a certain standard. You need to achieve something. They are all wrong. Those voices either crush you because you fail, or turn you into a proud, self-righteous person. Neither leads anywhere good. So, those voices aren’t just…
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A Robot Monk Is the Perfect Buddhist
The first ever robot monk was released this week. But that’s not as crazy as it sounds. In many ways, a robot is the perfect Buddhist. Because Buddhism of whatever flavour—Zen, Tibetan, Western—isn’t religion in the true sense of what religion is. Buddhism is a collection of mind techniques, with an option mix of philosophical…
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Justification By Faith Alone—Lutherans Are Unique
Justification by Faith Alone is only taught consistently in confessional Lutheran churches. Justification by Faith Alone says: 1) The Law condemns universally.2) The Gospel justifies universally.3) Faith receives that justification.4) Assurance rests only in the Gospel. That’s why I’m Lutheran.That’s what it means to be Lutheran.That’s the defining feature of Lutheranism. Many churches claim to…
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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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You Can’t Clear Your Name
You can’t clear your name. But you don’t need to. We live under constant evaluation from others. Socially. Online. At work. In fact, 79% of UK workers experience workplace stress regularly. And 1 in 4 of us feel stressed more days in a month than not. A major aspect of workplace pressure is caused by…
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Every Teaching Claims to Be Ancient—Law and Gospel Actually Is
Catholics point to Mary.Pentecostals point to tongues.Baptists point to decision theology, exclusive to adults. Luther’s most distinctive teaching was the distinction between Law and Gospel. All are justified in Christ. This is received through faith alone. And so the Bible is only rightly understood when we recognise the distinction everywhere between God’s commands and God’s…
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That Heaviness Feels True. It Isn’t.
Some days feel heavy.Everything feels bad—or just flat and pointless.Even small things feel pointless or too much to bear. And in those moments, it doesn’t just feel bad—it feels true. It isn’t. One in five adults in Manchester struggle with their mental health. That matters, because people and their experiences matter. But it also tells…
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Does God Feel Love or Wrath? (Part 3)
God so loved the world… (John 3:16) Yet, it sounds like the opposite: …the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36) In Part 1, we saw that John 3 creates a real tension: God loves the world—and yet his wrath remains. In Part 2, we saw that this isn’t a contradiction, because “love” and…
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Does God Feel Love or Wrath? (Part 2)
How on earth can it be that: God so loved the world… (John 3:16) And yet: …the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36) In part 1 we heard how people explain this tension away by denying one side or the other… or simply redefining what the Bible’s words mean. The problem comes when…