Advent may have started on Monday, but it’s not too late to begin an Advent devotional to help focus our hearts and minds on what this season is truly about. To help get you started, we collected a few for you to choose from.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Continue reading Focusing on Christ in the Midst of Christmas Craziness
The word sovereign doesn’t technically mean “in control.”
It means “in charge.” It means that something is rightly under someone’s authority or within their dominion.
Some will read that and say I’m playing with words, but the difference is important. It’s important because it means that we can’t say all actions are “caused by God.” Things that God says he finds terrible or evil are related to God in more complex ways. As the One who chooses how to interact with the created world, he may prevent it, permit it, direct it, or limit it (for a helpful reading, see Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology, pg. 372). As God works all things for the good of his own glory and name, as well as for our good, his rule still interacts with the amount of rebellious independence he allows to humans. This relationship is enormously complex, and I have never read a completely successful explanation of it.
Continue reading Trusting the God Who Doesn’t Explain Himself
See this short video for three great recommendations:
The video is intended as satire, but the three titles it recommends are all great places to start:
When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.
C.S. Lewis
Read Matthew 6:25–34
For many pious people, this is a favorite verse: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). However for the not-so-pious (like the rest of us), this sounds like a dangerous verse.
Continue reading BLUEPRINT Excerpt: Grow – Understand the Gospel
Yesterday, Nic wrapped up a series we’ve been in for more than a year and a half. We’ve been looking through the Old Testament and finding Jesus on every page, just like He said we would. We’ve been looking at the Gospel through the Bible.
Engage & Equip 