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(Yesterday on the blog: The Overloaded Christian Life)
All Creation Groans
Barbaranne Kelly considers one way that creation groans. “These sweet dogs were not made in God’s image, nor do they possess souls that will live forever. They don’t stand before their Creator responsible for sin; Jesus didn’t die to redeem them. But, as the apostle Paul makes clear, they still suffer under the curse.”
Villainous Christianity in ‘The Whale,’ ‘The Wonder,’ and ‘Women Talking’
“Believers should pay attention to the ‘alternative gospels’ on offer in contemporary pop culture. If Christianity is seen more as an oppressor than a liberator, after all, something else must play the part of liberator. In each of the films discussed above, that ‘something else’ is the empowered self, through which salvation and ‘rebirth’ are achieved without appeal to the supernatural.”
When Good Doctrine Enables Abuse
Yes, people can and will twist even the best doctrine to evil uses.
God does not hear the prayers of unbelievers
“God does not grant them a hearing. That is, he turns a deaf ear to their prayer. Unbelievers have zero right of access to God. They have zero ability to petition him for anything. They have no grounds to expect God to work for them or answer their prayer.”
Most People Die on The Climb Down
John Onwuchekwa: “When it comes to both setting goals and climbing mountains, most of us misunderstand the assignment. We tend to define success by the described activity not the desired outcome. Don’t believe me? Just think about it. If someone says their goal is to climb Mount Everest, what would be the ultimate win? Making it to the top! Right? Wrong.”
The Scandal of the American Evangelical Intellectual
Justin Taylor shares a helpful insight from D.A. Carson. “I worry less about the anti-intellectualism of the less educated sections of evangelicalism than I do about the biblical and theological illiteracy, or astonishing intellectual compromise, among its leading intellectuals.”
Flashback: Help! I’ve Fallen Behind On My Bible Readings!
If you are struggling to maintain your Bible reading commitment…here are a few suggestions from some fellow fallen travelers along the way.
Self-deception is not the worst thing you can do, but it’s the means by which we do the very worst things. The sin that is most distorting your life right now is often the one you can’t see. —Tim Keller