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A few years ago D.A. Carson wrote the book The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God in which he set out to teach on the doctrine of God's love and how that relates to His omnicausality.  Needless to say it was a difficult case for Carson who holds that God "loves" everyone but only extends His love to His elect and passes over others. Yet for me, the difficult doctrine is not the love of God but the love of others that Jesus commanded me to...

I love this passage from 1 John: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:16a ESV) Since I often think of the term “believe” as a mental exercise, I like to replace it with the word “trust”: So we have come to know and to trust the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:16a) Do I trust God’s love? Do you trust God’s love? How would our lives look different if we trusted God...

Here is an important and powerful passage from Hebrews, written to those who are struggling and suffering about those who are struggling and suffering: Therefore lift up drooping hands and strengthen weak knees,  and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, seeing to it that no one fails ...

Two years ago, as part of a synchroblog with 50 other bloggers, I wrote a post called “Missional Stew.” The purpose of the synchroblog was to flesh out a definition of the term “missional.” For my post, I simply threw in a few ingredients that I think are necessary for a true missional stew. What do you think? ————————————————&#...

This week, I’m publishing a few posts on “The Church” which explain the basis of my ecclesiology. In the first post, I said that our understanding of the church must begin with God. (see “The Church: It All Begins with God“) In the second post, I continue from that first point by concluding that our relationship with God and with one another is dependent upon God’s re-creative work, not any work of our own. (se...

Three years ago, I took part in a meme called “Five Things I Dig About Jesus.” Not only did I come up with 5 things, but I wrote a post about each one. One of those posts was called “Jesus cares more about people than rituals.” Whenever I think about this, I’m forced to ask myself, “Do I care more about people, or about rituals, structures, plans, things, etc?” ——————&#...

Arminianism has always promoted the idea that people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and because of this, He has given man a limited freedom of the will. This has led Arminians to believe that since God has created humans free creatures who are given free will then we believe that all people should be allowed to freely worship whether they be an Arminian or a Calvinist or a Baptist or a Muslim. We don't believe that this freedom ...

A few days ago, I pointed out that unhypocritical (or sincere) love (Romans 12:9) includes the practice of “showing more honor” to one another (Romans 12:10). But, Paul described “unhypocritical love” in other ways as well. He says unhypocritical love (Romans 12:11-13): is not idle in eagerness is burning for the Spirit is a slave to the Lord is rejoicing in hope is enduring troubles is persisting in prayer is contributin...

Joel at “The Double Edged Sword” continues his series on unity in his post “Gathering in Unity: Part 3.” One paragraph of this post is one of the best things I’ve read on the relationship between love and unity: I believe part of our error has been we see love as weak. We think to love will surely make us a push-over. If we all only love, who will stand for what is right? Who will defend God’s end of things? Wh...

I posted this on facebook, and thought I would share it here also: Today, most people won’t believe you when you tell them that you love them. However, they will believe you when you show them, and show them, and show them, and show them… I thought I would share a few passages from 1 John that suggests this kind of love: Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18 ESV) If anyone says, “...