A Perfect Brutality

My dad was pretty hard on me growing up. No matter what I did, he wanted me to do it better, especially in school. If I got a B on a test, he wanted me to get an A, and told me so. If I brought home an A, he wanted an A+. If I answered 49 out of 50 questions correctly and got an A+, he’d want to know why I...

The Serpent Didn’t Lie about Death

Humans have a natural fear of death, but that fear has caused us to miss the true lie of the serpent in Genesis 3. In the story Adam and Eve are told that they can eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen....

The 1 Thing You Can do to Love God

Jesus summarized the entire Law in two statements: Love God with your entire being, and love others as if they were part of your entire being. Israel put the most effort into showing their love for God. That commandment came first, and it formed the core of their religious practice. “Hear, O Israel: The...

Grace Unbalanced

Something interesting happens whenever I talk about grace, forgiveness, and acceptance. People push back. As much as we like those things, as much as we need those things, as much as we realize that they are central to our faith as Christians, we seem to want to qualify them. To put an asterisk by them....

Let God Be Judge

There are things that make us human, and there are things that make God God. If God wants to become human, you end up with Jesus. And that’s a good thing. When humans want to become gods, we become less than human. The evil that is done in this world is not caused by some dark, shadowy figure; it’s caused...

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