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In Bible Study, Blog, John on
January 16, 2023

The Bread of Life

I don’t know about you, but I really love bread.

I love all kinds of bread. I eat bagels in the morning for breakfast. I eat buttered toast for an evening snack. My go-to bakery item at Starbucks is banana bread. When I place an order at Panera Bread, I never ask for the chips or the apple—I always go for the baguette. If a restaurant brings breadsticks before the meal, you can bet I’m going to eat one (or two). I’m a believer that consuming chili without cornbread is sacrilegious. And if I suddenly woke up with a gluten allergy and couldn’t eat any kind of bread any more, I think I would die. (Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I would be very, very sad.)

All of that being said, bread is great, and a lot of people think so. In fact, every country and culture around the world has some form of bread as a basic staple of their diet. The ancient Jews once had a very special kind of bread that they treasured dearly. However, their great affection and desire for this bread made them miss an even greater Bread that was right in front of them.

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In Blog, Common Questions, Theology on
January 2, 2023

Can God Learn, Change, or Adapt?

There seems to be a growing number of people who believe that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God of the New Testament. This belief is not exactly new or revolutionary. It really has been around for centuries, ever since Marcion spouted ideas like this and got excommunicated from the church for being a heretic in the year 144 A.D. But as the years pass by, we are seeing more and more professing believers agree with this sentiment—that the loving and lovable Jesus who arrived on earth in the first century A.D. is not the same God as the fiery and vengeful One of old.

In Ligonier Ministries’ biennial State of Theology survey, they asked both believers and unbelievers whether they believed that “God learns and adapts to different situations.” Forty-eight percent of professing Evangelicals who participated in the survey agreed with this statement.[1] This means that about half of supposedly Bible-believing Christians in this country believe that God is able to and does change over time.

However, this belief is not a biblical one, and as we’ll see in a moment, how we think about this issue has a great impact on our Christian faith.

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In Blog, Cultural Christianity, Theology on
December 26, 2022

Does God Give Us More Than We Can Handle?

Don’t you worry—God won’t give you more than you can handle.

Has anyone ever said this to you before? That God won’t give you more than you can handle? The phrase sounds nice, and the people who say it are usually well-meaning. But it’s really not all that helpful. We all go through seasons of life where we certainly feel like we’ve been given more than we can handle. Whether we’re living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to find work or our spouse or child is dealing with a troubling diagnosis, it can sometimes seem like God is not holding up His end of the bargain.

Is it true what these well-meaning believers say? Will God never give us more than we can handle?

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In Bible Study, Blog, Exodus on
December 18, 2022

Out of Captivity

Christmas is a truly joyous time of year. Carols are playing on every radio and loudspeaker. Streets and avenues are lit up with twinkling lights. Homes are filled with the delicious scent of gingerbread cookies and the cozy warmth of the fireplace. And families gather to watch classic movies and celebrate this holiday with great cheer.

But Christmastime is not so jolly and wonderful for everyone. Instead, it’s a reminder of a loved one’s devastating passing. It dredges up old memories that we would rather leave forgotten. It can make us feel like we are lost and alone, desperately seeking a way out of our misery.

We’re certainly not the only people in history who have felt these things—lost, alone, forgotten, miserable, grieving, anxious, hopeless. But there is hope—there is always hope. And if anyone can remind us of this truth, it’s a baby born in captivity many centuries ago.

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Self-Love on
December 11, 2022

Live Your Truth and Other Lies

You just need to live your truth.

How many times have we heard a sentiment like this? It seems like everywhere we turn there is some author or influencer screaming to anyone and everyone who will listen, “Live your truth!”

But what is “your truth,” and where does it lead us? Well, those authors and influencers will tell you that “your truth” can mean anything you want it to. If “your truth” means you feel like the opposite sex or you’re attracted to the same sex, you should pursue that. If “your truth” means you leave your spouse and children for some shiny career, you’d be told to follow your dreams. If “your truth” means wasting all your money on frivolous things and getting so drunk that you can barely stand, you’d hear no arguments from them.

Living “your truth” may feel good and fun in the moment, but it ultimately leaves us anxious, exhausted, and obsessed with ourselves. We need to strive for a better, holier way of living, and Alisa Childers explains how we can do exactly that in her new book, Live Your Truth and Other Lies.

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