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Holiness

In Blog, Purity, Theology on
December 6, 2021

Pursuing Purity

Growing up, I mostly missed the purity culture movement within the evangelical church. I did sign a True Love Waits abstinence pledge in middle school, and my parents gave me a purity ring when I turned thirteen. But I never attended any purity events, or read any books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye, or listened to talks that compared girls who had sinned sexually to used cars, expired food, or a wilted rose. I was never hurt by “purity culture,” but I know many Christian women who lived their teen years before me were.

While many bad things happened as a result of this purity movement, I fear we are now moving too far in the opposite direction. In response to purity culture’s flaws, many people, mostly those who fall in the progressive Christian camp, claim that God doesn’t really care what you wear or who you sleep with. He doesn’t care about purity or modesty. Want to wear crop tops and tight miniskirts? That’s fine! Want to sleep around before you settle down and get married? That’s good and even healthy.

But the Bible actually has a lot to say about purity and its importance in the lives of believers. Instead of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, we should examine what God’s Word teaches us about purity and determine how we can foster a culture of true, biblical purity in our families, churches, and communities.

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In Blog, Common Questions, Theology on
September 13, 2021

What is God’s Will for My Life?

Discerning the will of God is something I think every Christian has attempted to do at one point or another. It’s definitely something I’ve prayed for and longed for and tried to figure out. I’ve often asked that God would reveal His will to me about different decisions or situations, but most of the time I never get a clear, solid answer. Honestly, I sometimes wish I could be like Gideon and put out a fleece to get some answers from God (please, do not do this the next time you need to make a decision).

God’s will can be a tricky thing to understand. We’re told that nothing happens outside of God’s will. But does that mean it’s God will for a family member to be diagnosed with cancer? Is it God’s will for a friend to get in a serious car accident? Is it God’s will for a child to tragically die at a young age? And how are we to understand His will well enough to make decisions that won’t fall outside of it?

All these questions stem from a misunderstanding of God’s will. There are actually three aspects of the will of God: His sovereign will, His moral will, and His personal will.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Revelation on
August 23, 2021

Lukewarm Laodicea

For a lot of people, Revelation is a scary and daunting to book to read. It talks of various seals, bowls, trumpets, angels, and plagues. It describes a dragon, a prostitute, and a leopard-ish, bear-ish, lion-ish beast with seven heads and ten horns. It speaks of much death and destruction, but also of the final victory of Jesus and the beauty of the New Earth. The book of Revelation is difficult to understand and difficult to interpret, so many try to avoid it at all costs.

But these people often forget that not all of Revelation is filled with frightening images and confusing apocalyptic language. They forget that the first three chapters of Revelation are actually letters from Jesus to seven first-century churches. While these short letters were written almost 2,000 years ago, they are still very applicable to the Church today. And one letter that is particularly relevant for the American Church is the letter to the church of Laodicea.

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In Blog, Christian Living, Theology on
July 19, 2021

Worldliness vs. Godliness

One thing I’ve noticed about many believers in this day and age is that they are beginning to look more and more like the world. They share the same beliefs. They use the same language. They champion the same causes. The one thing that used to differentiate between believers and unbelievers – the truth of God’s Word – is now being thrown away and cast aside as untruthful, untrustworthy, and unloving.

This is alarming because Christians are called to be holy and set apart (2 Peter 3:11), to not be conformed to the ways of the world (Romans 12:2). What is even more alarming is that many of these Christians don’t even realize they’re slowly slipping into worldly beliefs and convictions. We then, as believers, need to look to how the Bible characterizes both worldliness and godliness to determine what kind of life we are living and ensure we remain on the right path.

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In Blog, Easter, Theology on
March 29, 2021

Once for All

I’ve lived in Florida my entire life, so hurricanes are something I’m very familiar with. A few years ago, category 5 Hurricane Irma was headed towards Florida just a couple weeks after Hurricane Harvey had absolutely devastated the state of Texas. In the days leading up to her landfall, the models projected that the storm would hit our area. Because we lived near the coast at the time, we were ordered to evacuate due to the potential of flooding.

Our family boarded up our windows, packed up our most valuable items, and drove to a friend’s house that was just outside of the evacuation area. After seeing news coverage of what Harvey had done to Texas, I was scared about what might happen to us, and I didn’t sleep much the night that Irma hit. But, by the grace of God, the storm weakened and moved east, and the worst damage we saw near our home was debris on the roads and some uprooted bushes.

Natural disasters, though scary, are natural, and we almost expect to witness at least a disaster or two during our lifetimes. There’s a natural disaster in the Bible, though, that seemed rather unnatural, and its results were likely frightening to those who lived in the area at that time. The cause of this unnatural disaster was the crucifixion of Jesus.

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