Browsing Tag:

Holy

In 1 Peter, Bible Study, Blog on
November 21, 2022

A Chosen People

In my opinion, one of the most rewarding parts of studying the Bible is when you discover a connection between the Old and New Testaments. You’ve read a passage dozens or possibly even hundreds of times, but then one day you read it again, and suddenly a lightbulb goes off, and everything just seems to click. I’ve always loved to solve puzzles and decipher mysteries, so when I feel like I’ve made sense of some mysterious verse in the Bible—whether I discover how an Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in the New or I recognize when the New Testament is clearly quoting or referring to the Old—I get really excited.

This happened to me a few months ago as I was studying 1 Peter using a Bible study written by Lydia Brownback. I read a pair of verses that I had no doubt read countless times before. All of a sudden, the lightbulb went off, and the passage now had a much deeper and richer meaning than before.

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In Blog, Holy Spirit, Theology on
October 30, 2022

The Holy Ghost

Today is Halloween—the day where it’s all of a sudden acceptable to encourage your kids to stay out after dark and take candy from strangers. I grew up in a conservative, southern Baptist home, so I never really celebrated Halloween. I attended a handful of fall festivals in my childhood years, but I never went trick or treating, or walked through haunted houses, or decorated with spiderwebs and tombstones.

However, I once saw a Halloween decoration that I think my parents could get on board with. It was an outdoor sign made of different pieces of wood that were all painted in a variety of fall colors, and it read, “The only ghost that lives in this house is the Holy Ghost.”

The Holy Ghost, aka the Holy Spirit, can sometimes be a mystery to many believers. Who exactly is the Holy Spirit, and what exactly does He do in the world and in our daily, personal lives? Well, gang, it’s time to hop in the Mystery Machine and grab your Scooby Snacks because we’re about to discover that this Ghost is not as mysterious or daunting as He may seem.

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Sanctification on
March 20, 2022

The Hole in Our Holiness

According to Barna Research Group in 2006, only thirty-five percent of Americans believe that God call us and expects us to become holy. Less than half of self-proclaimed born-again believers agree with this.[1] And I imagine that over the last fifteen years or so, those numbers have decreased quite a bit. It’s evident that we live in a culture that doesn’t prize holiness. People today do whatever they want to do, whatever feels good and right to them. Even many Christians are throwing biblical values to the wind and doing whatever the world around them is doing: watching inappropriate movies, listening to explicit music, wearing revealing clothing, scrolling through Twitter or TikTok for hours on end, and engaging in actions that were once unheard of.

According to Kevin DeYoung, there’s a hole in our holiness, and it needs to be addressed now.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Isaiah on
December 20, 2021

A Child is Born

Christmas is a busy time of year. It’s a time of baking cookies, hosting holiday parties, and singing all of your favorite Christmas carols. It’s a time of wrapping presents, drinking hot chocolate, and last-minute shopping for that one family member you didn’t know was coming into town. It’s a time of hanging lights, decorating trees, and watching classic films, like Home Alone, Christmas with the Kranks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For some, Christmastime is filled with joy and cheer. For others, Christmastime is filled with stress and exhaustion.

No matter what life stage or season we’re in, we all have busy schedules at the end of each year, and we all get to a point where it feels like there is so much to do and so little time to do it all in. But as we attempt to fit in all the festivities and events, we miss something. We forget that Christmas is about more than the gifts and the music and the décor. It’s a day when we are to celebrate the birth of a child. And not just any child, but the Son of God.

What is so special about this child? Why does this boy named Jesus deserve our focus, our reverence, our worship? We can discover the answers to these questions by consulting a roughly 2,700-year-old Jewish prophecy written by a man named Isaiah.

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In Attributes of God, Blog, Theology on
December 13, 2021

Avengers Disassemble

I am a huge fan of Marvel movies. Ever since the debut of the first Iron Man film in 2008, I’ve been hooked on the lives and stories of the characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I am such a big fan that two years ago during my month-long Christmas break from school I watched all twenty-three movies in the Infinity Saga in the order that they premiered (if you want proof, check out my Marvel Marathon story highlight on Instagram). This year, I’ve watched every new MCU movie in theaters the weekend it released, I’ve seen every episode of the MCU shows on Disney+ (twice!), and I have plans to see the new Spider-Man: No Way Home movie this Saturday.

Marvel fans, myself included, love these movies because the characters are so relatable, and they face challenges that are similar to the ones we struggle with. They inspire us to face our problems head-on and avenge the wrongdoings that occur in our lives. For those with a strong sense of justice, seeking vengeance against evildoers feels good and right, and surely it must be good and right when it is portrayed so positively in superhero movies. However, the Bible tells a different story.

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