Browsing Tag:

Hope

In Biblical Theology, Blog, Theology on
October 23, 2023

Pierced for Our Transgressions

Sometimes it’s the smallest of things that hurt the most. Brushing a hand along a page and getting a paper cut, feeling its sting whenever you flex your finger. Grabbing onto a piece of wood only for it to give you a splinter, leaving you sore and swollen with the possibility of infection. Hearing an unkind word from a friend that ruins your day or perhaps even ruins that relationship.

Reaching for a beautiful rose to only be pricked by a thorn.

These are all little things, but they all can leave us in significant pain, whether physical or emotional. When Adam and Eve took a bite of that forbidden fruit in the Garden, it probably seemed like such a small thing to them. After all, it was just a piece of fruit. It appeared to be delicious, something that would appease both their physical hunger and their thirst for knowledge. But their seemingly small act of disobedience brought the Fall, affecting the entire world and everything in it.

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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, Spiritual Growth on
September 25, 2022

Embrace Your Life

Life was not going as planned.

I graduated with my master’s degree in May last year, and I had planned on getting a full-time job as soon as I was finished. As I neared my final day of classes, I began looking for jobs and submitting applications, but nothing was panning out. After graduation, weeks and months passed by. Holidays and special events came and went, and I still did not have a job. I became depressed and confused as to why I couldn’t find a good job. Thankfully, after ten very long months of waiting and hoping, I finally started in a full-time job, and as I look back, I can see that God moved me out of my old position and into my new one at just the perfect time.

However, not every situation in my life has turned out quite like this. There have many times where I wished and hoped and prayed for something to happen for weeks, months, years. I was absolutely convinced that everything would work out the way I had planned and dreamed. But it never did. My prayers appeared unanswered. My dreams were unfulfilled. And I was left in a perpetual state of longing, wondering what in the world God was doing in my life.

Over the years, I’ve had to learn embrace the life I’ve been given, which is exactly what Elizabeth Woodson’s new book is all about.

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In Blog, Salvation, Theology on
September 11, 2022

The Transformation of Sanctification

I am a Christian, and I still struggle with sin.

Daily.

Like the Apostle Paul, I do sinful things that I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I know I ought to do (Romans 7:18-20). Such is the life of a Christian. Through the work of Christ, we’ve been made righteous in the eyes of the Father and we’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit, who gives us the desire and ability to obey God’s Word and do what is right. But all of us, even the godliest of saints, are still sinners. We still mess up and make mistakes. We hurt and offend people, and we disobey what’s written in the Scriptures. We say and do the wrong things, even if we have the best of intentions.

Thankfully, God doesn’t leave us this way. He doesn’t just save us and say sayonara, leaving us to fend for ourselves and figure out how to behave on our own until Jesus returns. No, God actively works in and through us every single day to make us more and more like Him through a process called sanctification.

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Womanhood on
August 29, 2022

Cultural Counterfeits

We’ve been lied to.

For decades, women have been told that it’s up to them to create their identities, that they can be whomever they want to be. It doesn’t matter what your body tells you. It’s your mind that is the real you, and you ought to change your body to match your mind if you really want to live a happy and fulfilled life on this earth.

But this is completely untrue. Our bodies and our minds should not be at war with each other. They are both equal parts of who we are as women, and they both are equally valuable in informing who we are and what we are like. We can’t just be whoever we want to be and do whatever we want to do, even if this means going against the identity that we’ve constructed in our heads. Our culture has made so many of these kinds of promises to women, but they have all fallen short and come up empty.

We are made for more. We need the truth. And as Jen Oshman writes in her new book, we ought to cast aside these cultural counterfeits and lies the world has offered us.

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