One of my frustrations with my generation of Christians is that there is an unhealthy obsession with this idea of community. It seems many young people are always looking for that perfect type of community in a church, and when a church doesn’t meet their expectations of what Christian community is supposed to look like, […]
Gospel
Love Applied – 1 John 4:17-21
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.19 We love because he first […]
Post Tenebras Lux: Isaiah 8:11-9:7
Context At the time of Isaiah, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. Isaiah was a prophet to Judah, at which time Judah was under great threat of attack from various nations, and heard rumors of various armies conspiring against them. Chapter 1 tells us Isaiah was a prophet during the reign of four […]
Loved and Assured by the Triune God: 1 John 4:13-16
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come […]
Testing the Spirits, Confessing Christ, and Overcoming the World: 1 John 4:1-6
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is […]