Category: Faith
I love my car. I love my technology and gadgets. I love my food. I love my family. I love my friends. And let’s be honest, I’d struggle if God asked me to give up these things. I would, but it’d be hard. Yet, there are more subtle challenges and temptations as I seek to live in the world. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the…
There are times when I think it would be so much easier to enter a monastary to grow and practice my faith. Shut away from the world, removed from the problems of materialism, and distanced from the trials and temptations of living in the world. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.…
I love Joseph. He’s now two years old. My greatest concern is how I will equip Him in life and faith. 10 years ago, this was a distant thought; instead I was challenged by the secularist university around me and how I would live out my faith among my friends and peers. The encouragement and assurance I needed to hear then and the encouragement and assurance I need today are quite different. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is…
The reality of God was never something I’ve really questioned. Sure, I’ve doubted the nature of God, the person of God, and my relationship to this God. In the end, the deciding question for me was whether this divine being would have any implications for my life. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the…
Propitiation. Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard this word. Maybe you’ve heard it a number of times, but don’t know what it means. It’s certainly not a word I understood for a long time, and really, I’m still coming to fully understand the depth of this concept. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the…
