“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18, ESV) Our previous discussion related to those who are a child of God or a child of the devil. The two criteria were to practice righteousness and love your brother (1 John 3:10). John now expands on the meaning of what it is to love your brother. John speaks of four different levels of relationships in which we can choose to live: Murder (1 John 3:11-12,...

By sacrificing himself for us, God ascribes unsurpassable worth to people who in and of themselves have little apparent worth. In doing this, God reveals his nature, which is eternal, unsurpassable love. You’d never know this about God, however, unless your eyes were fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:2). Hence, every mental picture we have of God must be centered on Jesus. He is also called the Word of God (John 1:1); when God expresses himself, he is...

In 2 Samuel 12 God sends the prophet Nathan to King David to rebuke him for the sins with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. King David repented of his sins and wrote about it in Psalm 51. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;    a broken and contrite...

Few things are more uncomfortable than holding a conviction when the world seems hell-bent on sweeping it aside. It’s easy to blend in, to nod along, and to prioritize comfort over conscience. But history tells us a reoccurring truth: nearly every generation faces a moment where silence equates to surrender; where comfort breeds complicity. The war that’s upon us to destroy our nation, our religious freedom, and even our churches,...