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When people today think of love, they typically think of a feeling—a feeling that very often is fleeting. How different is the love expressed in the Bible! We can see it in the Old Testament in stories such as the story of Ruth, who said to her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, “Where... Read More →

When people in America are asked in polls what they want in life, the number one answer is “happiness.” But only a third of Americans say in polls that they are really happy in life. The problem, Jesus says, is not simply that people are looking for happiness in the wrong places.... Read More →

Unless we have the answer to death, we will never find the answer to life. In an endless effort to avoid or deny death, human beings engage in all sorts of vain and foolish behavior. But we have the answer to death in Jesus Christ! Through Christ, we can come into an eternal... Read More →

On Easter, God turns bad news into very good news. Christ on the cross enters into the depths of human brokenness and wrong and suffering, and it all ends in death—an apparent total defeat. But through it all God brings about victory. Having atoned for our sin on the cross,... Read More →

The story of Palm Sunday encapsulates a key element of the cross—that God acts in ways quite different from what people expect! The people of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday expected a triumphant warrior Messiah, but Jesus came as the Lamb of God, who would win the victory, not through... Read More →

Is our faith a set of ideas about Jesus? Or is faith a personal connection with Jesus? That it can be the latter is suggested by Jesus when he says that he is the “bread of life” (John 6:35) and urges us to “eat his body and drink his blood.” (John 6:54-56) With this dramatic... Read More →

“Our struggle,” says the apostle Paul, “is not against flesh and blood, but against . . . the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil on a cosmic scale.” (Ephesians 6:12) We struggle against all sorts of negative spiritual forces in life—temptation,... Read More →

Does the cross of Christ change life? If so, how, since the world is still full of trouble? The cross indeed changes life, and in three distinct ways— The cross changes life by addressing human problem number one—sin, that is, the spiritual brokenness and alienation from God... Read More →

“The cross is the only place where the loving, forgiving, merciful God is revealed in such a way that we perceive that God’s holiness and God’s love are equally infinite.” (Emil Brunner, The Mediator) God comes to us in Jesus Christ; and on the cross, Jesus takes upon himself the... Read More →

When dealing with our problems, human beings tend to do one of two things—1) We project “the problem” as being something beyond ourselves. We focus on the misdeeds of other and blame others; or 2) We ignore or overlook the problem. Particularly when it comes to our own... Read More →

How can the cross be a sign of salvation? It was an instrument of execution! How can a man’s death on a cross help us? You can understand why, as Paul said, people have considered the message of the cross to be “foolishness.” (I Cor. 1:18) But when we truly see what is happening... Read More →