Our words define us. John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. It’s an interesting phrase to call Jesus the Word. In Greek, of course, the word is Logos. Chinese actually grasps the meani
James is not a theological book. What I mean is that it isn’t like a Pauline epistle which often has a very deep doctrinal section and then applies that doctrine to daily life. But today, we do get into the theological theme of the book when it
We like the blame game. It’s never our fault. That’s been the truth since the very beginning. Adam and Eve get caught after having eaten the forbidden fruit and what do they do? Eve blames the snake, Adam blames his wife and even blames God Him
Siddhartha Gautama was a wealthy prince in India. When he looked around him, what he saw was human suffering. This caused him to forsake everything he had to figure out a better way to live. In the course of this journey, he made what would be
Last time, we looked at our present experience when it comes to what often happens when we allow earthly wisdom to take control. It all leads to conflict. Conflict with ourselves, conflict with others and conflict with God Himself. But does tha
We saw last time what heavenly wisdom should look like. Really, what we saw is the characteristics of heavenly wisdom are. Now, how does that work in the real world? What does it look like when heavenly wisdom is acted out, or we could say, how
Martin Luther called the book of James an epistle of straw. Does that mean it should be completely ignored? Did Martin Luther really want this book thrown out of the Bible? Certainly, this book contains some tricky things that we have to study
I think now how the first requirement in 1 Timothy 3 is that a bishop must be blameless. That’s an interesting word. When i was taught it, it was pretty well just said that you were never alone with someone of the opposite gender. If you were,
“Jesus used his harshest words for the religious crowd.”This phrase is often said many times. As you read the Gospels, certainly you could come to that conclusion. But what if there was more to Jesus’ words than just anger? We certainly want to
“The best revenge is not to be like that.” —Marcus Aurelius.When you have come out of a spiritually abusive environment, it becomes easy to focus on the wrong they did. This is especially true when it may have been pointed out time and time aga
Is spiritual abuse biblical? Abuse is a buzzword nowadays, especially in light of the #metoo movement that has taken place. Because of that, to some degree, I believe it has lost some of its meaning. What I mean is that it gets thrown around so
Books on Spiritual AbuseThe Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderanSomething’s Not Right by Wade MullenWhen Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroatRedeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Churc