Does gender* affect everything? Is biological sex the determining factor of our personalities, temptations, interests, and paths in life? God made me female—and that is no small thing. And yet, it’s not everything. Katelyn Beaty, managing editor for Christianity Today, writes, If mainstream culture reduces femaleness to a construct, church culture loads femaleness with a ‘universal …
How to Delight like the Devil: The Vice of Envy
Can you imagine someone grieved by a party or excited for a funeral? This is what envy does to us. Envy makes us sad when others succeed and delighted when they fail. Despite how absurd it is, envy is a familiar foe. What’s not as clear is where envy comes from and what we can do to fight it. In this first of four posts on envy, I’ll cover what envy is and what it looks like in our hearts and …
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Pray for Even More
There’s a recurring theme in Paul’s letters: prayer for other believers. In the beginning of most of his letters there is thanksgiving and prayer. It’s interesting to note what draws him to prayer and what he prays for. In Ephesians 1:15-16 Paul writes, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks …
God is Knowable & Incomprehensible
God made us with the desire to understand. Like the daughter in the Girl Scouts commercial who asks, “Why is the sky blue?” we want real answers. And often the Bible gives us answers, but not always. That’s because God is both knowable and incomprehensible (i.e. unable to be known exhaustively) at the same time. The incarnation of the Son of God confronts us with the mystery of …
Should the Church be Separated by Gender?
I’m not a big fan of separating women’s and men’s theological education. I affirm the differences between men and women. I believe women’s Bible studies and accountability groups are valuable. But I also see a huge disparity between the ministry opportunities for men and those for women. Even women who attend seminary can end up in a gender-secluded arena upon graduation. They can educate other …
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The Most Important Christian Convictions
Christians can go wrong in two main ways when it comes to theological distinctives: we either under- or over-emphasize them. Those who under-emphasize distinctives usually say something like, “I don’t care about denominations—I just try to live by the Bible.” Those who over-emphasize theological distinctives tend to treat every doctrine as if it’s a matter of salvation. Amidst practical concerns …
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