How can I have confidence that God loves me? In Exodus 4, God declares, “Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son.” In the NT, this sonship imagery is picked up to describe what it means to be redeemed by Christ. The question this has raised for me is that if I have been redeemed to be a son of God, why do I seem to prefer to live in slavery? Why do I want to stay in Egypt when I’ve been offered life in the promised land? The answer I’ve been mulling over is that I prefer slavery to sonship because my vision for the Christian life is just too small.

The great seventeenth-century English theologian John Owen warned about the danger to our neighbors when we merely play at our faith.

In pastoring and church planting, I’ve found myself trying to quantify gospel ministry. I want to make the spiritual more tangible. But I think there’s a more sinful motive at work: I want to count because it seems that if I can count it then I can control it. In Psalm 20:7, David points us to a better way.

On the fifth anniversary of my dad’s death, I’m sharing a poem I wrote last year reflecting on the last months our family got to share with him on earth.

The end of Acts finds Paul’s life at risk once again. He’s been unjustly imprisoned, and there’s no semblance of due process. Yet, the book ends with Paul doing the exact thing God had called him to do—to take the gospel to the Gentiles. 

I came across this article on the atonement by Kelly Kapic and wanted to share a selection that draws our attention to how Christ’s work on the cross is a gift of God’s love for us.