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The Seven Last Words of Christ
The four gospels collectively report seven “words” (phrases) that Christ spoke from the cross. The words differ between the four gospels but this is neither surprising nor alarming: if you get four people to watch the same event, then you will get a general agreement on what happened but four different perspectives. God inspired human beings to write his Word down but he is also gracious to work within our humanity, and so each gospel writer brings a true yet different perspective to the same event. Matthew and Mark report “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:4 and Mark 15:34). This…
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Either Way, God Works
photo credit: JWNOWSIn Romans 4:17b Paul writes of Abraham, “He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” 1. “The God who gives life to the dead” – Resurrection 2. “Calls things that are not as though they were” – Creation In this verse, both resurrection and creation exist in the context of the promises of God. Specifically “gives life to the dead” refers to Abraham’s old body and Sarah’s dead womb (v. 19). “calls things that are not as though they were” is the name God…
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The Bible — Success Literature for Christians
Image via Wikipedia “Success literature” refers to how-to-be-successful books and articles. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Think and Grow Rich! How to Win Friends and Influence People. Who Moved My Cheese? It’s a popular topic! Do a search on Amazon for books with the keyword “success” and you’ll have to plow through a list of 384,515. Yes, that’s right – six figures, and that number is going up by the day. Some success literature is based on good psychological principles and can be helpful, so I’m not knocking the entire genre. But success literature cannot be a primary tool of transformation for the Christian. Why? Because classic success…