The above are excerpts from a history of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer is famous today as the theological light of the persecuted Confessing Church that stood apart from the Nazis during the reign of Hitler. The end of the story is that Bonhoeffer’s life ended very early in a Nazi concentration camp because the result of his faith was that he …
Winning the Battle for the Mind
Most people understand that excellence in almost any area of life is a function of the state of our minds when we engage in the activities. Coaches preach this in athletics. Teachers exhort this in academics. Bosses encourage this on the job. The quality of familial relationships often rises and falls based on the mental presence of the family members. …
Future Orientation
One of the greatest first-glance characteristics of the Gospel as it is presented in the New Testament is that the Gospel is a new thing. Jesus Christ came preaching about new life in his kingdom, brought about by a new covenant, which created a new people. With all of this talk of the newness of what God was doing, it is …
The Keys To Thriving In Exile
This week’s passage makes me think of one of Jennifer’s older relatives who would always offer the greeting “Waiting for the Lord to come back.” While she had genuine faith and truly was expecting the return of Christ, she probably didn’t intend that greeting as evidence that she was greatly enjoying life at the moment. We probably each know of …
What Is Salvation?
1 Peter 1:3-5 Peter begins the body of his letter by ecstatically praising God. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He then takes the remainder of three verses to tell us why God is deserving of praise. Because of his great mercy Because he has caused us to be born again Because we have a …
Elect Exiles
From the very beginning of the letter of 1 Peter we are given some important truths about what God thinks about us. As Peter addresses his original audience in the areas that are today western Turkey, we know that God is using Peter to address us as believers in Jesus today. 1 Peter 1:1-2 In verse 1, the most important …
Preparing for Tribulation
One of the interesting phenomena in America is the industry that has built up around people who are preparing for a doomsday scenario which ordinary people with ordinary provisions could not survive. The people preparing for the end of the world are so interesting that they were the subject of a reality TV series a few years ago. When everything …
Two Different Kingdoms
The eleventh chapter of Daniel goes into some very specific and historically verifiable prophecies about the comings and goings of kingdoms of this world. Daniel 11 Scripture Link What should we conclude? Any reading of world history, even over a period of a few hundred years, will conclude that the political kingdoms of this world are under the reign of …
A Spiritual Battle
Daniel’s eyes are opened to a spiritual reality that most people in their day-to-day life are immune from seeing. He is visited by a supernatural being who talks about massive cosmic battle raging in the spiritual realm amongst the angels and demonic forces who influence the earthly human realm. Daniel 10 Scripture Link The story spoken by the supernatural man …
Covenant & Repentance
Daniel 9 Scripture Link Austin made the point in his sermon that parts of Daniel 9 are among the most difficult in the entire Old Testament to interpret for a specific prophetic meaning. For Daniel’s understanding, however, the prophecies regarded events that were to come in the life of his people, Israel. Our interpretation of the difficult verses should start …