Sin results in dust, but God has a restoration plan in place.
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Thrive by Daniel Popper, photo: Marianna Smiley |
Sin results in dust, but God has a restoration plan in place.
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Thrive by Daniel Popper, photo: Marianna Smiley |
We can't see in the dark, but God can.
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Observer by Mari Lezhava |
A preview of February's email-only article.
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Jared Rice |
LIFE HAS A way of beating us down at times. But no matter how bad our circumstances, often the worst part is not knowing why terrible things occur.
When we open up the tenth chapter of Job, we find our protagonist in a dark place.Of course, Job spends most of the book in metaphorical darkness, but here in chapter ten he takes a turn for the worse, admitting, "I loathe my life" (v. 1). Life, the most precious of gifts, the most beautiful and fragile and rarest of possessions, and yet Job loathes it.What does it mean to loathe? Merriam-Webster defines loathing as great disklike; disgust. Job is disgusted with his own life. Why? You know the reasons. His children have died. His possessions have been plundered. His health has deteriorated to an excruciating degree. His wife told him to "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). His friends, helpful at first, descend into jerk territory—accusing him of sin, suggesting his children deserved their fate, and proclaiming he should repent—all for want of a better theology.Penniless, abandoned, bereaved, confused, accused, and afflicted, you can see why Job's life might disgust him. Earlier in the book he even said it would have been better if his mother had miscarried! That's some pretty dark stuff right there.Have you ever loathed your life?
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"Every human heart carries the feeling of disquiet and of separation from its true home."1
A preview of January's email-only article.
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Jaime Spaniol |
IT IS TEMPTING to focus our energy and efforts on the material world, especially when it comes to security. We build stronger houses, install better locks, and design more intelligent surveillance systems.
These things are no inherently bad, but if we're not careful we can shift our focus from the the eternal to the temporary.
While it's true Solomon may have borrowed or modified many proverbs from ancient sources, Proverbs 14:11 is nevertheless intriguing considering the context in which it was written. The verse reads, "The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish."The surface reading is pretty obvious: God honors upright living and disaster besets those who are wicked. And the implications are just as obvious: be good, not evil.But beneath the surface level we can observe a few additional layers of meaning that help us better understand how to apply the verse to our lives.One can see right off the contrast between the house of the wicked and the tent of the upright. One is sturdy, able to withstand storms, while the other is flimsy and subject to the elements. And yet the house is destroyed, not the tent.What are we to make of such a phenomenon?
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Three of my favorite books from 2022, plus I'm giving one of them away!
Update, 1/25/23: Congrats to Thomas from Spain on winning the book giveaway!
A preview of October's email-only article.
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Pedro Vergara |
TURNING TO JESUS means you'll be happy and prosperous the rest of your life, right?
Therefore, if you're unhappy or less than wealthy, it probably means you don't have enough faith.
You see where one can run into trouble with this line of thinking.
I've written it in numerous places, but once more for effect: bad things do happen to decent people all the time. The fall ushered in an era where entropy reigns supreme (for a time) so that even were sin not present, the pure randomness of lightning or gravity would still cause pain and suffering.
Cast out of God's Edenic hedge, we no longer enjoy protections from the negative aspects of thermodynamics. In short, there's no escaping the heat death of the universe sans the intervention of the Almighty. Adam made humanity's bed, now we must lie in it.
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