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A Christmas Creed
I believe in Jesus Christ and in the beauty of the gospel begun in Bethlehem. I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a little town; and whose spirit still brings music to persons all over the world, in towns both large and small. I believe in the one for whom the crowded inn could…
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Help Me Follow the Savior
God of all grace, You have given me a Savior, produce in me a faith to live by him, to make him all my desire, all my hope, all my glory. May I enter him as my refuge, build on him as my foundation, walk in him as my way, follow him as my guide,…
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What is Your Moral Gauge?
Here is a provocative article by Ben Stevens for the Huffington Post: Two Lesbians Raised a Baby: A Response. The premise behind Stevens’ piece is derived from the logic of a video of an Iowa college student named Zach Wahls that has gone viral. Wahls makes a compelling argument that he, though having been raised…
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Disinfecting Ourselves of Spiritual Malware
In his masterful work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin observed: “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” That may seem to be a peculiar notion. Some will, no doubt, simply chalk it up to “O, that Calvin guy had a lot of strange ideas”. Some, being a bit more…
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The Virgin Shall Conceive and Bear a Son
Here’s a poignant insight from Martyn Lloyd-Jones regarding Christmas: What is taught in Scripture is not that Mary had been either born or made sinless, but that portion of Mary, that cell out of Mary that was to be developed into the body of the Son of God was cleansed from sin; and that only.…
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Scandalous Freedom
I have been listening to Steve Brown‘s Scandalous Freedom podcasts over the past couple weeks. For those not familiar with Steve, let me issue a warning: Don’t listen to him if you take yourself too seriously or think Christianity is about putting a stamp of approval on your goodness. I guarantee that if you think that…
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Practitioners of Love
Studying love is exciting, being taught the doctrines of love is enlightening, praying about love is heart moving, and seeing love modeled is motivating, but in the end, we must lovingly obey God and sacrificially serve people. We must be practitioners of love, not theorists. We must be doers of love, not talkers. We must…
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The Advent of Humility
The following article, by Tim Keller, first appeared in the December 2008 edition of Christianity Today Magazine. In this article Keller explains why the Advent of Jesus gives us reason to stop concentrating on ourselves. *** Innumerable Christmas devotionals point out the humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth—among shepherds, in a crude stable, with a feed…
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What Sort of People?
The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought…
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Gospel from Mars Hill
The gospel is like a multifaceted jewel. Descriptions of it vary but the substance is never altered. Our appreciation for it’s beauty is enhanced by viewing it from it’s different aspects. We also see things fresh through the eyes of others, as we understand what they are seeing. For that reason I value whenever I…
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Legalism in Light of the Gospel
In light of the gospel, let me especially demolish the myth that legalism is a blunder that’s associated only with our initial salvation—with our positional justification in God’s eyes. Most believers realize we could never earn such salvation; we’ve come to accept that no one can work his way into God’s kingdom… . But when…