Tag archive for ‘faith’
The Certainty of Uncertainty
I hate uncertainty. That feeling of not knowing. That absence of concrete information. The gray area. That irritating lack of clarity. Define it however you want, but know that I definitely hate it. This is probably a side-effect of my western upbringing where everything is five-year planned, written down in several different documents and signed [...]
Culture first, Christ later
I met her my second week in Thailand. She doesn’t speak much English but her smile speaks volumes, making up for what words cannot say. She has a Thai nickname that is easier to remember and so it has been easy for us to become friends. She comes to church every weekend, most Friday nights [...]
Lesson 5: Justification and the Law
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. – Romans 3:31 In Romans 4, we get a fantastic look at what it means to be justified by faith. Paul takes it all the way back to Abraham and, step by step, shows how it was Abraham’s faith, [...]
Lesson 4: Justification by Faith
“Justification by Faith”, a topic that has been one of the most challenging subjects to understand by few people, a one that has been a favorite topic for theologians to discuss, a one that remains to be a doctrinal area of research and analysis for few other intellectuals, and a topic for the rest of [...]
Lesson 11 — Optimism: Happiness and Healing
Back when I was a teenager, I distinctly remember many times a particular girl, when she would host AY, would invariably begin with asking if everybody was happy to be there. Just before she moved on to whatever she was going to say, she would add, “Yes, we’re always supposed to be happy, because we’re [...]
Lesson 3: Celebrating Spiritual & Physical Fitness
The wise man said for everything there is a season. And if you live in Canada you know there are two seasons: winter and not-winter. For me the end of winter signals the start of netball season (think basketball for girls) and the start of five months of intense sporting activity that will undoubtedly force [...]
Newly Dried Ground
Part of the sermon today focused on Israel’s confrontation with the Red Sea. (See Exodus 14). Before them lay an insurmountable obstacle. On either side were mountains. And coming up behind them was Pharaoh’s murdering army. In parting the Red Sea, God teaches to us what Charles Spurgeon was later to explain: “The Lord will [...]
Lesson 8: The fruit of the spirit is Faithfulness
The most significant highlight of Christianity lies in the fact, that Christians are led by a wonderful and loving God Jesus Christ. Christians are blessed with the word of God (The Bible) which is filled with stories, instructions and guidelines as to how should one live their lives. This blessing of clear guidance and leadership [...]
Faith in seat 14F
It’s another business trip. Or vacation. Or trip to go see family. I’m in terminal D, or E, or F and I’m trying to bend time in order to get to gate 27 in a polar opposite terminal. This particular leg finds me deposited in the cavernous, air conditioned hallways of DFW, LAX, BWI, IAH, [...]
Adventists + Dating // Redux
Over the past week, we have explored many different viewpoints on the dating question. Specifically, we’ve looked at it through the prism of Adventism. It is our hope that the viewpoints expressed in these articles have sparked meaningful conversation that won’t end here. As Adventists, we cherish our beliefs, our church structure, our heritage, and [...]
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