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Follow Your Arrow?
Read more: Follow Your Arrow?“Follow Your Arrow,” the catchy tune by singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves, has found a home on country music radio and is getting love from those who embrace its message: be who you are, live for the moment, stop caring what people think. Like many of today’s chart-toppers, it tends to clash with my beliefs. But that…
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Love Beyond Language
Read more: Love Beyond LanguageLittle children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.-1 John 3:18 She is new. None of us have seen her before. A woman with a modest hijab walks into our English class for the very first time. In many ways she is out of place. She is the…
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I Heard God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts Through Community
Read more: I Heard God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts Through CommunityA friend made a comment about a blog post that I recently “liked” called Hearing God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts by Matthew Wireman on The Gospel Coalition blog. In jest, he asked if me if I was doing ok, and wanted to make sure to talk me off the ledge. In my response…
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Austenland: When You’re Living in an Austen Novel
Read more: Austenland: When You’re Living in an Austen NovelI saw Austenland recently. For those of you who haven’t heard of it—it’s a movie about a woman obsessed with all things Jane Austen, who’s been unlucky in love and decides to spend her life’s savings to attend an immersive Austen experience in England complete with manor house, Regency attire, and gentlemen of fortune. I…
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Musings from the Balcony
Read more: Musings from the Balcony“Your love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on me.”* I stood, watching a gym full of hundreds of college students, singing these words of praise and truth. Arms-raised, dancing, clapping, and shouting – I admired their passion. The pulsing drums, the rocking guitars, the melodic keyboard, and the passionate vocals…
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The Demands of Justice
Read more: The Demands of Justice“What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best, power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what…
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Reflections on Unconditional Love
Read more: Reflections on Unconditional LoveThe concept of unconditional love is among the best-known and most-beloved of all Christian doctrines, and for good reason. God’s love for his children is unmerited; there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s love so there is nothing that we can do to be separated from it either. Nevertheless the more I…
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On This Day in History
Read more: On This Day in HistoryI want to tell you a story. Five years ago today, I got dropped off on Biola University’s campus to catch a ride with a stranger to the Bay Area for Spring Break. My dear friend Sarah and her parents had graciously invited me to spend the week at their home on a vineyard in…
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Are We God’s Pawns?
Read more: Are We God’s Pawns?A pastor once told me that God’s people are simply pawns in his ultimate plan to glorify himself. Seriously. He said “pawns.” That would be a great metaphor if chess players actually loved their pawns, but they don’t. The world’s greatest chess player never loved his pawns, much less died for them. So when I…
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“Les Miserey” of the Unrequited
Read more: “Les Miserey” of the UnrequitedIf you haven’t seen the new Les Miserables motion picture, finish reading this post first, then grab your tickets on fandango. The music, and the story, is stunningly beautiful. It is emotionally vigorous. It is theologically rich. And it is soul-transforming. Ok, maybe these promises are a little high, but for one who was wondering…