The Tulip Driven Life

                When we cease to come together with other believers to feed under the authority of the undershepherd God has placed over us, we cease to live the TULIP driven life.                 After Peter had denied Christ three times John 21 tells us Jesus restores Peter by telling him to feed His sheep three times: 15  So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon,  son  of Jonah, [ b ]  do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” 16  He said to him again a second time, “Simon,  son  of Jonah, [ c ]  do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” 17  He said to him the third time, “S...

By: Sean Rice "The Apostle Paul," writes the agnostic and best-selling Bible scholar  Bart Ehrman  in his newest book,  Did Jesus Exist? , "is our earliest surviving Christian author of any kind... Paul was writing some years  before the Gospels. His first letter (1 Thessalonians) is usually dated to 49 AD [which is just sixteen short years after Jesus' death on the cross in 33 AD]... Paul understood Jesus to be a historical figure, a Jew who lived, taught, and was crucified at the instigation of Jewish opposition." [1]  What Bart Ehrman is saying, then, is that Paul is one of our earliest witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ - one who should be taken seriously. WHY IS PAUL A TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE? How do we know that Paul actually wrote letters about Jesus shortly after Christ's death on the cross? (We'll leave the resurrection part out just for now.) Maybe some later Christian made up the persona of Paul, pretended to be him, and wrote ...

By: Nathan Fox Disclaimer : I have never experienced severe persecution for my faith and cannot rely on personal experience to assist me with this blog. Any persecution I have experienced in my life for Jesus has been minor, especially in comparison to the persecution of the early church and those around the world today. My Topic Right now I am working through the book of Acts as a part of my devotional, and I have found it very enlightening and encouraging. I am working right now through the latter chapters in the book, which highlights the difficulties that the Apostle Paul faced while in ministry. I was truly flustered as to what I should write about for this week as many topics seemed to cross my mind. Should I write on thankfulness (it was just Thanksgiving after all), the Christian’s response to politics (after the recent election this is also a hot topic), or living a pure life while engaged (my current situation). I decided to go with none of these topics, as ...

By: Thomas Clayton Booher Author’s Note: This article demonstrates how writing (in particular, fictional writing) reflects God’s work at creation and thereby gives writing a certain nobility. However, I don’t want the reader to think that if he is not a writer that he is doing nothing noble. All of our labors are to bring glory to God, and many of them do that through the imitation of God as the Grand Creator: cooking, gardening, carpentry, mechanical engineering, chemistry, hair dressing, interior design, landscaping, architecture, computer games, painting (commercial and fine art), et. al. For those of you who have an interest in writing, I hope this reinforces what a splendid labor awaits you. Reflecting God’s Creation Work in Our Writing Man was created in God’s image and as such it is a certainty that writers, members of the race of men, are also created in his image. There are many things that go into the meaning of ‘God’s image’ but I want to dwell a little o...