The Tulip Driven Life

By: Sean Rice Aside from  Matthew 7.1 , which says "judge not, that you be not judged,"  John 3.16  is the most well-known Bible verse in the world. This verse is on plaques. This verse is on T- shirts. Max Lucado even wrote an entire book on this verse called  3:16: The Numbers of Hope , which came on the scene with a whole multitude of related products, church music, CDs featuring top Christian music artists, and "ancillary publishing products," according to the Amazon.com website for the book (link above). This short quote completely overshadows the rest of the context in which it is found. The full verse is as follows: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in  him  should not perish but have eternal life." John 3.16   OUT OF CONTEXT This quote just feels sort of warm and cuddly, doesn't it? God loves us, and we're going to have eternal life! And both of these things are true. Still,...

By: Nathan Fox Colossians 1:9-12 God’s Will- Specific or Not The topic of God’s will is one that is spoken about often, but very rarely addressed on a specific level. The answer for that is this: God has a specific will for your life that no blogger (like myself) could tell you about. I am not going to try to tell you EXACTLY what God’s will is in this blog, but hopefully by the end of reading this you will see some traits and habits that we can extract from Scripture that certainly line up in the will of God. My hope is that after reading this what we have covered will at the very least urge you to understand that knowing God’s will is not attainable for humans on a specific level (in terms of where to live, what food to eat, etc.), but it is accessible on a general level through His Word. We would always be wise to turn there first to understand somewhat what God’s will for our life is. God’s Will Defined by Paul The first thing (and ultimately the thing upo...

By: Thomas Clayton Booher Part 1:  read here Part 2:  read here Part 3:  read here Ephesians 1:18 ....that you may know what is the hope of his calling.... Paul’s first encounter with city of Ephesus is recorded in Acts 18. The events that occurred early in the chapter have a direct bearing on that first visit and more prominently with the letter he later wrote to the Ephesians some time between A.D. 61-63 while a prisoner at Rome under house arrest (Acts 28:16-31:Eph 3:1; 4:1; 6:20). Paul had met a Jew named Aquila in Corinth . Both were tentmakers so Paul stayed with him and his wife (Priscilla) and worked. As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and using the scriptures, he explained in a cogent, clear, and coherent manner the person and work of Christ. It was effective because he persuaded both Jews and Greeks (Acts 18:1-5). However, there was opposition, in particular from Jews who ‘blasphemed.’ The nature o...

By: Thomas Fletcher Booher Sometimes it is good to talk on current issues. I assume most people reading this will be aware that Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia and leader of the Passion Movement was invited to give the benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony. Then a gay rights group dug up a sermon some 15-20 years ago that Giglio preached where he called homosexuality a sin. A big stink was then raised, and Giglio withdrew to not cause a greater controversy. A pro-gay "pastor" has replaced Giglio.  Four years ago Rick Warren faced similar heat, but he was not removed. So in four years the tide has turned in the public eye and in the White House- to condemn homosexuality as a sin is to not be with the times, with the beliefs of today, with what the god of "today" says.  I want to address how this has happened. It has happened because Christians don't know their Bibles and what it says about...

By: Sean Rice An American publication named  Slate  recently published an article by Will Oremus called 'Was Jesus a Homophobe?'* Surprisingly, given that it is a pretty left-leaning publication, I actually agree with a lot of what Oremus had to say. He doesn't seem to stretch facts to come to favourable conclusions. He does criticize Paul for wording things a little harshly when it comes to homosexuality (most Christians would criticize Paul's use of language, too - how many of  you  would stay if your pastor dismissively told the troublemakers in your church to castrate themselves? See  Galatians 5.12 ), though I don't disagree with the strong tone that Paul sometimes takes on issues. Will Oremus writes, '[Was Jesus a homophobe?] Yes and no. While it's reasonable to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would have disapproved of gay sex, there is no record of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, let alone express...

By: Nathan Fox Introduction I feel so compelled to write this blog post today. Not only do I work through books of the Bible at a time, but also have been blessed to read a little booklet everyday that provides tidbits of encouragement and sound Biblical advice. The book (Oswald Chambers’  My Utmost for His Highest)  covered one of my favorite topics today, and consequently the Scripture that I was covering in Colossians also speaks on this issue. The issue you ask? It is simply this: true faith in Jesus Christ bears fruit.  Scriptural Text Last week, we covered the first few verses in the book of Colossians, and talked about unity in doctrine and unity in love. Unity in doctrine is an imperative for a growing Christian and a growing Christian congregation, but it doesn’t just stop there! The doctrine of the Gospel has the potential to change lives not only at the moment of conversion but for all eternity. For our text today, we will look at Colossians...

By: Nathan Fox Introduction to the Book and the City As promised in my previous blog post, I have begun a personal study series into the book of Colossians and have thus decided to write for the next few weeks on little lessons that God is teaching me from the book. Before I dive into today’s blog content, I feel it very important that we have a somewhat firm knowledge of the background behind this Pauline epistle. Naturally, we would assume that this book was written to the people of Colosse, and we would be correct. Knowing this, there are several interesting characteristics to note about the city of Colosse. First of all, Colosse was a very influential city, and likewise was influenced by other cities. We know this because of some of the content from Paul in this letter. Several times Paul warns the people of Colosse to hold firm to true doctrine, and to not be swayed by false teachings such as Gnosticism (of which we will cover in greater detail in future blogs)...