We were bought at a high price (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23). And now as Christ followers, we do not belong to ourselves (1 Cor 6:19). Rather, we deny ourselves (Mt 16:24) and we die to ourselves (Jn 3:3-6), making no provision for the flesh (Rom 13:14). We have no rights over ourselves as if we…
I read this paragraph in Steinbeck’s East of Eden and it wrecked me, in a good way. This pericope reminds me of how children innately see their parents as immortal beings impervious to corruption, as well as to the constellation of cracks that take place in their porcelain little minds when they realize that their…
I can’t think of anything more offensive to God than the all-too-common slogan “It’s just business.” Someone may respond back: “Well, what about saying ‘I don’t believe in God’?” True, existential atheism is a problem. However, treating people unjustly is an offense to God’s character; it’s practical atheism, in that one could be a believer…
(1) Expecting things in your life to go perfectly. Yes, you were made for eternity. That’s why you seek perfection, desire beauty, and hunger for unending happiness. But we live in an imperfect, ugly, and forlorn world because of sin. So when things don’t go your way or when things get you down or when…
Sin is a form of self-harm, some might even say, self-hatred. For example, when a man is not a good husband, and, say, repeatedly commits adultery, he not only hurts his wife and children, but also his own wellbeing. Put differently, by fulfilling his role as a faithful husband, who models his loving actions to…
You were made for fulfillment! But that’s not the same thing as saying you were made for pleasure. Pleasure, however, is not a bad thing. Matter-of-fact, pleasure can be the natural consequence of eating a satiable meal or spending quality-time with an ole friend or behaving virtuously. The kind of pleasure that gets a bad…
In the recent cinematic production of Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), a ruthless “Celestial” (deity), who came into existence millions of years ago and goes by the name “Ego,” has grown bored of his own immortality, not to mention being deeply disappointed with the inferior beings who inhabit the universe. So…
“When people think of a god that glorifies himself, they erroneously, although understandably, reach the verdict that he is an egomaniac. “John Piper talks about famous people, such as Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt, who have walked away from historic Christianity because they found the idea of God’s self-exaltation to be unloving and/or egocentric. (To…
From the dark abyss of suffering was born my book Biblical Ethics. Five years ago, the last thing on my mind was writing a book on how to live a morally happy, flourishing life. I was deep in the throes of a PhD program when the walls of my intellectual ivory tower came crashing down….
What to do when you feel overwhelmed about the blurred lines of morality? What to do when you feel grieved over the cross-pollination of good and evil, right and wrong, in our ever-changing culture? There’s been so much media-attention recently concerning the political views and actions of the Right and the Left. There’s a presidential…