Children who are born innocent don’t need God. They don’t need a God to teach them, a Saviour to rescue them, the Spirit to empower them, or the Bible to guide them. They just need everyone to get out of the way and let them be true to themselves. But the Bible says the opposite.
Why doesn’t our resolve bring greater change? Why do we struggle to follow through? The Bible doesn’t address the topic of New Year’s resolutions directly, but it does give two formulas that explain why they often fail and how to approach them differently
Like most people at the end of the year, I get reflective and try to look back over the ground that I’ve covered. When it comes to the writing and speaking I’ve done for Out of Neutral, I want to try to understand which episodes have had the most influence in people’s lives. To do that, I compare the top-performing articles and videos and come up with a combined list. This year, the top 10 are dominated by discussions of emotional needs, spiritual abuse, and the differences between Catholics and Protestants.
There’s a lot about Christmas that you can skip, but what if Jesus skipped Christmas? How would it have been any different if Jesus hadn’t come into this world and been born as a child? Asking that “what if” helps us to see what we need to keep central about our celebration of Christmas.
Brevard Childs published a book in 1975 that set the entire theological world talking. His basic thesis was that the Bible is a book and God intended for it to be read as one. That may seem obvious to you, but the academic world is still coming to grips with its implications, and you probably haven’t considered them.
When it comes to dating, our instincts – even if you’re a Christian – are often influenced more by Love Island and The Bachelorette than anything Jesus ever said. Jesus gave two foundational principles to navigate all of life and they provide a roadmap for approaching areas, like dating, that hadn’t even been developed when He walked the earth.
We hear sin talked about in terms of its eternal consequences and the wonder of Jesus’ forgiveness so much that we can start to think that there’s nothing more to it. The problem with that is that it can make us feel as if there’s no reason to deny ourselves. In a moment of weakness, Christian grace can feel like a hall pass that nullifies all the consequences of sin. That’s not helpful.
When we decided that it would be cheaper to pump our own gas than have someone do it for us, the calculation was that it was gas that we needed, and the people involved were just a wasted expense. The same value judgment went into ATM machines and self-serve kiosks. It’s only natural that we would be tempted to see church through the same lens that we see gas stations, banks, and grocery stores.
The tendency is to view verses about hope like the decorations of the Bible – pleasant thoughts that aren’t very functional. But getting serious about hope is one of the primary means God has given us to make progress in personal growth and maturity.
Most people read the Bible and look for the “practical parts.” We want to see how the Bible applies to our lives. In the process, we often end up skipping over the passages that show how God gives us the strength to apply those practical passages. The result can be frustration or hypocrisy. One of the areas of Scripture that we need to come to terms with if we want to grow is the theme of identity. Let me explain.
