Although the chapter’s focus is the relationship between truth, love, and grace in marriage, one of my main takeaways was all the tangible illustrations of how marriage reflects Jesus’ relationship with the church. Below is a summary of 9 parallels I found between these relationships…
Read MoreJust as what Simon's dinner guests see, hear, and smell draws their attention to this woman (and the one she's bowing before), the telling of this account draws each reader's attention to her behavior in response to Christ. Luke’s narrative points to a woman’s act of repentance, demonstrated through her learning, humbling, weeping, and ultimately worshiping of Jesus…
Read MoreIn college, I was taught to “preach the gospel to myself daily,” or rather to flex my mental muscles and engage in the discipline of remembrance. Without remembering, I-- we-- lose clarity of truth and fill in gaps with lies and falsehoods…
Read MoreLiving out the life of forgiveness causes us to recognize that every sin we ever commit in our life has been erased by God. This is a great blessing to the sinner because we will commit an enormous amount of sin in our lifetime. Forgiveness is an act of God’s will; it is a deliberate act of love; it is a decision not to hold our sin against us no matter what we have done…
Read MoreOur culture would have us believe that which is “old” is boring, lifeless, unreliable, and no longer relevant to our current needs. If our needs change, then of course it stands to reason that we need new things to meet them. But I would argue our most essential needs haven’t changed. As those who bear the name of Jesus Christ, we should be skeptical of the “new” particularly as it relates to God’s Word and the life that God has called us to live…
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