Understanding Love

Saving faith has three elements: knowledge, conviction, and trust. Today, let’s look at the first component: the knowledge required to believe in Jesus as our Savior. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God. At the request of God the Father, Jesus set aside His divine rights, took on human form, and dwelled on earth (Phil. 2:6-7). What did He accomplish? To be acceptable to God, sacrifices had to be without defect (Lev. 22:20). Jesus lived a perfect life, which qualified…

Take up your cross. We say it so effortlessly, so flippantly. But that’s because we read it figuratively. It’s estimated that a Roman cross weighed three hundred pounds, and even if Jesus carried only the crossbar, it was still placed on raw flesh that had just been flogged! And He carried it no less than 650 yards down the Via Dolorosa. In my book "Play the Man," I introduce seven virtues of manhood. The first virtue is tough love. Here’s what I…

Have you ever wondered why a God of love lets bad things happen to you? Or whether your past keeps Him from loving you? But just because you may feel unloved doesn’t mean that you actually are. The apostle Paul could probably relate. In today’s reading we see that he encountered hardship after hardship while following God. And his past was so checkered with sin (Acts 8:1-3; Acts 9:1-2) that he could have assumed he had good reason to feel unloved. Yet Paul kept…

Laodicea, a rich commercial city famed for its high-quality black wool and medicinal eye ointment, was dependent for its water supply on the hot springs from Hierapolis six miles north. By the time the piped water reached Laodicea, it had become lukewarm. The stern rebuke to the Laodiceans describing them as “lukewarm” and “blind and naked” (Revelation 3:16–17) as well as Jesus’ call to repentance in verse 18 are couched in terms of these…

One of the most difficult truths of Christianity is that there’s but one way to heaven: Jesus Christ. People would rather believe that all paths lead to God—and that no religion can exclude someone. But in John 14:6, Jesus claimed to be “the way” and explicitly said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  That raises an important question: How do we come to God through Jesus? It’s not by means of religious rituals,…

Prayer is a truly remarkable privilege, and we must be careful to treat it as such. Have you ever paused to consider why a holy God would condescend to even listen to our petitions, let alone answer them? The Lord is so perfect that the smallest hint of sin is incompatible with His presence. Human beings, on the other hand, are inherently sinful. Yet God wants to commune with us, so He made a way for that to be possible. Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, priests…

Francis Chan’s mother died giving birth to him. The only affection he can remember receiving from his father lasted about thirty seconds when he was on the way to his stepmother’s funeral aged nine. When he was twelve, his father also died. Francis cried, but also felt relieved. Francis is now a pastor. He and his wife, Lisa, have seven children. When his children were born, his own love for his children and his desire for their love was so strong that it opened…

Where has Jesus come through for you? Really. Take a moment and remember. And then write it down. Remembering fertilizes our hope. It makes our faith burgeon and bloom. It strengthens our belief in the promises of God that He is good and He is for us. Remembering fuels our joy even when surrounded by thieves who want to steal it. Sometimes being a joyful person amid this crazy world seems impossible. Well then, let the impossible commence. Because one of the secrets to…

Now for one of the most beautiful mysteries of the feminine heart: women minister something to the heart of God that men do not. Look at the record. There was an event that took place in the life of Jesus that he said should be told whenever the gospel is proclaimed around the world. It was when Mary of Bethany came and anointed him with the perfume, which cost a year’s wages. It was an extravagant act of sacrificial worship, and the aroma of it filled the room. Jesus…