The point of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, surely is to make us look at ourselves and say, “Are we that bad? Is the evil in us that evil?” Therefore, another question immediately rises up. Since this story is inspired by the…
Read MoreAll of life is a battle between two selves, but there’s a war before you become a Christian that’s different from the war that happens after you become a Christian.
When you become a Christian, you don’t move from warfare to peace. You move from a b…
In Psalm 73, Asaph is mad at God. He’s been living right, but everything is going wrong. Yet all kinds of abusive people are having great lives. Life seems unjust. Asaph’s just about to chuck his faith. Yet at the end, he’s able to say in his pain, “…
Read MoreA lot of people are mad at God. People who believe. People who don’t believe. And people who don’t know what they believe. And in Psalm 73, we see Asaph get mad at the way God seems to be mishandling the world.
Asaph has been living a self-controlled…
Jesus’ teaching about money here is triggered by an event: a Pharisee gets upset that Jesus didn’t wash his hands before he ate his food.
The ceremonial washings of the Old Testament were visual aids for the idea that you need to approach God with a…
Everyone points to a different reason for why the city has problems. The futurologists will say, “Technology has doomed the city. We don’t need to live in proximity anymore.” The liberals will say, “Racism has doomed the city.” The conservatives will…
Read MoreGuilt is a lot like an iceberg. You don’t see much above the surface, but if you really look, you’ll see it’s under everything. So how do you deal with a guilty conscience?
In Psalm 51, David has been plunged—through the shock of recognizing the mag…
Of the articles and books I survey on worry or anxiety, they almost always say, “The things you’re worried about may never happen. So don’t think about them.” But in Psalm 27, David does the opposite: he visualizes the worst things that can happen. W…
Read MoreA Newsweek cover story said that after a 30-year spree, our entire society is waking up with a monstrous hangover, facing a values vacuum. It said that we realize unlimited personal freedom is not the way to build a society, but now we face the quest…
Read MoreWhen it comes to building up identity and self-esteem, I’m afraid Americans are very pragmatic—and our pragmatism gets to us. Our books and articles say if you want self-esteem, you should lose weight, change your friends, switch your career, and so …
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