Why We Love One Another

In Matthew 22, Jesus was asked, “Which is the most important commandment?” and he answered, “Easy: First, love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Second, love others as you love yourself—or like you would want to be loved.” And in those two commandments, he summed up all 613 of the Old Testament laws.

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God Only Offers Grace, Not Reward

Do you ever feel like your Christian life is mostly a matter of duty? You might be doing all of the right things—but it’s coming from a place of obligation. And obedience that flows from obligation gets stale very, very quickly. How can we transform our obedience from duty to delight? We get a clue in, arguably, the most important passage in the Old Testament—2 Samuel 7.

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Believe the Gospel. Become the Gospel.

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is Liam Neeson’s portrayal of the forgiveness of Jean Valjean in the movie rendition of Les Mis. The scene goes like this. (Um, spoiler alert? The book is more than a century old. And the movie came out before most of the people in my church were born. So this isn’t exactly new. But hey, I’m generous, so … spoilers ahead.)

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Being a “Gospel Above All” Christian in Your Approach to Social Media

What do we mean when we say “gospel above all”? Is that another way of saying “just preach Jesus” and avoiding the messy and uncomfortable conversations about injustice? For sure, some generations of Christians have been guilty of that in the past—using the cloak of “just preach the gospel” to avoid the awkward and uncomfortable implications of the gospel for social dynamics. Is that what we mean?

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What’s the Correct Style of Worship?

Picture this: I was preaching in this little church and a Pentecostal woman, sitting about halfway back, kept raising her hand. I found it strange but kept going. She was relentless, so I finally asked her, “Do you have a question?” She turned white as a sheet. Turns out, she didn’t have a question. That was just her way of saying “Amen” in response to what I was teaching. (Neither of us ...

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Your Greatest Strategy for Success

The greatest temptation you’ll have this year is to pursue some good purpose—some good thing you believe God wants you to have (and you may be right)—in your own way. You might say, “I feel like God wants me to be prosperous and bless me with money, but it’s not happening fast enough, so I’ll just hedge a little bit here and there, or overwork myself to make it happen.” Or, “I ...

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