'wisdom' Tagged Posts
The God for Sufferers
The book of Job chronicles the title character, Job, and his miserable suffering: he lost everything but life itself. There are not too many people that can claim his experience. As Job suffers, God reveals himself to Job. As in each book of the Bible, the book of Job is ultimately a revelation of God himself—who he is and what he does. In other words, the book of Job is ultimately about God—the God a sufferer needs. In particular, the…
Does Love Cover a Multitude of Mistakes?
Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” Key to understanding this text is the word “covered.” What does it mean that “love covers a multitude of sins?” It can’t mean that love overlooks sins. That would be in violation of other passages like Luke 17:3 and Matthew 18:15 on confronting sins. It can’t mean that love excuses sins. That would be in violation of other passages…
Five Reasons for Obeying God
We bark the command to our children: “You need to obey mom and dad,” based on Ephesians 6:1. While this command is often given, in the heat of the moment we seldom give the reason, motivation, or benefit for obeying mom and dad. But your kids need to see the reasons and benefits of obedience. And so do we! You need reason, motivation, and benefit for obedience to God. Why should you obey God? Seventeenth century pastor, Richard Baxter (1615-1691), recognizes…