Several years ago, I wrote a book titled The Provocative God: Radical Things God Has Said and Done. The focus of the book was to address radical passages in the Bible that we have either become so familiar with that we fail to recognize their radical nature, or that, due to their radical nature, we …
Category: forgiveness
We All Need Forgiveness: An excerpt from my upcoming book, The Provocative Christian: How Gospel Focused Living Changes Everything.
On June 6, 1944, allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. One of the hardest hit units was the 116 infantry regiment of the American 29th Infantry Division. They landed on Omaha Beach in the first wave of landing craft. David Silva was a 19-year-old infantryman in the 29th Division. When the ramp dropped …
Loving People Jesus Style is Hard Work
What do we mean when we use the word love? Better yet, what did Jesus mean?
I Have Good News, Bad News, and Good News.
We have all heard it before, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first? Most often I think people say, give me the bad news first, to get it over with and hopefully end on a high note with the good news. The Gospel, the basic message preached by Jesus is …
Blessed are the Merciful: The Irony of Angry Christians
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. I continue to be perplexed at the anger and rejection that so many Christians heap on people whose sin is obvious and public. What befuddles me is that this is about as far from doing what Jesus did as you can get. I look …
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Blessed are Those Who Mourn
So in the first Beatitude Jesus tells us we are spiritually bankrupt. Okay so now what do you do with that? Simple: You mourn. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4 Jesus said that those who recognize that they are "poor in Spirit", what I called spiritually bankrupt, will in …
Provocative Bible Verses: Treat Them Like an Unbeliever
There is a history in much of the church that calls for shunning people who do not repent of sin. In part that practice is picked up from the words of Jesus in Matthew 18 where he says that if a person refuses to repent after a process that involved three different encounters calling for …
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Why Be Good if I am Forgiven?
If we are forgiven by Jesus as a free gift of grace and our salvation does not depend on being good enough to get to heaven, then what is our motivation for doing the things God commands? It is an understandable question. The answer that is usually given is that when you have been forgiven …
Provocative Bible Verses: Judge Not Lest You Be Judged
It may be the most often quoted and yet most misunderstood verse in the whole Bible. People who have never even cracked open a Bible have heard and quoted this verse. "Do not judge so that you will not be judged" Matthew 7:1 Usually that verse is used like a hammer to immediately stop any …
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Forgetting is Not Forgiving
How many times have you heard the statement, "I can forgive, but I can't forget"? When I hear those words they are nearly always spoken with a tone that says, "I am holding on to the pain and I will deal with the offender accordingly". What seems to be said is, I forgive, therefore I …
What Can Lord of the Rings Teach Christians about Community? Pt 1
The classic trilogy written by J.R.R. Tolkien has been dissected countless times as people have sought to plumb its philosophical and theological depths. There have been volumes written on the world view presented by Tolkien, on the nature of good and evil, on the place of sacrifice and honor, on courage and fear, and a …
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Forgiveness: Our Most Difficult Calling
"Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgives you" Colossians 3:13 As Christians we are usually very in tune to having been forgiven by Christ, at least when we first come to faith in Him. What is much more difficult is forgiving people as we …
The Provocative Christian 