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Bearers of God’s Image
In the beginning, God created all of mankind in His image, male and female alike (Gen. 1:26). And we know that before the foundation of the world, God, in His goodness and kindness, had His people in mind (Eph. 1:4). It was no surprise to our omniscient Father that Adam and Eve fell and sin entered the world. He knew people would not worship and delight in Him. Knowing this, He didn’t have to give us aspects of Himself, but He did. God—the holy one, pure and awesome—created us to reflect aspects of His beauty and character. We are not … View Resource
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Creation Ex Nihilo
No sentence is more pregnant with meaning than the opening one of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). It tells us several things all at once, four of which are worth reflecting upon: First and foremost, it tells us that God is the ultimate Being. Before there was a universe, there was God. He exists independently of matter and sequence of time. God transcends space and time. He is not limited by spatial considerations (He is everywhere in His fullness continually). Nor is He locked into the present in any way. It … View Resource
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Creator and Creature
God’s Word starts with the creation by God of all things out of nothing. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 present creation as the foundation of all scriptural truth. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are foundational to the entire New Testament. The New Testament writers refer to these chapters repeatedly, and Jesus Christ Himself referred to each of the first six chapters of Genesis. Nowhere does the Lord, or any of the New Testament writers, give the slightest hint that these foundational chapters of the first book of Moses are anything but straight, historical truth, to be understood in their … View Resource
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Divine Incomprehensibility
What can we know about God? That’s the most basic question of theology, for what we can know about God and whether we can know anything about Him at all determine the scope and content of our study. Here we must consider the teaching of the greatest theologians in history, all of whom have affirmed the “incomprehensibility of God.” By using the term incomprehensible, they are not referring to something we are unable to comprehend or know at all. Theologically speaking, to say God is incomprehensible is not to say that God is utterly unknowable. It is to say … View Resource
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Missing the Mark
Like many people, I can only handle a relatively small amount of information at a time. I remember as a youth when my father tried to teach me to play golf. Fourteen different instructions bombarded my adolescent brain—knees slightly bent, feet shoulder width apart, left arm straight, eye on the ball, and so on. I decided right then that golf would not be one of my sports. I played football instead. It may be harder, but it is easy to grasp: run, catch, block, and tackle. God seems to know this about us, for in the Bible’s creation account He … View Resource
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The Ordinary Christian Life
Radical. Epic. Revolutionary. Transformative. Impactful. Life-changing. Ultimate. Extreme. Awesome. Emergent. Alternative. Innovative. On the edge. The next big thing. Explosive breakthrough. You can probably add to the list of modifiers that have become, ironically, part of the ordinary conversations in society and in today’s church. Most of us have heard expressions like these so often that they’ve become background noise. Although we might be a little jaded by the ads, we’re eager to take things to “a whole new level.” Ordinary has to be one of the loneliest words in our vocabulary today. Who wants a bumper sticker that announces … View Resource
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What is Man?
Every evening after work, I sit down to spend a few minutes catching up on the news of the day. Though it’s a restful few minutes for my body and mind, I have to admit that I don’t find in those moments much rest for my heart. That’s because what I see in the headlines reminds me of a deep-rooted reality: there is something wrong with our world, and even with ourselves as human beings. But what is it? People have given different answers to that question. Some say the problems are primarily economic, others that they’re social, and still … View Resource
