Blessed On Purpose
When explaining about how God's intention is to pour out blessing on His people, Paul does not simply view this as an added bonus to the Christian life. The apostle's understanding of God's desire to bless us goes far deeper. "He has given us all this, just as He...
Grace in Abundance
One would think that sitting in a Roman jail cell in 55AD would be enough to get anyone down, or at least dampen their enthusiasm for whatever it is they were doing that got them into so much trouble. But when Paul writes his letter to the Ephesians, he...
A Gospel of the Kingdom
I was struck today by how much the book of Colossians says about the Kingdom. It seems to be Paul’s dominate theme in the letter. All throughout the text he uses Kingdom language to encourage and challenge his readers. “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and...
The Centrality of “Good” in God’s Universe
Inundated as we are with all the evil in this world, it is often hard to imagine that good might be the underlying premise of God's universe. But I think Dallas Willard is right about this. The truth is that all of reality was created good and God said...