Four Antilegalistic Strategies

Galatians 5:1 NLT Grace killers cannot be mildly ignored or kindly tolerated. You can no more allow legalism to continue than you could permit a rattlesnake to slip into your house and hide. Before long, somebody is going to get hurt. So then, since liberty is worth fighting for, how do we do it? Where […]

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Defining Liberty

Without becoming needlessly academic, I want to define a term that I’ve been tossing around. What do I mean when I declare that the Christian has liberty? Essentially, liberty is freedom . . . freedom from something and freedom to do something. Liberty is freedom from slavery or bondage. It is initially freedom from sin’s […]

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Do What Is Right

Every day we live, we have a choice to do what is right or what is wrong. When we send our young children off to school, we tell them, “Now, sweetheart, you need to know that Mom and Dad won’t be there to make your decisions. You will find some kids at school who will […]

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Alternatives to Grace

Isaiah 44:22 NLT If I choose not to risk, if I go the “safe” route and determine not to promote either salvation by grace or a lifestyle of grace, what are the alternatives? Four come to my mind, all of which are popular these days. 1. I can emphasize works over grace. I can tell […]

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How to Stop Expecting Perfection

Not being a bumper-sticker freak, I find myself turned off by most of the stuff people announce on rear windows and back bumpers. But years ago I noticed one I’ve never forgotten. For some reason, it stuck in my cranium as firmly as on chrome. You’ve seen it dozens of times: CHRISTIANS ARE NOT PERFECT, […]

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How to Begin a Relationship with God

The world is filled with competing theories about God, religion, and salvation. Alternate views of Jesus vie for our attention at every turn. Different paths to different gods market themselves in the ever-changing desert of ideas. Yet in the midst of this world of contradictory claims, Jesus Christ made a bold assertion: “I am the […]

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Marital Grace

So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. —Ephesians 5:33 NLT The more the grace of God is awakened in a marriage, the less husbands will attempt to control and restrict and the less wives will feel the need to “please no […]

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Breaking the Stereotype

When Paul and Titus travelled to Crete, Paul left his companion there to oversee the churches on the island. Paul knew that Titus would be up against some unscrupulous rivals for the attention of the islanders. Writing to Titus to instruct and encourage him, Paul uses a most outrageous stereotype to strengthen his resolve. Quoting […]

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