My last post featured an excerpt from New Birth Fundamentals by Mallory Patrick. However, I forgot to post a link to the rest of the book in case people are interested in reading the whole book. Whoops! Proof I’m human 😉 A note about the book: It is formatted for print so the pages aren’t exactly…
Category: The Gospel
New Birth Fundamentals–Mallory Patrick
This post is taken from New Birth Fundamentals, a book by Mallory Patrick. The first chapter is quoted below. New Birth Fundamentals was originally written as a curriculum for Freedom Christian Academy. Besides being an author, Mallory is a Bible teacher, editor, book worm, and my sister-in-law. Mallory chairs In Him Ministries and is affiliated with Christ…
Life Was in Him
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). The New Testament tells…
Forgetting, Reaching, Thinking
The Lord isn’t surprised when we blow it. He expects nothing else from our flawed nature. In one sense, His goal isn’t to get us to a place where we never sin again (in this life). But that is often our goal. God’s goal has more to do with Christ and less to do with…
Perfecting Jesus
“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God…should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (Heb. 2:10) In what sense did Jesus need perfecting? In context, we are not talking about Jesus in some vacuous sense but about the author of salvation bringing many sons to glory. The eternal Word was…
Come out of Her!
Revelation 19 begins with the fall of Babylon. Babylon has rich, symbolic significance throughout scripture. It is the first kingdom mentioned in the Bible (Gen. 10:10). Babylon was the site where human government, culture, and religion united in their own way, apart from God (Gen. 11:1-9). In Revelation, John sees Babylon as a “notorious…
Slimy
There are many days when I’m painfully aware of my shortcomings. My thoughts, reactions, feelings, and judgments flow by like sewage. If I dwell on things at all, it’s easy to start drowning in it. Psalm 40 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of…
Secret Place
I’ve been thinking about Psalm 91 lately. This passage teaches us about being in Christ. He is our secret place, our dwelling wherein we are safe and at rest (Psalm 91:1-2, 9). The New Testament tells us that, in Christ, we are crucified and dead to sin. In Christ, we are also raised from the…
Can Wrestlers Baptize? (Part 2)
In part one, I asked readers what they thought about something John Calvin said about baptism in his book Institutes of the Christian Religion. Several readers made good comments on my Facebook page, and I thought I’d share them: [V]iewing the sacraments as only being able to be administered by clergy takes the emphasis off ‘Christ…
Trees and Mountains
Early this morning, I lay awake for a short time. My mind wandered to Genesis. Two trees take center stage in the garden of Eden: The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was a commandment associated with the latter tree: “You must not eat from the tree…
The Voice of One 