Sadly, there are numerous misconceptions surrounding Christians who wrestle with various forms of mental illness. In my humble opinion, the Church(brothers and sisters in Christ) needs to be better educated on issues related to mental illness. This is so that we are better equipped on how to minister to the needs of believers who have some form of mental illness.
Continue readingPersonally, I take great delight in gleaning new knowledge, insights and lessons from God’s Word and through various Biblically-sound teachers. I am thankful that God has created human beings with a rich intellectual capacity to think, reason, problem-solve and rationalize on the varying complexities of life. Specificially, Christian Scholarship has presented us with an unprecedented level of access to innumerable academic Christian-based resources. While I do believe that God has worked powerfully through Christian Scholarship over the decades, I cannot help but recognize a subtle but very real danger that it sometimes poses to the Church today, namely incentivizing passivity.
Unity among those who belong to the body of believers(the Church) is radically important. When the Church is divided among itself, how can it possibly stand in the face of opposition? Jesus said it best when He tells us that “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand”(Mark 3:25). In order to be fruitful for Kingdom-furthering purposes and effective for defending ourselves against spiritual warfare, we need to come together as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, precisely the opposite is happening today within the Church. There is such a high degree of envy, jealousy, bitterness, backbiting, slander, and gossip among those claiming to be apart of the same Church Body. The world already has enough of this! The last thing that it needs is a Church comprised up of professing believers who cannot even co-operate among themselves. Therefore, the Church will not be able to render sustainable change within the world until those within it begin to work together instead of against one another.
Continue readingThroughout this blog series, it has been my sincere intention and heartfelt desire to communicate the crippling power of fear towards believers. Within this third entry, I plan on providing practical recommendations on how believers can conquer fear in and through their reliance on Jesus Christ.
With the vast advances in social technology enabling us to seamlessly communicate and transmit information among one another, it seems logical to surmise that this degree of interconnectedness would in fact do that which it intends, namely connect us better. Specifically, connecting us better in such a way that we can develop fuller relationships in light of virtually constant, uninterrupted communication despite geographical boundaries which has encumbered us in the past. However, it dismays me to assert that this way of thinking is further from the truth than many are inclined to admit. In an article authored by Rebecca Harris’ called, The Loneliness Epidemic: We’re more Connected than Ever-But We are Feeling More Alone?, she states the following:
“Changes in modern society are considered to be the cause[of loneliness]. We live in nuclear family units, often living large distances away from our extended family and friends, and our growing reliance on social technology rather than face to face interaction is thought to be making us feel more isolated”
Despite the fact that we live in a very fractured world infected with sins of all forms, God’s beautiful grace not only lavishes the lives of believers but it is extended towards non-believers as well. I will refer to this form of grace as God’s Common Grace and, as will be explored below, it exemplifies God’s sovereignty and His all-the-time goodness which is, simply put, impossible to contain, even in a world hostile to God.
In Acts 14:17, Paul and Barnabas frustratingly tell the people in Lystra and Derbe:
“Yet He has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy“
Like with mostly anything, when we as Christians view something as an ultimate, we risk committing the sin of idolatry. As Christians we must ensure that we do not allow anything to obstruct our relationship with God. Most people believe that money in and of itself is evil, but rather it is “…the love of money” which is the real root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). The Lord knows that we require money to live. It is when we relentlessly pursue and desire the accumulation of more and more money, regardless of the costs involved, that we run into problems. This is why it is critically important that we keep Christ above everything else in our lives. Continue reading
Unequivocally, those with faith in God must contend with doubt from time to time (Mark 9:24). What is most important is how we respond to doubts particularly when they target our salvation. Casting doubts into the believer’s mind is easily one of Satan’s most effective weapons as evidenced in Genesis 3 when Satan introduced Eve’s mind to doubt. Think about it for a minute…if Satan is able to cause us to doubt our salvation, or to create a lack of confidence in His Word, then his spiritual attacks are able to gain traction, which cause us to become more vulnerable to temptations.
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Perhaps one of the biggest stumbling blocks towards those entering into a relationship with God through Jesus are derived from religion. From my personal observations, a consistently communicated message towards this topic of discussion is, “I’m not religious, but…”. It appears that being religious is very stigmatized throughout an increasingly pluralistic western society. This is a real tragedy particularly for those living their entire lives afraid of entering into a personal relationship with God under the false impression that religion is somehow a necessary step in doing so. Continue reading
Firstly, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting new content. Life is far from boring. It seems that there is always something new that demands our investment of both time and energy. Clinging close to Jesus Christ through spending time in His Word, serving Him through serving others, and having an active prayer life are all critically important for the Christian’s walk of faith. When life starts to pull me from every direction, I strive to take refuge in Christ by simply coming near to Him and taking comfort that He will in turn come near to me (James 4:8). Continue reading
Theological Reflections 