In this series, we've surveyed what is the Biblical view of culture and examined its religious nature in the practices that form us, the stories that give meaning, and the groups that define us. Today, we conclude this article series on a theology of culture by considering how we should live and...
In our last few articles, we defined what culture is Biblically, then we started taking a look at the religious nature of culture. We saw that it has its own practices that shape us (its liturgies) and its stories that give meaning (its doctrine). In this article we take a look at the third...
In our first article, we laid the groundwork for a Biblical understanding of culture. In the second article, we introduced the concept of the religious nature of culture - arguing that culture is composed of liturgies (practices), stories (doctrine) and groups (community). In this article, we will...
(A minor update to the article was done on Feb, 2022) This past year has brought some of the most stressful and confusing times for many of us. With the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic around late 2019, life seems to have changed so quickly for everyone around the world. We’ve barely had...
In the first entry of this Devotional Commentary, we took a look at chapter 1 of Paul's letter to the Romans. We considered some of the contexts of the letter, its structure and its purpose so that we can better understand the message Paul was conveying. We then took a look at the text,...
"Believe in yourself... Speak your truth... You know what's best… You do you." These are the slogans of our hyper-individualized secular culture. It is me-centered and self-focused. And why not, right? I mean, if I don’t look out for myself, who will? If I don’t love myself, how can I love others?...
While I was serving on mission in Brazil a few years ago, I wrote a devotional commentary on Romans 1 - 7 which I thought I would share here. It is not meant to be an academic commentary but rather was birthed out of my personal study and reflection while serving at Casa Semear, a project of ABBA...
It seems like everyone today has a podcast. Only a few years ago, podcasts were a fairly novel concept. They were the newest iteration of the talk-show radio host. However, according to Podcast Insights, (as of April 2021) there now are over 2 million podcasts and over 48 million episodes! About...
We’ve probably all heard someone say the phrase. Maybe they’ve done something wrong unintentionally and others have judged them harshly, and so the retort comes, “God knows my heart.” Or, maybe it’s in regard to a wayward child or a generally “good” person who is not following the Lord - “God...
It's become a little bit of an internet gag... the quirky selfie with the hashtag "blessed" because of whatever good fortune someone has enjoyed. While this can often just be silly fun, it does point out that we all long for the "blessed life". But what does Jesus say the #Blessed life looks like?...