pastor || writer || speaker
It is one thing to talk about forgiveness of sin and another thing to talk about how we respond when others sin against us. Earlier this week, I wrote about the necessity of complete forgiveness from Jesus' words in Luke 17: If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, …
Continue reading "When You Are Sinned Against: Thoughts from Luke 17"
When we come into community, we are brought together with quirky people who are different from us and who are sinners. Being one in Christ is a powerful reality, but it doesn't obliterate the distinctive personalities and blunders people have. Because of this, one of the most important words we ever encounter in the Bible …
Continue reading "Seven: The Number of Complete Forgiveness"
In my readings of Genesis this week, I was struck by two different stories about sin. Adam & Eve with the Fruit (Genesis 3) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. …
Continue reading "See – Good – Take: The threefold movement of sin"
The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading. Lamentations 2:14 As the author of Lamentations weeps over the desolation of Jerusalem and the people of God, as he says again and again that God's …
Philip Yancey, that most exquisite of evangelical writers, has an excellent, brief article on sin and brokenness that I read this morning. Yancey's take on things connects deeply with me. The connection between sin and brokenness at both the personal and social level is one that I have spent a lot of time pondering. (You …
Matthew Erickson 