Help! I Find Myself Perpetually Discontent
Contentment is something that we, as Christians, must regularly work to cultivate. By not working on our contentment, we are working on our discontentment.
Articles on Sin
325 results found
The Spirit’s Work of Conviction through the Conscience of a Sinner
The work of conviction of sin on those who expected it not, who desired it not, and who would avoid it if by any means possible they could.
The Quickest to Anger Are Often the Slowest to Forgive
The biblical concept of forgiveness is so rich and multifaceted that there are a million aspects of the doctrine we could spend years pondering and trying to fully understand.
What Does It Mean to Mortify the Sins of the Body?
The vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.
Praying in Jesus’s name is an acknowledgement of our total dependence on his provision. We push away from any personal claim on God’s blessing and lean entirely on Christ’s provision.
Sin is deceptive, both in its capacity to tempt us to follow its lead and in the way it confuses and clouds our thinking.
It is the Spirit’s work to help us see our sin. This drives us to Jesus for forgiveness, and this is very good.
Is “Mental Illness” a Helpful Label?
Labels can be helpful in beginning to describe or define what we are talking about, but labels can also cause difficulties.
What the Atonement Means for You
In our sin, we—who were created to know, love, and obey the God of all glory—stand guilty and condemned before him; we cannot save ourselves.
God Doesn’t Love You Because You’re Special or Good
God loves his people despite their sin against him. He loves them before they love him back, and before there’s anything in them worthy of his love. But his love doesn’t stop there.
The Fruit of the First Sin Was Shame
We feel shame when some fault, imperfection, or vulnerability of ours conflicts with what we think we should be. Finding this shameful, we attempt to hide.
An Open Letter to Victims of Abuse
Justin S. Holcomb, Lindsey A. Holcomb
Disgrace is the opposite of grace. Grace is love that seeks you out even if you have nothing to give in return.
What Freedom from Sin Looks Like in This Life
It’s natural to feel frustrated that you’re still staring down the same habits of sin in your life.
God’s People Are a Forgetful People
We human beings are forgetful by nature. I do not mean in a finite sense but in a fallen sense. We forget because we choose to forget.
The Surprising Truth about Legalism
The root of legalism is almost as old as Eden, which explains why it is a primary, if not the ultimate, pastoral problem.
Why Contentment Stems from a Thankful Heart
If the contentment goes and the giving of thanks goes, we are not loving God as we should, and proper desire has become coveting against God.
Podcast: Should Christians Fear God? (Michael Reeves)
What is the Bible getting at when it commands us to fear the Lord? Is it ever sinful to fear?
Hopelessness Leads Us to the True Hope of Christmas
God created our lives to be propelled and directed by hope, and he meant our capacity for hope to drive us to him.
The Importance of the Gathered Church
Love is messy. You know what else? The gospel is messy. It means loving sinners—people like you and me.
Can we simply say “no” whenever we are tempted?
This Lenten Season, Place Your Pride on His Altar
This Lenten season, don’t just give up physical stuff. How about coming to God with the pleasing sacrifice of confession? Come to him and confess your wandering heart.
Life is a war for glory. Even those of us who have rested in Jesus to bring an end to our battle for glory still fight skirmishes in which we feel our reputations are at risk.
3 Questions about Christ’s Sinlessness
Temptation cannot be defined in terms of the capacity of the one tempted to succumb. Temptation is enticement to sin from whatever source.
However baptism is conducted, we go under the water as a picture of our death with Christ and we rise up from the water as a picture of our resurrection with Christ.
What the Church Today Needs to Hear from the Book of Revelation
This message to patiently endure persecution for Christ is a message our church needs today. And if where we are right now means we don’t need it today, maybe we will tomorrow.
Dear Pastor . . . Save Your Church from Yourself
Pastor, you also must keep a close watch on yourself. Neglect your own soul, and your public teaching, however seemingly fruitful, is a ticking time bomb.
Work in the New Heavens and New Earth
This side of the sin at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, our work is ruined by all manner of afflictions moral, physical, emotional, and mental.
Dear Pastor . . . We Are Out of Balance
The world as God created it was designed with perfect balance. What is balance? It is everything in its right place doing what it was meant to do. We cannot even picture such a world.
6 Purposes for Plural Leadership
Leading in community puts us under a holy spotlight. But it’s all part of God’s plan and protection.
The Depressing Dead End of “Your Truth”
Your truth. Those two words are so entrenched in our lexicon today that we hardly recognize them for the incoherent nightmare that they are.