Rebellion, at its core, is the idea that we can do what we want, no matter the consequence or price.  This was the heart issue of Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden.  They had divine instruction not to eat of the tree, yet in the face of that holy standard they chose to feed the flesh.  They bought into the lie of liberty.  The serpent promised freedom in his deceptively-packaged proposal, but what they found was bondage. Their self-empowerment led to self-defeat.  What deadly taste was the fruit of man’s mutiny!

The Misunderstanding of Liberty

“I can do …

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously introduced classical conditioning to the world through the salivation of his dog.  His research showed that certain behaviors could be controlled and dictated through certain provocations.  Anytime he would introduce his dog to a particular stimulus, be it a bell or a drum beat, he would give the canine some food.  Over a period of time, the dog began to associate the bell and the beat with the food that his master gave him.  Eventually, through the conditioning process, the dog would salivate just by the ringing of the bell or the beating of the …

Pride is an ironic altar where those who are consumed with glory bow down to themselves.  It is there the parishioner trades his sacrifice, his humility, his service for a pompous seat upon a throne –one engraved with the intricacies of arrogance and conceit.

Ironic indeed.  For at this shrine, the god and the worshiper are one and the same.  Pride is idolatry in its purest form.  Pride is the love of self, the embrace of “all things you.”  Benjamin Franklin said, “There is perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, …

Have you ever noticed the various ways Jesus engaged those who came to Him with afflictions?  Sometimes Jesus touched the frail bodies of the diseased.  Other times He simply spoke a Word of rebuke to the unclean spirits.  Still other times, He only gave a word of promise.  Once, He actually spit on the ground and made clay to press upon the eyes of the blind.

My point is simple: Christ worked in a variety of ways depending on the person’s faith and ailment.  He didn’t do things the exact way every time.  There wasn’t a cookie-cutter answer for every …

We tend to think of holiness as a “starchy starkness” from the world.  Holiness is the absence of secular thought and things, we contend.  Therefore, if we stay away from such insidious and polluting notions we are, by default, holy.  This concept of holiness may very well keep you out of the court room, but it will not guarantee you a place at the throne room.  The idea of holiness cannot just be “separation from,” it must also be “separation to.”

Are You Running From or Running To?

A holy life is not just separation from worldly things, it is …