Simply Gospel

May my steps be worship. May my thoughts be praise.

  • Getting Started

    I’ve been hosting a couple of site’s through Apple’s MobileMe and editing the sites through RealMac Software‘s excellent RapidWeaver since 2005. I’m considering finally canceling my MobileMe subscription, and I’m testing out WordPress as a possible alternative. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be posting the existing content from those sites to WordPress alongside new content. I’m going to be posting the archival content under the original date to preserve the integrity of my old site, so the site’s archives may look strange for a while. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you find this site useful. Be… Continue reading

  • Faith & Family in Genesis 22

    I recently led a Bible class discussion on Genesis 22 – the occasion of Abraham offering Isaac up to God. It’s a traumatic story filled with Messianic parallels and New Testament imagery, but a couple verses in particular made an impression on me this time through the familiar passage. The first was Genesis 22:5: And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the young man [Isaac] and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” The Hebrew writer, in chapter 11 of his or her book, cites Abraham’s faith that God… Continue reading

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  • The Seed, the Promise, and Ishmael

    Genesis is a good place to appreciate what God sees as most important. At the end of the book, in Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his sons, and, in verse 10, the Messianic promise is passed unto Judah. The book details the line of God’s promise and why certain people are chosen or passed over as God maintains that line. Returning to the beginning of the book provides a key for all that follows. In Genesis 3:15, the promise of enmity between the seed of woman and the devil is first made. Immediately, in Genesis 4 a contrast is drawn… Continue reading

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  • The Paradox of the Christian Life

    What does it mean when we say, “I am a Christian?” We know we are supposed to be different, but that difference occasionally runs contrary to human reasoning. We have died yet live. We have been transformed, yet we remain the same. We are not of this world, yet here we are living and functioning with this world. What is involved – outside of merely making claims of being different – in being a Christian that truly does make us different. Contradictory Ideas Dead Yet Living. Romans 6:1-12 records Paul addressing our death to sin and the things of this… Continue reading

  • The Paradox of Hell

    Through our class studies of Genesis, we talked about some of God’s qualities – His transcendence, His goodness, His love, His patience, and His fairness. One inescapable question, though, is this: how could a loving God send a soul to Hell? How could one so merciful and full of grace condemn a soul to eternal punishment? According to the Princeton Institute, only forty percent believe in Hell, but the Bible speaks of this place repeatedly. It is warned of fifty-five times, and Jesus speaks of this place more often than any other Bible figure. II Peter 2:4 and Jude 13… Continue reading

  • Emotion and Our Religion

    What role does emotion play in our religion and in our salvation? We know that we cannot let emotions rule our lives, nor should we be staid and stoic in our spirituality. How do we know we have a right feeling when it comes to our salvation? What role does emotion play, and does how we feel trump what the Bible says regarding worship? These questions stem from good motivations to move away from unemotional and unfeeling worship, but we have to be careful to avoid swinging the pendulum to the other extreme. Joy and Salvation Are we saved because… Continue reading

  • Cutting a Covenant

    It’s interesting how clear God makes it to His people that He will do things in His way as opposed to their way. However, He often communicates His plan in ways to which we can relate. He makes promises. He creates covenants. He uses imagery and forms familiar to hose with whom He is communicating. The events of Genesis 15 is a passage that is pretty familiar to most of us. Prior to this chapter, God has made promises to Abram regarding a land, a nation, and a blessing through his descendants. This promise is repeated, but, in chapter 15,… Continue reading

  • The Challenge of Love

    To treat others how we want to be treated, to love one another – they are ideas that look easy on paper. If we take a hard look at ourselves, though, we may find we aren’t so good at these simple concepts. God sets out expectations of how we are supposed to live and treat each other. He sets an example of love, and our challenge is to follow that example, to demonstrate the love of God in our lives. In our character, God is the pivot point. When we know how to interact and how to react to God,… Continue reading

  • Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

    Back in 1990, the group Jesus Jones recorded a song called “Right Here, Right Now,” and it was reflective of a time when the world was changing. Communism was falling. The Berlin Wall was coming down. Once again, we see history being made with the inauguration of our first African-American president, and he came to this point on the shoulders of giants. J.C. Watts, Joe Lewis, Eli Whitney, Jesse Jones, Jackie Robinson, Frederick Douglas, Doug Williams, Tony Dungee and others are people have achieved milestones in African-American history. Spiritual Giants Spiritually, we stand on the shoulders of giants. To have… Continue reading

  • The Servant of Isaiah

    Genesis 3:15 is the first instance of God revealing His remedy for solving the problem of sin, and that solution is His Son – the ultimate Servant who would die on our behalf. Isaiah records four Servant psalms, describing this One who would sacrifice Himself. In Acts 8, Philip intercepts a eunuch from Ethiopia who is reading Isaiah 53 – one of the Servant songs. Others include Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 49:3, Isaiah 50:4-11, and Isaiah 52:13-Isaiah 53. In these, we see Jesus and His crucifixion, but the eunuch is confused by these and entreats Philip for help. The Servant of… Continue reading