Tag Archives: Christians

Beauty, Gender Roles, and Freedom

So, I have this friend who has recently lost a lot of weight. When I commented on how good she looks now, she said she didn’t see it. Being the loving, encouraging friend that I am, I told her to go look in the mirror. Then she said that her whole life her mom told her that “there’s always something to make better.” Now, I don’t think that her mom was being cruel or malicious in any way. I think that, as a cosmetologist, she just had a hard time leaving work at work. She gets paid to help people look their best, and it’s hard to shut that off when you go home. I mean, it’s hard for all of us to leave work at work. I spent most of my life doing technical support where I pointed out problems and offered solutions. That’s great at work, but sometimes it can be very annoying around my friends and family. However, I think this illustrates a concept that has been so driven into our culture that we barely even notice what it does to us anymore.

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VisionsBlur

We all remember the moment when the gospel became clear. Maybe not a definitive moment in which we confessed Christ as Lord, but the moment when we realized that the gospel was all about what Jesus did for us, and not about trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. The moment when we realized that Christ’s work on the cross satisfied everything we owed God for our sin, making us righteous in God’s sight. The blended picture of Christ on the cross, where God nailed our debt to the cross (Col. 2:14), and of the risen Lord walking out of the tomb was crystal clear.
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The Hole in Our Holiness

It’s not often that I come across a book that would be classified as “Christian Living” that takes my breath away. Kevin DeYoung’s latest book, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness, is definitely one of those books. The Hole in Our Holiness is captivating, convicting, and encouraging at the same time. And when John Piper described this book as “ruthlessly Biblical,” he wasn’t kidding.
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When Words Cease to Flow…

Writing seems to come easily for me. Normally, anyway. But there are times when words cease to flow. I feel so lazy when I don’t write, because I know the content of my writing stems from deep thought about topics that I feel really matter. Faith, Theology, Christianity, the Gospel. My writing flows from contemplating these things. Yet, there are times when I have nothing to say. Nothing pressing on my mind. No feeling of “If I don’t write this, my heart is going to burst!” This scares me, to a degree, because it reminds me that I probably haven’t been reading and thinking deeply enough to cause such an overflow of words poured out onto a page.
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Singleness, Friendships, and the Glory of God

Anyone who knows me knows that I pretty much have no room to give relationship advice. I’m ok with that. But after being single for 27 out of 29 years (Sometimes it felt like I was going for a record), I think I can talk about singleness, and by God’s grace, hopefully do so well.
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