Archive for May 2020

One of my favorite hobbies is hiking. I love finding a new trail, tackling the unknown terrain and enjoying the beauty and peace of nature. There’s so much to reflect on and experience along the way. And in the end, there’s nothing like the satisfaction of making it to the top and viewing the city below me. Our lives are a bit like a hike. We are all journeying in some way. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we set our paths towards certain experiences and aim for a desired destination.

God’s Love is the love of a Father, Creator, and Friend. The Bible is full of examples of how He has shown His love to people throughout history. He showed love to Adam, first by warning him of the danger of temptation, and then, when Adam had to leave the garden because of his sin, by both clothing him and by promising to fix the evil that Adam had caused. He showed His love to His people in Israel by saving them from the oppression of the Egyptians and continually calling them back to Himself when they disobeyed (again and again and again).

I’ve been spending a good amount of my time studying the biblical doctrine of faith and hope. In doing so I uncovered this gem from John Bunyan and thought you might enjoy. (I’ve tried to modernize the language or summarize where necessary)

Here are nine ways which faith and hope are different and yet work together:

Unity in the Christian church has been a challenging thing since the earliest days of Christianity. The importance of getting Christian belief and behavior right, coupled with the open-to-interpretation nature of much of Scripture, leads to VERY strong feelings and uncompromising convictions on all manner of Christian theology and praxis.