The Ten Words: The Third
Names. We all have one, or two or three, maybe even four or five! Names identify us, don’t they? At least to some degree. Yet, we recognize that we are more than merely our name(s). My parents could have decided…
Tag Anger
Let’s Study the Beatitudes! Part 9, Persecution
There was a time when 2 Timothy 3:12 worried me. In it, Paul tells Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” It wasn’t the idea of persecution that worried me, but…
What the Bible Teaches About Depression and Happiness
An old spiritual laments, “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows my sorrows.” A modern rock song languishes, “You don’t know how it feels to be me!” But Jesus does. In Matthew 26:36-46, Jesus’s agonizing, lonely prayers in Gethsemane…
What the Bible Teaches About Anger and Peace
To understand anger and its peaceful Biblical therapies, we make use of the Puritan John Downame’s book, The Cure of Unjust Anger.[1] Downame focuses on Ephesians 4:26 to frame his discussion: Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the…
The Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness
There are tremendous pressures in our culture. Talk radio proclaims that “America, as we know it, has been, or soon will be lost.” Members of Christ’s church can succumb to fear and the cries that “we need to do…
The Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness
Kindness is easily pondered, but not so easily carried out. We live in an age of velliety, where simply publishing our desires for kumbaya and world peace are lauded as good deeds, and nice intentions are stated as if they…