“O Lord, How Long Shall I Cry, and You Will Not Hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). This question, asked by Habakkuk, was born out of a “burden” that consumed him. He faced a moral dilemma: how could a holy God — who had called Israel the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10) — now allow the pagan Babylonians to besiege and ultimately destroy the city of Jerusalem and take away the Jews into captivity? If we are honest, most of us have felt like Habakkuk. We, too, have been burdened by the seeming inactivity of our God. We too have bombarded the […]

“What Does It Profit, My Brethren, If Someone Says He Has Faith but Does Not Have Works? Can Faith Save Him?” (James 2:14). Throughout Christian history, people have tried to pit Paul, with his emphasis on grace, against James, with his emphasis on works. The apparent conflict has been presented like the main event of a heavyweight prizefight: “In this corner, wearing the grace trunks, is the apostle Paul, born in Tarsus, educated by the renowned Gamaliel, and the undisputed brilliant mind of this new movement called Christianity! He says, ‘By grace you have been saved through faith, and that […]

(Scroll down to leave a comment on how you are resistant to the customs of this world.) Daniel 1:1–8 Daniel was keenly aware of the temptation to yield to the pressures of the culture around him. After all, he was a long way from home, and who would really know if he, for instance, changed his diet? Yet he chose to resist the pressures and not to give in to them. He drew the line. Note, however, that he went along with some things, nonessentials like learning the language or reading Babylon’s history. But Daniel resisted at each and every […]