By Bethany Mathis
Originally Published in Be Still Magazine, Issue 11
As a very young child, I remember thinking I needed to decide my future and learn all I could about my purpose in life. I was a fairly intense kid.…
The Devil Knows the Bible, Do You?
The Sovereignty of God
It Was the Will of the Lord to Crush Him
By Joy Lopes
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co.
Honesty Hour
A tainted view that I held for many years and have heard from the hearts and mouths of believing and unbelieving friends alike, is that God the Father only loves us because of what Jesus did on the cross—that before Jesus’ sacrifice, God did not love or want me and that His wrath was against me fully and finally, until Jesus stepped in to appease Him.
The lie of those words feels heavy even to write, but it is something I believed for a long time. In those years of misunderstanding, I did not know there was anything wrong with my theology—what I believed about God. I figured it did not matter much because I was in Christ, and so God the Father saw Him and not me anymore. I thought I was hidden from Him; I did not have to face His disappointment, disapproval, or rejection. In a way, it was like I had disappeared completely, and only Christ was left–which is not wholly false.
Scripture Interprets Scripture
But I would read verses like Galatians 2:20 which says that I have been crucified with Christ and He is now the One who lives, and I would use that to fuel that misconception of Father God’s view of me. The Scriptures themselves do not pollute our understanding of God, but the preconceptions we bring to them can influence our application, or misapplication, of the Bible. This is why we need Scripture to interpret Scripture for us and not our own, extrabiblical ideas. This means that we should rely on other parts of the Bible to shape our understanding of more difficult passages and continually ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.
If I had allowed the rest of the Bible to influence my understanding of Galatians 2:20, I would have understood that while its words were completely true—that I have been crucified with Christ and that He lives perfectly in my place before the Father—I would have also seen that Jesus’ blood covers me in this way because the Father purposed that it should, in order to draw me near to Himself. His blood cleanses me to make me presentable to the Father, not to hide me from His view (Ephesians 5:25-27).…
Finding Hope in the Valley
By Lauren Bowerman
Originally Published in Be Still Magazine, Issue 9
…The next best thing to living in the light of the Lord’s love is to be unhappy til we have it, and to pant hourly after it…when it is as natural for us to long for God as for an animal to thirst, it is well with our souls, however painful our feelings.
Storing Up Spiritual Wisdom
Let Your Tongue Lead You to the Cross
Cloudy Vision
By Cara Cobble Trantham
Originally published in Be Still Magazine, Issue 6
In the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:1
In our times of grief and desperation, that is often when we most need a vision of the Lord.…
Three Impacts of Tackling the Hard Parts of the Bible
But Is He Kind?
By Joanna Kimbrel
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co.
“The Lord is righteous in all His ways.” These words from Psalm 145:17 have often been a comfort to me. A reassuring reminder in the midst of brokenness. I look around and see circumstances that are out of my control, injustice that appears unrighted, and events whose purposes I cannot understand.…