Don't Lead with Wrestling
By Ryan Matthias
01/30/26
6mins

Don't Lead with Wrestling

When we consider our own end, it will not bring us into a final wrestling match with the messenger of God, but into the embrace of the Messiah of God.
The Callings of Jesus
Jason Oakland
Jason Oakland
01/29/26

The Callings of Jesus

What do such callings look like? They are ordinary and everyday.
Why Christian Tradition? Why Absolution and Mercy
Donavon Riley
Donavon Riley
01/28/26

Why Christian Tradition? Why Absolution and Mercy

This is the third in a series meant to let the Christian tradition speak for itself, the way it has carried Christians through long winters, confusion, and joy for centuries.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/30/13

Burying the Hatchet: Why Forgiving Others Is So Hard Yet So Liberating

I believe, however, that lurking behind every reason we don't forgive is one fundamental impulse: the desire, real or perceived, to control the offender.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/25/13

Dying to Pray

The reason is much simpler than that: to learn to pray, you must first die. The language of prayer is taught in the school of death.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/23/13

Following the Trail of Blood: Words for the Church as Reformation Looms Nigh

O such is the crumbling fortress of the god of this world, but how it entices our flesh! For it looks like a house of candy to the Hansels and Gretels who wander through this world.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/16/13

The Three Friends Who Sought to Kill Death: A Cautionary Tale for Preachers

What is most remarkable about this tale is not how clever it is, but that the original storyteller was just as greedy as the three fictional young men were.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/03/13

Bloodshed at the Altar: The Genesis of Worship Wars

Why would God reject from Cain what he later accepted from and mandated of his people? So as far as the material itself, neither Cain’s nor Abel’s offering was superior.
Jessica Thompson
Jessica Thompson
07/22/13

Weakness is the Way

This past weekend I was celebrating my dear friend’s wedding the way I always celebrate: by working it out on the dance floor. I love to dance, though I am fairly certain now that dancing does not love me back.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/19/13

Enemies with Benefits

Indeed, our Lord pronounced no beatitude upon the man who is loved by his wife and cherished by his children, but He does say, "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me," (Mt 5:11).
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/27/13

Praying in Tears, Snot, and Screams

I was full of pain and empty of speech, babbling like a baby who knows he hurts but can’t explain where or why or what he needs to assuage the anguish. Here was the sheer helplessness of being unable to communicate with God in this moment of deepest desperation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/24/13

A Compartmentalized Life: Keeping God in His Place

I don’t need to watch a blood-soaked story on CNN or visit someone of death row to familiarize myself with the beast of depravity crouched within the human heart. I just need to look in the mirror, to stare deeply into the eyes that are a window to a soul that has journeyed down dark paths whose only illumination comes from the fires of hell.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/10/13

"I Sure Hope SHE'S listening to this sermon!"

She against whom I preached, in her unexpected response actually “preached” to me three truths I have never forgotten.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/22/13

Call Me Lazarus

What I will tell you is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite what you think and feel and imagine, God is indeed in that dark place. You don’t know it, but he’s licking your wounds, too. And he’s keeping the deeper, blacker darkness at bay.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/21/13

Out of the Depths

For since it was not enough that the Lord of heaven and earth hung on your every word, his Word was made flesh and prayed among us, a priest in the order of Melchizedek, “offering up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save Him from death,” (Heb 5:7).
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