“Be Strong and Courageous” — Decoding Joshua 1:5-9 For Everyone
Joshua 1:5-9 was one of the first Bible passages I memorized as a teenage Jesus Freak. It’s a challenge to be brave following the path God placed before us (Hebrews…
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agape
6 posts
The Objective Reality of Love and Truth: Neuroscience, Ontology, & the Gospel
“God is love.” — 1 John 4:8 Love and truth are objective realities that manifest in and through subjective human experiences. They’re not merely private sentiments but observable forces with…
The Neuro-Theology of Agape: The Greatest Command(s) and the Mind/Body Problem
“The left hemisphere needs certainty and needs to be right. The right hemisphere makes it possible to hold several ambiguous possibilities in suspension together without premature closure on one outcome.”…
Agapology: The Theological Absence of Love
Over a decade ago, while serving as a youth pastor in Eastern Montana, I read Greg Boyd’s The Myth of A Christian Nation. Boyd pointed out a striking irony: despite…
Faith Doesn’t Matter: The Implications of 1 Corinthians 13
Love is greater than faith. In the Christian realm of systematic theology, this could shake people to their existential core. Paul had no problem voicing Love matters more in every way that matters than Faith. It's the same thing he said in the opening verses: if you have faith but not love, you're nothing and gain nothing. James' stance on good work equaling faith is basically the same concept: real faith produces good works (all examples "loving" people) or else that faith is dead.
Unmasking Love: Beyond the Facade of Validation
Genesis 2:25 tells us humanity was "naked" and "unashamed." That's right before the serpent messed up our narratives. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they saw themselves differently. Shame showed up, and everything changed. It makes sense, then, that whatever God would do to fix the world would involve dealing with that shame. Shame gets in the way of love for us humans.
