In the No: Freedom and Belonging Will Never Be Found in the Hookup Culture

Posted on Thursday, November 1, 2018 by Aimee Byrd on Housewife Theologian

After listening to the In the No miniseries on Radiolab, I'm glad to hear more detailed talk about consent. But it's sad to hear how lost people are when discussing friendship, love, sex, power, and freedom.

Radiolab did a series of three podcasts called “In the No” in collaboration with radio maker Kaitlin Priest, whose “mini-series called ‘No’ about her personal struggle to understand and communicate about sexual consent” motivated Radiolab’s host Jad Abumrad to further discuss the difficulties of consent in sexual encounters.

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Thursday: God's Flock and God's Vine

By James Boice

Theme: The Divine Planter of a Vineyard

In this week’s lessons we learn that there is no restoration of God’s favor without repentance.

Scripture: Psalm 80:1-19

The second great metaphor of this psalm is of God as the planter and keeper of a great vineyard and of Israel as his choice and abundant vine. I have identified this image as filling the third stanza of the psalm (vv. 8-18), but in the New International Version the section is itself divided into three stanzas: verses 8-11, 12-15 and 16-18. These deal with the past, the present and the future of the vineyard.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: God's Flock and God's Vine

By James Boice

Theme: Prayer for God’s Favor

In this week’s lessons we learn that there is no restoration of God’s favor without repentance.

Scripture: Psalm 80:1-19

The first time the recurring chorus appears is in verse 3, after the appeal to the great might of Israel's divine shepherd. It is an obvious prayer based on what has been said. What is unusual about it is that the second line seems to be a reference to the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” The psalmist must have heard this blessing a thousand times. So he prays here, "Make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.”

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: God's Flock and God's Vine

By James Boice

Theme: The Shepherd of Israel

In this week’s lessons we learn that there is no restoration of God’s favor without repentance.

Scripture: Psalm 80:1-19

A second striking feature of this psalm is its effective employment of two great images for God: God as Israel's shepherd, developed briefly in the first stanza (vv. 1, 2) and God as the planter and caretaker of a vineyard, which stands for Israel, developed in stanza three (vv. 8-18). The first of these two images, God as Israel's shepherd, is one of the ways the Bible has of describing God to people who, for the most part, lived pastoral lives.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

The Grace of Grieving

by Matthew Holst • October 29, 2018

Ralph Venning, in his work The Sinfulness of Sin describes sin in this way, “Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love, the upbraiding of his providence, the scoff of his promise, the reproach of his wisdom and the rape of his mercy.” May God grant us the grace to see sin for what it is, and yet to see the healing grace and mercy of God in Christ, who has paid the debt for even the “vilest of offenders.”

I recently read Ezra 9 in my morning devotions and was struck by the character of Ezra’s sorrow over the sins of God’s people. His grief was intense; it was profound. His sorrow over the sins of God's people had tangible evidences to it and true effects on God’s people. There are lessons here for us to learn--lessons that will help us understand the nature of sin, the nature of repentance and confession, and the nature of God’s mercy and grace. Consider the following:

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Monday: God's Flock and God's Vine

By James Boice

Theme: A Chorus of Restoration

In this week’s lessons we learn that there is no restoration of God’s favor without repentance.

Scripture: Psalm 80:1-19

What is this restoration for which the psalm is asking? And what does this indicate about its historical setting? The first stanza begins by talking about God as Israel's shepherd, which links it thematically with the earlier two psalms, which also talked about God shepherding his people.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

It's Not Until...

by Nick Batzig • October 26, 2018

There are many Psalms that we neglect until we find ourselves in the difficult circumstances of life. It's not until we go through the trials of life commensurate with those of the Psalmist that will we ever draw strength from the imprecatory Psalms and the Psalms of lament.

 

God's word is so rich and full, we will never be able to exhaust its wisdom, instruction, correction, comfort, encouragement and restorative power in this life. There is much in Scripture that we will never experientially appropriate into our lives until God has placed us in a particularly difficult situation in life. There are many Psalms that we neglect until we find ourselves in the difficult circumstances of life.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: "Where Is Their God?"

By James Boice

Theme: Looking Ahead with Hope and Confidence

In this week’s lessons we learn that when hard times come, we are to wait upon and praise the Lord with expectant hope.

Scripture: Psalm 79:1-13

The last verse of the psalm stands by itself, for this is no longer a case of petition. The prayer has ended. This is rather a faith-filled anticipation of a brighter, future day when God's people will again praise him with full hearts and with fresh memories of what he has done for them (v. 13). It is amazing in its confidence that a day like this will come.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: "Where Is Their God?"

By James Boice

Theme: The Need for Confession

In this week’s lessons we learn that when hard times come, we are to wait upon and praise the Lord with expectant hope.

Scripture: Psalm 79:1-13

We continue looking at the four important questions, confessions or statements in this passage of Psalm 79. Yesterday we looked at the first two, and today we pick up with the second two.

We continue looking at the four important questions, confessions or statements in this passage of Psalm 79. Yesterday we looked at the first two, and today we pick up with the second two.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Reading the Bible: The Importance of Genre

by Tommy Keene • October 24, 2018

Identifying genre will have an incredible affect on your reading of Scripture. It’s as important to reading the Bible as tuning an instrument is to playing music. Understanding the genre of a work helps you read in harmony with what is written. It “attunes” you to its structure, purpose, and language.

The previous two posts in this series argued that one of the reasons we have trouble understanding the Bible is because we do not read it in the ordinary way that books are to be read.

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Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

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