Why would something that sounds so freeing be crushing? Well, let’s say your whole identity is built on what you can achieve or do. Perhaps you want to be smart, successful, and make lots of money and your identity is wrapped up in that. Now, compare yourself to everyone else who is also embarking on this personal identity making journey. They too want to be smart, successful, and make lots of money. No matter where you look or where you go, there will always be someone else out there who is doing more, making more, and being more than you are. This is true no matter what you base your identity on.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Think about it. Maybe for some of you something physical comes to mind. I knew a man who built his entire house from the ground up. From digging the foundation to creating the architectural plans for his home, he literally made his own house.
Perhaps some of you are thinking of something academic or mental. In college I had a friend who was studying for his MCATs and he studied around the clock his senior year to prepare. Or maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done is related to a decision you had to make on an important issue of life—getting married, having kids, choosing a career, moving to a new place.
All of these situations definitely present challenges, but I’d like to offer a challenge that I think is one of the hardest things you will ever do: create an identity for yourself. Think about it for a moment. This is no easy task! Remember the last time you went on to a website and were prompted with:
Create a username and password
Now imagine on the website of life a prompt coming up:
Create your own identity and live it out
Talk about challenging. What immediately comes to mind? What pieces are integral to who you are? Is it your talents? Write them down and take a look at them. Do any one of them stand out as being the one thing you want to build your identity on?
What about your virtues? Write those down. Now take a look at them.
Kindness
         Patience
         Compassionate
Great virtues, but what happens the next time you are unkind to someone or impatient with someone? What happens to your sense of identity then?
I think you get the point by now. All of these are good things, but they can’t be the ultimate things that generate and sustain our identity. Who we are as individuals is far too important of an enterprise to be left in mere human hands. Consider that all humans have limitations. Consider your limitations. You know your own weaknesses and shortcomings. Do you really want to add “identity creator” to the list of responsibilities?
I don’t know about you, but most days I’m lucky just to get out the door with keys and wallet in tow. Creating my own identity? No way!
That’s why we must go to the Lord for help. There’s a scene in the book of John where Simon Peter and Jesus are having one of those existential life-altering conversations (in my house we call these “come to Jesus” conversations, pun intended). Jesus and Simon Peter are talking about life and the way to God. Jesus asks Simon Peter pointedly toward the end of the conversation if, after all Jesus has shared, Peter wants to walk away from him. To which Simon Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
I so wish I could have been with Jesus during Bible times because I would have loved to have been in conversations like this with Jesus and Peter. I can almost hear the pain, angst, doubt, and hope in Peter’s response. To paraphrase Peter, it’s as if he’s saying, “There’s nowhere else to go to figure out the big issues and questions of life.”
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None of our good works could save us from the wrath to come. God will read from books containing all that we have ever done, and He will judge us based on what is written in the books. It will become plain on that day that there are none good, no not one. But God, being rich in mercy, knew of our helpless estate. He came on a rescue mission to save us from His wrath. Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. 

In the beginning (a good place to start right?), God created the heavens and the earth. When I talk about God, it’s important to know who I am talking about. God is the God of the Bible. He is the creator and sustainer of all things. He is the high and holy One who inhabits eternity, and who orders all things at His will. He is in the heavens and does all that He pleases. And He is also the King. He is the One who gives righteous laws and decrees, and the One to whom we must all give an account.
Which brings me to us. We were created by this holy God. And from the very beginning of our existence, we have sinned against God. He gives us righteous and holy and good laws, and we disobey Him. We rebel against Him as our King. And whereas He is eternal, we are finite. We will die. It is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgement. We have broken God’s law, and we will have to stand before Him when He judges all mankind.
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Leftists have been quick to dismiss the real issues in Springfield and conservatives have been just as fast to sensationalise it. I know some conservatives do not want to hear this, but the truth is, we have become guilty of much of what we hate about the Left.

As a Ghanaian-Canadian immigrant in Ohio, I’m especially attentive to what has become a national story about Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
Since I live just an hour from the city, I considered making a social media post about the story earlier this week. But since I hadn’t investigated the claims for myself, I decided to be slow to speak—or slow to write.
I’m grateful for that. Because like most people—leftists and conservatives—I would have repeated untruthful and unhelpful claims on an issue that is making a big impact on a small city.
Usually, when the Left and the Right have differing views on an issue—one side is wrong and the other is Right. But sometimes, both sides are wrong. That is the case with what is happening in Springfield. The biggest voices on the Left and the Right are wrong about Springfield.
Leftists have been quick to dismiss the real issues in Springfield and conservatives have been just as fast to sensationalise it. I know some conservatives do not want to hear this, but the truth is, we have become guilty of much of what we hate about the Left.
It seems like many of us are willing to pause discernment on claims that draw attention to real issues, especially in the middle of a crucial presidential election.
Many Republican voters are convinced Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating people’s cats and dogs. To my shame, I also initially believed the accusations. Donald Trump mentioned the claims in the presidential debate earlier this week, and it’s since become maybe the biggest topic in America.
But after doing research, including talking to godly, trustworthy people I know in the Springfield area, it’s evident that the claims are malicious lies.
The origins of the false accusations stem from a real case about a woman in Canton, Ohio who was arrested last month for killing and eating a cat. The woman is a black citizen, not a Haitian immigrant. Also, Canton is almost three hours away from Springfield.
Seemingly, some people on the Right discovered this case and used it to make horrible claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
That, however, doesn’t mean leftists are right to ignore the frustrations of citizens in Springfield. As my friend Darvio Morrow says in his latest article for Newsweek:
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Written by Benjamin L. Gladd |
Friday, September 20, 2024
Once we’ve detected the Old Testament quotation or allusion and explored the Old Testament background, now we must take a step back and ask the million-dollar question: How is the apostle using the Old Testament? New Testament writers don’t interpret and apply the Old Testament the same way each time. Most contemporary readers assume the apostles only use the Old Testament along an axis of promise and fulfillment. While the apostles certainly read the entire sweep of the Old Testament as anticipating Christ (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39), they often use the Old Testament to undergird a moral principle or to make a simple analogy. 

I don’t remember the first time I heard the words “biblical theology.” I do, though, remember the first time hearing a professor trace a theme through the Scriptures and connect it to Christ and the church. I was mesmerized.
I grew up in a dispensational environment, so it wasn’t natural for me to read the Bible as a whole, to read the Old Testament in view of Christ and his work. Perhaps this is why I’m so passionate about reading the two Testaments in concert.
Biblical theology concerns the sweep of God’s plan of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. It studies the plotline of Scripture, taking inventory of its themes and watching how these themes intersect with one another eventually climaxing in Christ and the new creation. In the last three decades, there have been a plethora of books on biblical theology. But as much as I enjoy reading these books and listening to biblical-theological sermons, I don’t come across many resources that instruct the church on how to “do” biblical theology.
Robust biblical theology is always wedded to Scripture, because biblical theology prevents artificial connections that can lead to odd or spurious theological conclusions. Good biblical theology is textual, always rooted in Scripture’s soil. A healthy way—perhaps the best way—to do biblical theology is to follow the lead of the apostles and examine how the apostles wed the Old Testament to their discourse. Once we discover these inner-biblical links, we can organically build on them.
Let’s examine the well-known passage of Luke 2:32 as a case study for doing good biblical theology and discover four important principles.
1. Look for Old Testament quotations and allusions.
The apostles quote the Old Testament about 350 times and allude to it 3,000 to 4,000 times. With all these inner-biblical connections, we should be in the habit of reading the New Testament expectantly. When we consult the cross-references in the margins of our Bible, we discover that Luke 2:29–32 contains a battery of allusions to Isaiah:
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;for my eyes have seen your salvation [Isa. 40:5; 49:6; 52:10]that you have prepared [40:3] in the presence of all peoples,a light for revelation to the Gentiles [42:6; 49:6; 52:10], and for glory to your people Israel.
Here in the hymn, known as the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon extols God and predicts that Jesus is the source of Israel’s “salvation” who will become “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32). For our purposes here, we’ll focus solely on Simeon’s allusion to Isaiah 49:6 (cf. 24:47).
2. Examine the Old Testament context.
The second step is a tall task because we must consider the immediate and broad context of the Old Testament quotation or allusion.
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Prayer is not a side issue. A nice panacea for us when we’re in trouble. A little mantra we chant to make us feel better. Prayer connects us to the God of heaven and can thus do anything God can do. It is not “A” work; it is “THE” work of the believer. We are called to pray about everything; to pray without ceasing. It is our foundational activity.

If God is God, then there are things He values. Some things are important to Him, while others have no meaning or can even be offensive.
God mentions prayer over 650 times in the Scriptures. So, how important are our prayers?
A Sobering Silence
In the great revelation of things to come given to John, there is a stunning period of total silence in heaven.
When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)
What could be so important that all of heaven stops in dead silence? Reading ahead, we see that the mighty final judgments of God were about to be hurled upon the earth for its wickedness. These judgments will be a time of incredible noise and tumult. But preceding these judgments, there is total silence brought about by one thing.
Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. (Revelation 8:3-4)
All of heaven stops for one thing: the prayers of all the saints. Our prayers silence heaven. There are many interpretations of what this heavenly pause means, but this much should be easily understood:
Prayer is important to God.
He created us in His image to rule with Him.
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Basham’s Shepherds for Sale is a book that addresses the political and market captivity of the church from a particular angle. It does so with greater or lesser effectiveness with regard to the charges she makes. But her ultimate point is that the church is often subject to influences that may be hostile to its actual mission. And that is the takeaway that should persist long after the specific controversies are exhausted.

Megan Basham’s bestselling new book Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda has created a massive furor. Those of us who live (and especially those of us who work) in the evangelical community in the U.S. are doing a great deal of reading, talking, reviewing, and yes, battling, over Basham’s claims.  She argues with great force (and to a contested degree with “the receipts”) that various evangelical elites have sold out the church in order to obtain left-wing money and status. Significant individuals such as Eric Metaxas (famed Christian author and broadcaster) and Kelly Kullberg (editor of Finding God at Harvard) have supported and promoted Basham’s book, while several others such as the apologist Neil Shenvi and the president of Ministry Watch, Warren Smith, have offered strong critiques. Given that Basham has built part of her case by pointing at popular figures such as J. D. Greear (megachurch pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention) and Gavin Ortlund (the well-known Christian author and apologist), the conflict has been intense as allies of her targets seek to defend them (and others) from charges of unfaithfulness and compromise in the pursuit of worldly acclaim.
Is Basham right? Has she uncovered a scandal that must be revealed to the flock in the pews? The answer is that it is complicated. And it is more complicated than one might understand simply by reading the book.
My interest is not in striking a blow either for or against Basham and the like-minded folks who feel empowered and justified by her claims. Rather, I want to talk about why I think the book is important and how a more expansive framework might help us understand the strife and atmosphere of suspicion more accurately.
One of the organizations Basham discusses is the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention. While I have never been an employee of the organization, I have been a fellow of the ERLC for many years now, and I have written for their publications and participated in their programs. I had an acquaintance with Russell Moore, who is a target of the book. My experience of the ERLC is that it advocates public policy that Baptists consider important, such as religious liberty and the sanctity of life.
Several years ago, I participated in a meeting at the ERLC in Nashville aimed at generating a group statement on the ethics of artificial intelligence. We had a barbecue dinner at a restaurant the night before our meeting, stayed in a nearby hotel (probably a Hampton), and then convened for a productive discussion of artificial intelligence followed by drafting of a document. We had also had some virtual meetings prior to the event.
There was a feature of the meeting that is noteworthy in light of the controversy caused by Basham’s book: she has documented significant contributions by left-wing groups to major evangelical organizations as a way of demonstrating that these groups are buying influence on issues such as same-sex marriage, climate, race relations, and immigration. In attendance at our meeting, and understood to be a financial sponsor of it, was a representative of the Koch Foundation. For those not familiar with Koch, the group pushes for a more libertarian/small government philosophy. They would generally be classified on the Right side of American politics. The young man from Koch did not exert a strong force on our meeting or our discussion. He merely mentioned once or twice that the Koch Foundation’s position is that “a light regulatory touch” is preferable. He certainly made no effort to guide the course of our conversation or to affect the written document.
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Forgiveness is a difficult doctrine, both to understand and to practice. There will, unfortunately, be situations in all our lives that will require us to extend extraordinary forgiveness to another person. And when those times come, the Lord will be near to help us process our pain and grief, and his Spirit will gently and faithfully get us to a place where we can forgive. 

Understanding Forgiveness
The biblical concept of forgiveness is so rich and multifaceted that there are a million aspects of the doctrine we could spend years pondering and trying to fully understand. Likewise, if we are talking about forgiveness as it relates to one person forgiving another person, the spectrum on which the need for forgiveness falls is vast. Some of us are struggling to forgive something harsh said to us—others of us have suffered horrific abuse and are trying to figure out what forgiveness even looks like and where to begin.
What we’ll reflect on here relates primarily to the former: those of us who are having a hard time forgiving someone who has misunderstood or misrepresented us, who holds a different view theologically or politically than we do—or who frankly just gets on our nerves. Psalm 103 helps us navigate such situations by revealing key attributes that characterize God, and that by extension, should be true of those who bear his name. These characteristics help us by putting our frustrations and disappointments—our need to forgive— in perspective.
Psalm 103:8 uses a refrain found throughout the Old Testament to teach us what God is like:
The Lord is merciful and gracious,slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Throughout the Bible we are told that the Lord is “slow to anger.” We sin and rebel and disobey like petulant children, and yet God’s steadfast love holds us tight. He isn’t perpetually angry with or irritated by us, even though he has every reason and right to be.
But if there is any phrase that does not describe the world we live in—or our own natural, response to offenses—“slow to anger” is it. Left by ourselves, every minor slight is more offensive than it truly is. We get mad fast and our anger lingers. When someone upsets us, we want an apology, and we want it yesterday.
Forgiveness and being “slow to anger” are closely related. The truth is, we would have less to forgive if we weren’t so quick to get irritated. Anger clouds our thoughts and makes us believe that things are true even when they aren’t. Ecclesiastes 7:9 warns us to:
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
Misplaced or Unjustified Anger
Misplaced or unjustified anger makes us think and act irrationally. In fact, sin is so devious it can even trick us into thinking we are due forgiveness, when in reality we should be seeking it.
People who are quick to get angry tend to also be people who are slow to forgive. This is one reason the Bible emphasizes the link between anger and forgiveness. God’s word exhorts us not to cling to offenses, but rather to overlook them in love.
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Delight requires dedication. It requires discipline. Tuning out the world to center our attention on the God of the universe seems like it should be easy, but experience proves otherwise. Therefore, we must heed the words of the apostle Paul who said, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7b NASB). Consistent, diligent meditation on the Word of God will bring us the delights of a blessed life.

Every morning is an opportunity for us to experience the blessed life Christ has laid out for us. Each day, our delight can be filled to the brim, not through the mudpies of this world but with a five-course meal laid out by the Creator of the universe. We get more than the shallow promises of the prosperity gospel with its misleading claims of the power of positive thinking wrapped in Christian jargon. We receive far more than the negative buffet of depressing clickbait offered by digital and social media. In Christ, our spiritual thirst is quenched with Living Water (John 7:38). In him, our spiritual hunger is satisfied by the Bread of Life (John 6:35).
This delightful, blessed living is costly but won’t break the bank. You don’t need to make a down payment or monthly installment plan to start experiencing it today. All you need is the Word of God, a readied heart, and a willingness to use your mind for the glory of God. Psalm 1 introduces us to a blessed man who doesn’t live his life according to worldly ways. Instead, “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:1–2).
True blessedness isn’t found in the treasures of this world. They’ll either vanish shortly after we grasp them, or we’ll lose our grip on them when we close our eyes and enter eternity. True pleasure comes not from minding earthly cares or mindlessly binging on the delicacies of our digital Babylon. Rather than the bread of anxious toil, our souls crave the bread of life (Ps. 127:2). We eat from the King’s table, laid out from end to end with fresh-baked bread, cold-pressed olive oil, flawlessly roasted asparagus tips, and melt-in-your-mouth lamb seasoned with the freshest rosemary, thyme, and oregano. But we must ignore the smell of the ultra-processed, chemical-laden McDonald’s on our way to the palace.
Why Do We Choose Displeasure Over Delight?
Why would anybody choose a lifetime of table scraps, TV dinners, and the occasional bag of Taco Bell over gourmet cuisine at no cost? Some palates are more attuned to inexpensive or lower-quality foods, even if finer foods are offered. I grew up eating barbecue bologna—don’t knock it till you try it!—and I still eat it at my dad’s barbecues to this day. There’s a nostalgic sense of connection to my culture and upbringing. So it is with our souls. Sometimes we choose the latest celebrity gossip or sin-laden movie because that’s what we’ve always enjoyed. Instead of hymns filled with rich gospel truth, we choose shallower types of music that lodge worldly creeds deep in our subconscious.
Another reason is that some of the tastiest and healthiest foods require a mature palate to enjoy them.
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When it comes to real life, however, it’s probably safe to say that most people would appreciate more “spoilers.” Just thinking about the various tasks I can do on my phone in a matter of seconds is a reminder that finite, unsovereign creatures daily grasp for certainty. The weather forecast tells me what time a storm will come, the GPS tells me how many minutes the traffic jam will last, and the power-company app tells me when the lights will come back on. If we’re honest, we like these modern technologies because they make us feel just a little bit more in control in a fallen world that daily burdens us not only with present trials but also with potential trials. We might be discouraged about what happened yesterday, but we’re also anxious about what may happen next week.
Though our desire for certainty often manifests itself in sinful fear or a prideful attempt to defy our creatureliness, the desire for certainty isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Consider the holy certainty of God, for whom nothing is mysterious or unknown. He is not sitting on His throne imagining how He will respond if His plans are foiled, but rather, “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Ps. 2:4). Why is He laughing? The nations rage, the peoples plot, and “the kings of the earth set themselves . . . against the Lord” (v. 2), but God is absolutely certain of who He is, and thus He is not alarmed or troubled whatsoever. His reign is eternal and indestructible, and He laughs at man’s feeble attempts to defy it.
Amazingly, God does not keep this laughter to Himself but desires His children to be laughing along with Him. We see this laughter in the God-fearing woman of Proverbs 31, who is clothed in strength and dignity, and “laughs at the time to come” (v. 25). This is no naive, “glass-half-full” laughter that turns a blind eye to the inevitable trials and frustrations of life in a fallen world. This laughter flows from an unwavering conviction that He who sits in the heavens is not only God Almighty but also perfect Father, who not only cares for but also communicates with His children. Weaving an astonishing narrative of redemption, He clearly reveals Himself in a Word that is fully trustworthy and sufficient. And through that Word, He beckons us to keep laughing—not by giving us a play-by-play of the next presidential election or a detailed timeline of our children’s sanctification; no, God’s Word does not eliminate earthly uncertainties, but it illuminates heavenly realities.