Learned Obedience

Obedience is a learned behavior. It’s not innate. It’s something we practice. It’s a discipline that’s borne over time and circumstance.

Despite these assumptions, I often forget that God places us in situations in which to grow our obedience. I also forget that these situations tend to coincide with temptation, and that these temptations, these enticements to conduct ourselves according to worldly standards, aren’t a one-time item we cross off our spiritual to-do list once we’ve conquered them. They often reappear...

Desperation in Desolate Places

In Matthew, Jesus finds himself in two profoundly desolate places, both of which bookend the gospel—the wilderness and the cross.

Both are places of isolation. The wilderness is bleak, uninhabited, and the epitome of scarcity. The cross is unforgiving, alienating, and a place of abandonment...