Christian Living
Chase Hinson
Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday

This month we are approaching Easter Sunday which we often call Resurrection Sunday, for it is a remembrance of that first Easter Sunday on which Jesus Christ our Lord rose from the grave. While it is good and right for us to celebrate Easter each year, perhaps we also need reminding that every Sunday is a resurrection Sunday. Indeed, each Sunday that we gather is a continued celebration of the Risen King and of our expectation of His return to rule and to reign forevermore.

Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday
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Governments, God, and the Gospel

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Governments, God, and the Gospel

In June 2015, following the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, I wrote an article encouraging Christians to remain faithful in the face of a rapidly changing cultural and political landscape. More than a decade later, in the wake of another disappointing election, I find myself returning to many of those same thoughts. The political issues and cultural controversies have changed, but the fundamental questions remain the same. How should Christians respond when our nation increasingly embraces what God condemns? What should we do when those who reject biblical truth gain greater cultural and political influence? How do we remain faithful without surrendering to either compromise or despair?

Transform Your Bible Reading (Tip #3)

Transform Your Bible Reading (Tip #3)

There is great value in following a Bible reading plan that guides you through a few chapters each day. In fact, this is my primary method of Bible reading. But if that is the only way we read the Bible, we can still end up reading Scripture in fragments. The longer the sections of Scripture that we read at one time (or at least in quick succession), the more likely we are to understand the overall story and recognize connections within it. We need both macro-reading and micro-reading. We need to read big, and we need to read small. We read smaller portions of Scripture so that we can slow down, study, and see the details. We read larger portions so that we can see the overall story, make connections, and place those details in their broader context. Both are important if we want to understand the Bible well.

Transform Your Bible Reading (Tip #1)

Transform Your Bible Reading (Tip #1)

As Christians in a modern world, we often forget about the embarrassment of riches we possess when it comes to Bibles and biblical resources. You likely own more than one copy of God’s Word and can also access it through the internet, a smartphone app, or Bible software. We should rejoice in these resources and thank God for providing such wonderful blessings. However, the Bible’s abundant accessibility can also make us callous toward it. The more we have of something, the less likely we are to see it as precious and valuable. Our all-access pass to the Bible can obscure that it is “more desirable than gold” and “sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10).

Grace Silences Discontentment

Grace Silences Discontentment

The tenth truth is really the practical conclusion of all the truths that precede it. When we begin to grasp the greatness of God, the magnitude of His love for us, and the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, we begin to recognize that we possess everything we truly need. In Christ, our greatest problem has been solved. Our sins have been forgiven, we have been reconciled to God, and we have received the incomparable blessing of knowing Him. We also have the certain hope that we will spend eternity with Him in glory.

Pilgrims with a Better Hope

Pilgrims with a Better Hope

If I am only a pilgrim on this earth, then I must not place my ultimate hope in anything this earth can give. When we remember that our true home is with Christ, we are less likely to let the things of this earth capture our hearts in idolatrous ways. When we love something more than the Lord, that thing has become an idol. We begin to live for it, trust in it, and look to it for satisfaction, security, or identity. Oh, how easy it is to hold too tightly to earthly things. Before we know it we can find ourselves clinging to our jobs, our pleasures, our children, our relationships, our money, or countless other good gifts, rather than clinging to the Savior who bought us with His own blood. Remember, good gifts make poor gods.

Mortality, Accountability, and the Glory of Eternity

Mortality, Accountability, and the Glory of Eternity

Scripture teaches us to pair the reality of death with the promise of resurrection. Our mortality brings clarity and accountability to our daily lives, but the promise of glory brings hope, courage, and endurance. No matter how bleak today may seem, no matter how painful suffering may be, and no matter how dreadful death may appear, glory is just around the corner.

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God Sees You As Righteous...But It's Not Your Own

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God Sees You As Righteous...But It's Not Your Own

Since the fall of man, humanity has continually tried to climb the “spiritual mountain.” We all know this instinct. It is the idea that man can somehow work his way back up to God’s holy standard. We think that if we just do the right things, and enough of the right things, then God will regard us as good, worthy, and deserving of blessing, heaven, eternal life, or whatever else we hope to receive from Him.

God Loves You

God Loves You

When we talk about God’s love, we often think about it primarily in terms of its impact on how we feel. Thinking about God’s love often brings comfort and hope. These are good responses, but they become dangerous if we begin to think that God loves us because we are lovable. In reality, God loves us not because we deserve love, but because God is love (1 John 4:8).

God Exists

God Exists

Two simple words, yet nothing is more fundamental. God is real. He is not imaginary or symbolic. He is not the creation of culture or of the minds of men. He actually IS! While Scripture never states this exact sentence, the reality of God’s existence is assumed and proclaimed everywhere. The Bible opens not by arguing for God’s existence but by declaring it: “In the beginning, God created…” (Gen. 1:1). God is simply there—eternal, self-existent, and unquestioned.

10 Big Truths

10 Big Truths

Life is often like a storm. Sometimes the storm is violent and severe, raging all around us with swirling winds, rain, and hail. Other times it subsides and seems only to loom in the distance. Either way, the only way to ride out the storm and make it through is to have something sturdy, steady, solid, and immovable to hold onto. We need a constant. We need something (or Someone) that keeps us grounded and on course amid the chaos. In life, the only true constants are the Lord and the truths of His Word. They never change and provide the steady cord to which we can cling. The storm may rage, the winds may buffet, and the rain may beat down, but God and His Word will never move, change, or fade away (Isa. 40:8; 1 Pet. 1:22–25).

What's in a Name?

What's in a Name?

But did you know that Jesus’ name is not actually “Jesus”—at least not technically? Jesus’ name is actually Joshua, as we are clued into in Matthew 1:21. In this verse, the angel informs Joseph that Jesus’ name is connected to His mission of “saving his people from their sins,” which is what the Hebrew name “Joshua” (or “Jeshua”) means. Let me give you a little background to this phenomenon and bring you back to some important encouragements from our Savior’s name as we remember His birth at Christmastime.

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The Forgotten Sin of an Entitled People

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The Forgotten Sin of an Entitled People

As I was doing a bit of research on the Thanksgiving holiday for this month’s article, I came across the proclamation of the First Continental Congress, issued on November 1, 1777 — the first national proclamation for a Thanksgiving Day. In it, the Continental Congress called upon the governing bodies of the United States to set aside Thursday, December 18, 1777, as a day of thanksgiving and praise. This proclamation reflects the very themes we’ve just considered. Throughout our nation’s history, the date of Thanksgiving has shifted, but even in the earliest days of our republic there was a clear and unmistakable call for the people to acknowledge their dependence upon God and His gracious provision.

Can God Create a Rock so Heavy that Even He Can’t Lift It?

Can God Create a Rock so Heavy that Even He Can’t Lift It?

Can God created a rock so heavy that even He cannot lift it? Questions of this nature are ages old. They are asked by various people for various reasons. Sometimes, they have been wielded by atheists to attack the true nature of God and thereby deny His existence. They say, “If God claims He Himself is omnipotent (all-powerful) and the source is truth, then He cannot in fact be God (or at least not the Christian one) because He is not all-powerful and therefore has lied.”

Trump-eting a False Gospel?

Trump-eting a False Gospel?

President Trump made headlines recently for comments he made about his hopes for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. He said indicated that ending that war and saving thousands of lives would boost his chances of entering heaven. This sort of statement seems to play into a works based salvation, but it is difficult to know just what sort of theology of the afterlife to which the President adheres. Further complicating the matter is there is some debate as to whether he was making a joke rather than a serious comment. I sincerely hope that the President has a true understanding of the gospel that is based on grace through Jesus Christ and not the works of man’s hands. Regardless of the President’s personal beliefs, his comment illustrates a widely held belief in our culture—namely that a person can earn entrance heaven through their good deeds.

A Paradigm for Faithful Waiting

A Paradigm for Faithful Waiting

In Luke 2, we are told about two faithful believers who have been waiting to meet the coming Messiah. In obedience to the Law, Joseph and Mary circumcise Jesus and present him at the temple in Jerusalem where Simeon and Anna are both serving the Lord. The interactions between Jesus’ family and these two believers showcase four attitudes that enable us to wait well on the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Resurrected Savior, Ready Saints

Resurrected Savior, Ready Saints

The resurrection is the victory of Jesus over sin, death, and the devil (Heb. 2:14-18). The resurrection is the downpayment that secures the remainder of Jesus’ work until the end of the age (1 Cor. 35-58). The resurrection also anticipates the ascension and eventual return of Christ. In Acts 1, as Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father in heaven, angels appear and promise, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). It’s not that He “might come” but that He “will come.” For centuries, Christians have debated the nature of Christ’s return but not whether He would return. The eventual return of our Lord is a fundamental doctrine of the faith—an essential element of orthodox Christian belief. Jesus’ ascension is not a final farewell, but a “wait until I return.” Christ has been raised, so we will be likewise raised. Christ has ascended on high, so He will also return in power and glory to rescue God’s children and punish the wicked. We are waiting in the between time of those realities. The question then becomes, “What do we do while we wait? How do we wait well?”

The Most Precious Time of the Year

The Most Precious Time of the Year

We often say that “Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.” Yet, for believers, Easter truly is the most precious time of the year. While at Christmas we rejoice in the love and grace of the Father in sending His Son, this sending makes little sense without the wider context of Easter. Easter tells us the “why” of Christmas. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross that the Cradle is made important. Jesus was incarnated as a man to live as a man to die as a man to save mankind. Easter is the central event in human history and in Christian belief, for it demonstrates to us the saving work of Christ on our behalf. It is by His death on the Cross that God satisfies His wrath and judgment towards our sin (Rom. 3:21-26). Christ takes our place so that we can have His.

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God's Judgments Contain Hidden Graces

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God's Judgments Contain Hidden Graces

God’s judgments contain hidden graces. That is probably a surprising statement because we tend to think about judgment—and especially God’s judgment—as painful, terrifying, and devasting. Of course, God’s judgment is terrible. However, the prospect and pronouncement of judgment from God is also something that contains hidden grace—at least on this side of heaven.

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