Category: Christian Living: Application to Life

Is Worldliness Really Such a Big Deal?

One of the core struggles of the Christian life is the tension between living in the world and being profoundly different from it. According to the Bible, we are in the world, but not of the world. We were once proud of and defined by worldly things and accomplishments, but now we count them all as loss in exchange for Christ. We understand that we are citizens of heaven, merely pilgrims passing through this present world. We know we need to lay aside what lies behind and press on to the goal—Jesus Christ. But in practice Christians usually fall short. Continue reading “Is Worldliness Really Such a Big Deal?” →

Am I Ever Safe from Sinning?

As Christians, we all know from Romans 7–not to mention from personal experience–that we are still very sinful, and continue to do so even after God has forgiven us.  And we also hate that, or at least know we should, see again Romans 7.  We notice, as we strive to put to death the deeds of the flesh that we might live, that sin is hard to fight.  No matter how hard we fight, we still fall into sin sometimes.  The devil is indeed prowling about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  When we hear God tell Cain that sin is crouching at his door, we feel God is really speaking to us.  And sadly, sin doesn’t stop crouching at our door just because we’re at church or are on a spiritual high or just read our Bibles or just came from the most amazing small group ever or are actively serving God on the missions field.  No matter how God centered the things around us may be, we can still sin.  We are never safe from sin.  Even–perhaps even especially–when God is directly blessing us or giving us direct experience of His presence, we can fall into sin.  This shocking truth is quite biblical.  Let’s call it the immediacy of sin.  It can be quite easily traced through the entirety of Biblical history. Continue reading “Am I Ever Safe from Sinning?” →

When Even Men Cry: 29 times this dude like LITERALLY cried lol!!!

For the first two parts of this series (the ones with actual content), see here and here.  This post isn’t necessarily for the general reader.  For example, if you’re asking yourself, “Why did Grant write this?” you are probably not the target audience.  If you’re here for emotional voyeurism, continue reading!

Here we have the fulfillment of my promise: a list of all the times I cried in college.  This post was hard to write for two reasons:

  1. I don’t like thinking about all times I’ve cried.
  2. Consequently, I can’t remember all the times I’ve cried.

Continue reading “When Even Men Cry: 29 times this dude like LITERALLY cried lol!!!” →

When Even Men Cry: How to Abandon All Your Principles

After an extensive hiatus that has been far too long, this blog will revive with this post continuing our study on male tears.  In the last installment, we talked about all the times Jesus cried, and concluded the only thing we saw that made Jesus cry was the sin and unbelief of His people, at one time seen juxtaposed with coming judgment.  In this installment we’ll talk about my personal philosophy of crying and how it fits with the Bible.  In the next installment you’ll see the promised list of all the times I cried in college, which for me ended in March of 2016. Continue reading “When Even Men Cry: How to Abandon All Your Principles” →

Why Should I Read a Biography?

The majority of my readers will think that they are busy.  That’s the world we live in these days; everyone keeps themselves very busy, moving constantly from activity to activity.  In all this craziness, then, when I or someone else recommends a book to you about a person who died several hundred years ago that you’ve never heard of before or haven’t really thought about ever, you ask, “Why should I take the time to read this book?  Why should I read a biography?”  Today I’m going to try to answer that question!  Biographies, particularly Christian ones, benefit you by providing examples, challenging your life, honoring those to whom honor is due, and illustrating the gospel. Continue reading “Why Should I Read a Biography?” →

What to Do When You’re Learning Nothing from the Sermon

Unlike you, my dear reader, I am not perfect.  And in my imperfection, I struggle greatly to have humility.  As one excellent example of my lack of humility, I sometimes subconsciously assume that I know everything, which is a gross extrapolation of the fact that I know a lot of things.  Having grown up in the church, I tend to be particularly familiar with the Bible and theology.  I’ve heard countless sermons over the years.  And some passages get preached a lot–the book of Philippians, various passages in Romans, Hebrews 11 and 12, 1 Thessalonians 4, anything in Ephesians, accounts of the crucifixion of Christ, etc.  Just as necessity is the mother of invention, so too is abundance the progenitor of complacency, and familiarity the father of contempt.  Having heard these passages before, I could probably give a fifteen minute sermon myself on many of these passages with no preparation.  I am familiar with the doctrines contained therein.  I struggle, therefore, when I hear yet another sermon with theology that I already know and passages I just heard preached last month.  I struggle to humbly submit to God’s teaching through the preacher.  I’d rather let my mind think about food or politics or gaming or girl(s) or literally anything but the sermon.  You, my dear reader, are of course perfect and do not struggle as I do.  I do not expect you to sympathize with what follows below, but I do hope you’ll at least be amused by my attempt to address my personal weaknesses. Continue reading “What to Do When You’re Learning Nothing from the Sermon” →

Concerning the Fear of Man, Part VI: Jeremiah 17:1-10

You thought I’d forgotten this series didn’t you!  But I don’t quit that easily.  You can find the rest of the series I am slowly putting together in a delinquent and disorganized manner by clicking on the “Fear of Man Series” tag on this post.  One day it may stand complete. Continue reading “Concerning the Fear of Man, Part VI: Jeremiah 17:1-10” →

Perverting the Means of Grace

Here is one of the largest issues in the Christian life: How do you handle your personal sin?  Or in one particular, how do you react when you fall?  Do we attempt to make up for sin by subsequent good actions, for example Bible reading and confessional prayer?  While it is quite clear that these actions do follow from a mourning of sin (1 John 1:9 essentially commands the believer to confess sins to God), in my mind I can confuse these actions as somehow atoning for my sin, somehow erasing and balancing out my past actions, somehow zeroing out debt owed to God.  It is exactly this trap that the people of Judah fell into during the last years before the Babylonian captivity.  Let us consider the historical record. Continue reading “Perverting the Means of Grace” →

PSA: How to Read a Hymnal

I attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA (aka John MacArthur’s church).  Recently, my church unveiled a new hymnal.  I’ve met a great number of people who had never opened a hymnal before coming to Grace.  There was one time I was having a conversation with a worship leader and mentioned that I sometimes followed the bass line of the four part harmony.  When he said he’d never noticed more than two voices in a hymnal, we realized he’d never noticed that there was music written BELOW the words as well as above them.  As a result, I figured I’d put together this guide to help understand hymnals. Continue reading “PSA: How to Read a Hymnal” →

Is It a Sin to Skip Daily Bible Reading?

No.  But I guess you want me to elaborate. 

The idea for this post came in a small group I was co-leading.  Trying to explain that idolatry does not require having a physical idol, I constructed a hypothetical situation in which a boy idolized getting into a grad school.  When I asked, “Given how competitive it is to apply, what do you think he should do?”  Many of them said things like, “Kill the other applicants!”  I should have known better.  I’ve never been a part of a small group that would not respond that way.  Once it was clear that a better answer was, “Study really hard,” I started mentioning things that our boy would omit by idolizing studying.  He wouldn’t go to church.  He wouldn’t help his parents with household chores when asked.  He didn’t have time for his friends, regardless of their needs.  All because he was constantly studying.  However, with each additional crime I listed, one guy (let’s call him Fitzgerald) in the group was unconvinced our boy was in sin.  Instead of wasting time trying to explain why certain things were sinful, I just added other things to the list until I finally stumbled upon, “He doesn’t read his Bible, because he’s too busy studying.”  Fitzgerald exclaimed, “Oh!  That’s bad!”  Which raises an interesting question: is it indeed a sin to skip Bible reading? Continue reading “Is It a Sin to Skip Daily Bible Reading?” →