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God’s Image, My Irritation: Learning to Love the People Who Frustrate Me

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Image
  by Bart Denny I believe every human being is created in the image of God—the imago Dei . Genesis tells us, “God created mankind in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). That declaration comes before differences in nationality, politics, occupation, social standing, education, religious affiliation, or usefulness to society. People have worth because God made them. Their value isn’t something the government grants, the culture recognizes, or actions and opinions I personally approve of. I believe all of that. The harder question is whether anyone could tell I believe it by the way I treat people who frustrate me. James confronts this inconsistency with uncomfortable directness: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9). That verse doesn’t allow me to separate my theology from my tone. I can’t praise the God whose image a person bears while casually belittling, mocking, or dehumanizing that person...
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A Yielded Life: God’s Battleplan for Christian Victory

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 As I write this, we are on the brink of another national election here in the United States. I have to admit that, right or wrong, I’ve kind of tuned out from the news and especially the election coverage.  I mean, to be honest, I wasn’t recovered from the last election. I’ve tuned out the banter around the election because it’s bad enough to look on TV or the internet and watch the candidates and their surrogates sniping, bickering, and fighting back and forth.   That’s bad enough, but it’s even worse when I look on social media, and it’s friends and family, people I love and care about that are fighting. It’s people who claim to know and love the Lord that are very publicly shredding each other. You dare criticize their candidate, then you’re probably not even a Christian as far as they’re concerned. Honestly, it makes me sad. It feels like so many Christians are convinced that if Jesus was here on earth today, He would vote exactly the way they would.   Per...
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