They Left
Stephen Venable
They could have stayed, but they didn’t. They didn’t have to go, but they left anyway. Jesus must be interested in more than convenience and the path of least resistance. Yes, He is. And their leaving means a fragrance ascending. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests […]
Death, Desire, and Details
Stephen Venable
Details are only optional in a relationship that is casual. There is to be nothing casual whatsoever about our devotion to Jesus. Love demands everything and our desire for Jesus should compel us to seek entrance into every detail of His life – no matter how small it might seem at first. Years ago I […]
Theo-Drama
Stephen Venable
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in […]
The Invisible War
Stephen Venable
I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the […]
Jesus From Above
Stephen Venable
Where do you start with getting to know Jesus more? It might seem like the answer to that question would be straightforward: start with what is clear. If you begin with what is plain and comprehensible, then you could move from there toward the loftier truths about Him. Established firmly on the footholds of the […]
Jesus and the Battlefield of Beauty
Stephen Venable
“…beauty is the battlefield where God and Satan contend with each other for the hearts of men.” (Fyodor Dostoyevski, The Brothers Karamazov) The forerunner stands as an emissary of the jealous heart of Jesus and fights to apprehend the distracted affections of His people that He alone is worthy of. The day of His wedding […]
Heralds and Friends
Stephen Venable
John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven… He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but […]
Is Someone Missing?
Stephen Venable
There is a residue that still lingers within the Protestant tradition. As a result of what Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and the other reformers were responding to (distortion of the doctrine of justification by faith primarily communicated in Pauline literature), in their generation and centuries following there emerged an overemphasis on the effects of Christ’s saving […]
They Stayed
Stephen Venable
“Many a morning have I stood on the porch of my house, and looking northward, have seen the smoke arise from villages that have never heard of Jesus Christ. I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages—villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world … […]
The Morning Star
Stephen Venable
Aside from God Himself, the primary hope set forth in the New Testament is the resurrection of the body in the eschatological kingdom of Jesus Christ. Any view of reality or system of thought that does not keep this central is in dissonance with the biblical vision of the future. This vision is intended to […]
The Heart of Eschatology
Stephen Venable
Eschatology is not simply a question of “what is going to happen?” The deeper question at stake in eschatology is “what is God like?” The drama of the end of the age is primarily about the revelation of God’s character and the culmination of His mission. A distorted interpretation of eschatology is, therefore, reciprocally intertwined […]
The Great Divide – Part 2
Stephen Venable
Ideas, actions, and lives can all lie very close to one another at their inception and look very similar. However, what appears enmeshed and indistinguishable at first can actually be flowing in opposite directions. Given enough time, the delineation will become strikingly clear. Just as the snow on the Great Divide eventually melts and begins to cascade […]
Page 1 of 6
