Josh Hunt's Blog, page 242

Jesus: Fully and Truly Human

The story of the church’s understanding of the person of Jesus Christ is one of swings and roundabouts. The pendulum swings between diminishing the divinity of Jesus and diminishing his humanity. In the last 150 years, liberalism has diminished Christ’s divinity, and orthodoxy, partly in reaction, has run the risk of diminishing his humanity. In […]

Transformed by better thinking

There is a common misperception—inside and outside the church—that Christian living is fundamentally about trying really hard to be good. It is not. It is about being transformed. This has a lot to do with changing the way we think: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing […]

Training, not trying

I fell on the hard court playing tennis recently. I was able to walk off the court, drive home, and walk into the house—although ever-so-gingerly. After about an hour of watching TV I tried to move. Notice I said tried. I couldn’t. I don’t know how painful it is to have a baby, but I […]

Train yourself to be grateful

Let’s go back to the sermon you heard on gratitude. Instead of trying really hard to be grateful, train yourself to be grateful. Get a simple, blank, 100-page notebook. Commit to writing down three things you are grateful for every night before you go to bed. Do this for 100 days. By this time, you […]

How was King Jesus different from any other king?

Jesus mounts a donkey and rides into Jerusalem surrounded by this huge, noisy crowd. We do not have any other record of Jesus riding anywhere, do we? This is the only place it happens. It isn’t because Jesus is tired that he is riding on the donkey. He had deliberately sent his disciples into the […]

Train yourself to be godly

Imagine you can’t play the piano and I asked you to play Amazing Grace. Would it be easy or hard? Would it help if you tried really, really hard to play Amazing Grace? This is how many people try to live the Christian life. They hear a sermon on gratefulness. They try really hard to […]

Nothing Left to Fear

Would that every psychiatrist, every therapist, every personal counselor in the country understood that sin, guilt, the wrath of God, and therefore the fear of death create all other fears and lurk underneath all manner of neuroses. Until this central fear is dealt with, these other fears must linger on. Why is that? Because only […]

Christian Living is Impossible

Impossible. Let that word sink in. Consider these words by Charles Stanley: The second truth that is clear from these verses is that what Jesus calls us to do is impossible. It’s not merely difficult. It’s not simply a struggle. It’s not just hard. It’s impossible! He said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” […]

What is the difference between a lecture and preaching?

There is a vast difference between simply conveying information to people, which can be cold and ineffectual, and true preaching and witness. We have a long-standing friend who was once driving in the north of Scotland with our fellow countryman the late professor John Murray of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. Professor Murray decided to turn […]

Why is Christian Living so Hard?

I would suggest that Christian living is hard because we have never been taught to live the Christian life. We have been taught a lot about the Bible. We know a lot of Bible stories from the Bible. We could give you a lot of Bible facts. We could even throw in a few Greek […]