Bob Putman reviews Benny's sermon from this past Sunday about motherhood and identity. How God sees us is infinitely more important than how anyone else sees us, including ourselves. ...

Well here it is...the holiday season. The traffic's getting busier, the office seems a bit more cheery, and, I confess, I'm playing Christmas music most of the time I'm in my car (at least until a few days before Christmas after I've overindulged in it). I've gotta say that I love this time of year. I love that many of us consciously spend more time with those we love. I l...

At age 60 I remember the days when church women’s ministries were focused on Titus 2: 3-5 which in part teaches women to be “keepers at home.” In fact, I was one of those pastor’s wives who taught this passage in our own church’s women’s ministry. Honestly, I benefited from this. I gained a vision for my home as the primary focus of my gifts and ministry. I lea...

For hours our group of foreign and Chinese teachers drove south through rice paddies and terraced tea hills to the famed Yellow Mountains of east central China. My initial fascination worn thin through endless unfamiliarity, I felt I had been dropped on another planet and wished I could switch off my senses. But we kept driving and entered the town of Mt. Jihua (pronounced...

Our culture gets it wrong when it comes to women and image. That is no surprise, and much has been said on the topic. Recently the Huffington Post did a piece on what tabloids would look like if they treated men the way they treated women. Westminster College has a well-researched article about beauty standards, women in the media, and how women internalize the “thin-bea...

If you've been around the church world long enough, you've probably heard someone somewhere talk about being "gospel-centered" - gospel-centered preaching, gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered counseling, gospel-centered everything. And you've probably had one of a number of reactions to these pretentious-sounding assertions of unique commitment to the gospel reactions...

“Israel and Hamas broke their ceasefire today and resumed fighting. This means the war has now gone on for…let me just check my watch here. Is it July 31st? Ok that means the war has been going on for…3000 years.” That joke (roughly) was how Stephen Colbert began his show on Friday, and it was either hilarious or insensitive. But it was also illustrative of a far m...

The gospel does two things for us when we suffer: it comforts us, and it calls us. In my last post, I surveyed the glorious hope our identity in Christ gives us in the face of suffering:...

Yesterday’s message from Pastor Benny Phillips continues with the "Age of Heroes" series. I am thankful to God for this message of inspiration, hope, and redemption. We were reminded of God's immense power in how God uses His people to overcome many obstacles that are seemingly insurmountable. It is amazing how the gospel is connected to every story in scripture. Many of...

The suffering in our lives keeps us from doing and experiencing many good things, and it often teaches us bad things. Suffering has the tendency to pervert our perception of the world around us. Children who grow up abused often have uniquely distorted views of God, self, and others. Those who suffer traumatic experiences in any stage of life often have difficulty engaging...

In my last article, I described our core identity in terms of being God's image-bearers, but if you survey the New Testament, you'll find its overarching understanding of our identity in Christ is that we are sons, co-heirs, siblings of Christ destined to become like Christ. So, we must ask the question: is the New Testament replacing the Old Testament image-bearer motif w...

Identity is who you are. It tells you what you are worth, why you are here, and how you should live. It provides roles and boundaries for your relationships; it provides goals and parameters for your lifestyle; it gives significance to your thoughts, desires, and behavior. Identity is something that can and should be ascribed to each of us by God alone, and the identity He...

Our identity, he taught, is not defined by our roles. But our God-given roles guide us in how we are to live out our identity in Christ....