What do you do when you flip the switch and nothing happens? When the heat does not come on. When the pipes stay dry. When night falls early and the cold settles in, not just outside the house but inside your thoughts. Moments like these strip life down to its essentials. They expose how much … Continue reading God Is Our Refuge and Strength: Finding Warmth in Psalm 46
Author: Donnie L. DeBord
Leaving, Dwelling, and Returning
Lexical Repetition, Narrative Architecture, and Covenant Movement in Genesis The apparent tension between God’s command to Abraham to leave his land and kindred and God’s command to Jacob to return to his land and kindred is not a loose thread in Genesis. It is a carefully woven feature of the narrative. When read in isolation, … Continue reading Leaving, Dwelling, and Returning
Did You Wake Up Feeling Angry or Blessed??
Most of us did not wake up planning to be angry. We woke up to a screen. Before coffee, before prayer, before hearing a real human voice, we were interrupted by an angry headline. Another video. Another fire. By noon we were already carrying a low grade tension, not quite rage, not quite despair, but … Continue reading Did You Wake Up Feeling Angry or Blessed??
The God of Promises
Genesis 21 does not begin with Isaac. It begins with God. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said.” That sentence is doing more work than it looks like. Scripture could have said, Sarah conceived. It could have said, the promise came true. Instead, it says the Lord visited her. God does not fulfill his … Continue reading The God of Promises
Happiness or Blessedness???
The world is focused on happiness. It markets it, medicates it, optimizes it, curates it. Yet the more loudly we speak about happiness, the more fragile it appears. Anxiety climbs. Loneliness spreads. Pleasure exhausts itself quickly and demands more. Scripture already diagnosed this condition long ago. “All is vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl … Continue reading Happiness or Blessedness???
“That God May Be All in All”: Messianic Subjection and Trinitarian Consummation in 1 Corinthians 15:28
First Corinthians 15:28 has long been a crux interpretum for Christology and Trinitarian theology. Paul’s claim that “the Son himself will be subjected” has been read by some. They believe it implies eternal subordination within the Trinity. Some interpreters have taken Paul’s language in 1 Cor 15:28 in different ways. Some suggest it shows that … Continue reading “That God May Be All in All”: Messianic Subjection and Trinitarian Consummation in 1 Corinthians 15:28
The Church as the Visible People of God: An Exploration of Ecclesiology
Before the church ever gathers, organizes, sings, or sends, God has already acted. The church is not a humanly devised institution. It is a divinely constituted, visibly ordered people. They are brought into being by the gospel. They are structured by apostolic teaching and sustained by participation in Christ. Ecclesiology in the Churches of Christ … Continue reading The Church as the Visible People of God: An Exploration of Ecclesiology
Was There An Empty Seat in Heaven
Did heaven have an empty seat when Christ was born in Mary’s womb? Was the throne vacant when the Son cried in the manger? Was the Father away from the Son while he hang on the cross (Ps 22:24)? When the Son of God became man, did God step back from being God? The mystery … Continue reading Was There An Empty Seat in Heaven
The Triune Life as the Epitome of Blessedness
Divine blessedness is not a solitary perfection. It is the eternal, relational joy of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the fountain of every creaturely delight and the measure of all true happiness. Scripture locates God’s blessedness inside the triune relations. The Son is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint … Continue reading The Triune Life as the Epitome of Blessedness
Compatibilism and the Biblical Doctrine of Human Freedom and Divine Sovereignty
I. Introduction Debates concerning divine sovereignty and human freedom occupy a central place in Christian theology. Much of the contemporary conversation is shaped by philosophical categories borrowed from analytic philosophy, particularly libertarian versus compatibilist conceptions of human agency. Libertarianism defines freedom as the power to choose between genuine alternatives independent of determining causes. Compatibilism defines … Continue reading Compatibilism and the Biblical Doctrine of Human Freedom and Divine Sovereignty
Donnie's Dogmatics 