How Jesus’s View of the Gospel leads us to Social Justice

John MacArthur and many people in his theological camp have released a statement about social justice. You can read it here: https://statementonsocialjustice.com. Any stance of social justice would come out of an individual or body of believer’s understanding of “the gospel”. This I believe is why MacArthur and the other signers have made it a […]

Anglicanism – My Journey Continues

In the past nine months, I haven’t been very public about all the details of my internal process. I was in a long transition to my next ministry assignment, and kept my internal process to trusted friends and mentors. I wanted people at my last church to know that I was fully present and onboard […]

Are We Aware That We Are Disagreeing with the Holy Spirit?

A little while back I tacked some of these same concepts that I am writing about here from the view point of Jesus in “Are We Unaware That We Are Disagreeing with Jesus?”. In this post I am tackling this same idea from the perspective of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I will […]

Jesus is not a lion, but He is a lamb!

I believe that the lion and the lamb conversation is one of the most misunderstood concepts that is taught about Jesus. Many songs, sermons, and statements have been made about Jesus being the lion and the lamb, but do we really understand this concept and what the Bible has to say? “The Lion the Witch […]

Are We Unaware That We Are Disagreeing With Jesus?

I often hear, “It’s not about a head knowledge. It’s about a heart knowledge.” Is this true? Is Christianity primarily meant to be experiential? Are we not supposed to care about knowledge and growing in our understanding of God? The reality is that I think that there are three main reasons for this: 1. We […]

5 Reasons Why The Church Is Failing People With Mental Illness & Addictions

Most of my posts are very theologically focused, where I really dig into the Bible. This one will be slightly different. It will feel somewhat like I am taking a few jabs at some situations going on within modern Christianity. The reality is that I will, but I am hoping to not come from a […]

Growing in Our Relationship With God

What does it mean to grow in our relationship with God? This is a tough question. I believe that we have often defined this growth and maturity as something that it is not. It is a tough question to answer, because we have simplified formulas and measurements for growth. “If you do______ would you consider stepping up […]

We Have no King but Caesar

“We have no king but Caesar,” – John 19:15 These are the words that were spoken by Jewish religious leaders as they took Jesus from Pilate to be crucified. Jesus was the promised king. Their belief system taught of a king that would come and setup a kingdom that would last forever. Jesus was that […]

God’s Response to Our Suffering – Part 2

If you have not read part 1 yet, go back and read it first: https://davidruybalid.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/gods-response-to-our-suffering-part-1/ The God of Discipline Growing up as a Christian Fundamentalist, I was often taught that when we suffer, God may be disciplining us for something that we have done wrong. I read an article the other day that reminded me […]

God’s Response to Our Suffering – Part 1

Why does God allow bad things to happen? Do bad things happen by God’s hand? Does God bring suffering in our lives to punish us? I am hoping to start us down the road of a healthy perspective in a two part series on these questions and the topic of suffering. About a year ago, a close […]