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Happy Sixth Birthday (and a Free Book for You!)
Escape to Reality is six years old today – hooray! – so this seems like a good opportunity to take a moment to reflect on the past and future of the blog. Since our last birthday I have published 58...
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10 Ways Religion is Bad for You
Every story needs a villain and the villain I most often employ is religion. Grace is good, but religion is bad. Grace promotes trust in God, but religion is all about trusting self. Grace says, “God...
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No More Lonely Love Songs
Union with Christ is the number one reason why we have it better than those who lived before the cross. Back then they wrote love songs about yearning and absence. “I looked for the one my heart loves...
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Keeping God’s Commands (1 Corinthians 7:19)
Image source The apostle Paul said we are under grace, not law. To live under the law is to insult Christ who died to free us from the curse of the law. So why did Paul write this? Circumcision is...
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The Gospel of Hope
Someone once told me that Christians are in the business of hope, which is ironic since many Christians don’t know what hope is. Do you know what it is? For some hope is little more than wishful...
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Seven Ways Religion Damages Hope
You can learn a lot about hope from watching the movies. When I was a kid I saw The Neverending Story, and for some reason one scene has endured in my memory. It’s the scene where Atreyu is confronted...
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How to Cultivate Hope
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Pet 3:15) We Christians ought to be a hope-filled people but a mixed-up gospel has made...
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Who’s Your Helper?
History turns on small hinges and there has been no greater turn than the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3. Everything that is wrong with the world – war, disease, death, genocide – can be traced...
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Become Like a Little Child?
Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3). What does that mean and how do you do that? “Ah Paul, that’s an easy one. He’s...
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Michael Brown and his Grace Controversy
The hyper-grace gospel that Jesus revealed declares that God loves you with an unconditional love. His grace for you is, to quote the apostle Paul, hyper- or super-abounding (Rom 5:20). The gospel of...
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The Bema Seat (2 Corinthians 5:10)
“One day you will stand before the judgement seat, the books will be opened, and there will be a reckoning. If your good works outweigh your bad, you’ll be safe. But if your bad works outweigh the...
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The Terror of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:11)
Many people picture God as a scary bookkeeper recording everything they say and do, and on Judgment Day he’ll shame them by playing the dirty tapes of their secret lives. As we saw in a recent post on...
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The Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)
In my ongoing series on eternal security, I have hammered one nail again and again: Jesus not only saves you, he keeps you, and the good work he began in you he will carry on until completion. This is...
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E2R is on Patreon
What do the following people have in common: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven? Answer: You would have heard of none of them if it weren’t for their patrons....
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Is Grace a License to Be Lazy?
One of the complaints made against the gospel of grace is that it promotes sin and slothfulness. However, those who say such things know little about the grace of God that empowers us to reign in life....
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Why is the Narrow Gate Hard to Enter?
What is the narrow gate? You probably know the answer to this question – the narrow gate is Jesus – but what does it mean to find the narrow gate, and why did Jesus say many would try to enter and...
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Who is the Unworthy Servant? (Luke 17:10)
How do you see yourself? As a valued son or a worthless servant? As a beloved child of God or a mere minion? Jesus came to reveal our heavenly Father, so a good sign that you understand all that Jesus...
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8 Signs that a Church Doesn’t Get Grace
A while ago I listed eight signs of hyper-grace churches. A hyper-grace church is one that is so focused on Jesus that it begins to look like Jesus, talk like Jesus, and smell like Jesus. To highlight...
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Tithing Under Grace
Tithing has become the hot-button issue of our day. Just as the early church was divided on the issue of circumcision, the modern church is divided on the issue of tithing. “You should do it.” “You...
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Should You Tithe?
For years people have been asking me for my response to the tithing question. “Should you tithe?” Here are two responses: You should tithe You should not tithe Since both responses are expressed as...
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