Jason Albertson

One time, Jesus let demons go into pigs when He cast them out. That bugs me. (See this story in Matt. 8:28-9:1; Mark 5:1-21; and Luke 8:26-40 .) The demons begged Him (Matt. 8:31). They recognized that He had the power in this situation. He casts demons out with a word  (Matt. 8:16). In this case, the word was "Go" (Matt. 8:32). Why did Jesus let demons drown a herd of pigs? It wasn't a good PR move. The people in the city did not appreciate the dip in their GDP. Jesus was shut out of that region because He let the demons have the pigs (Matt. 8:34). Why did Jesus let the demons have the pigs? Option 1: Jesus hates pigs. Jesus invented pigs. They're very good. Jesus does not hate pigs. Option 2: Jesus doesn't want people to eat pigs, and these were being raised for food. I don't think this is what's going on. God doesn't have a problem with people eating unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16), though He did instruct Jews not to. But this was a ...

Brock wasn't happy. His language arts teacher had given his class an assignment: write a dictionary definition for "trunk." He understood that there were multiple possible meanings. So far, he had come up with this: An elephant's nose A sturdy box The center part of a tree The enclosed part of a car where you put big stuff The part of your body that is not arms, legs, or head It seemed too simple. Surely his teacher meant for him to turn in more than 35 words. It wasn't that he wanted more work to do, but he wanted a good grade for this class. Brock sighed and flipped open the novel he was reading, Warriors: Jungle March . (It was the elephant-based spinoff of the dog-based spinoff of the popular cat-based fantasy series .) He was at the part where the hero, Olliparulus, leaves his loving family to fulfill the prophecy or die trying. Olliparulus stands on the last mountain on the horizon, silhouetted against the dying sun, and raises his trunk ...

Brock opened his eyes. His head was slumped onto a desk, which meant he was at school, and he had just been asleep. He straightened, pulling his head up through the fog. A teacher-ish person was looking at him with some impatience. He couldn't pull up her name. Or what class he was in. Not good. "It's a one-word answer, Brock. You know this." Uh-oh. She must have asked him a question while he was asleep. His mouth would have gone dry with panic if it hadn't already been dry from hanging open while he slept. He looked around the classroom, trying to get some context for what kind of question it might have been. The room had some books, some desks, some kids, two windows--yes, everything pointed to this being a classroom, but that wasn't much help. There were some trees outside the window closest to him, but there are probably trees outside most windows in the world. He tried to swallow calmly. He failed. The only option was to wing it. "Trunk,...

In the last few blog posts. I’ve been talking about how God works in people to save them from sin’s power and effects. In theology-speak, I’ve been talking about soteriology , the study of salvation. There are a couple salvation-events that get a lot of attention in preaching: salvation and entire sanctification. To be clear, I don’t want that to stop. Both are important. However, I think there’s another piece of salvation that doesn’t get as much air-time as it should: becoming more like Christ gradually (theology-speak: progressive sanctification). Why should progressive sanctification get more air time than it currently does? A good bit of the Bible’s instructions for believers focuses on helping us up the road of progressive sanctification. For example, check out Romans 12. Verse 1 gets a lot of attention, but the rest of the chapter (and chapter 13, and 14, and 15) are about how to think and act like Jesus in your relationships with others. Fully surrendered people must ...

Romans 12:2 says,* And do not be being conformed to this world, but be being transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may be testing and finding out what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. The two phrases I underlined are commands (linguistic jargon: imperatives). In Greek, commands come in two types: Snapshot command (linguistic jargon: aorist imperative) An example would be when a parent is driver training with a teen and yells, " Help us , Lord!" Help us  doesn't tell you anything about the action the parent wants God to take except that it be helpful (and quick, preferably). It could just be a single moment of God's help, or it could be however many more hours the teen needs on their log sheet to get a driver's license. Video command (linguistic jargon: present imperative) An example would be when someone prays at a board meeting, " Be guiding our plans and discussion, Lord." Be guiding  does tell you somethi...

One of the interesting things about America's history with Christianity is how important revivals have been, especially from the 1750s-1900s. Revivals could get exciting (especially on the Western frontier, a.k.a. Kentucky). If you read a history book about revivals in America, you'll see a lot of mentions of moaning and writhing on the ground (they called it " enthusiasm "). For many people, the experience of finding peace with God was connected with very strong (in some cases violent) emotions. To you and me, the experience would probably look garish, like this picture, or like listening to a song with the sound turned up to notch 12 on a 10-notch scale. These were real experiences people had with coming to know God: dramatic stuff happened, and the results were often really good. These strong experiences came at times of starting out with God or committing afresh to God: salvation, and in the Methodist tradition, entire sanctification. They often involve...

So says Seth . He's talking about business, but I think it's true about business because it's true about life. His example: marriage is more important than the wedding. My example: you'll spend more time walking with the Spirit than you will getting saved or entirely sanctified. I don't want to remove the importance of initiations, those first steps, but I do want to put it in perspective. My everyday walk in step with the Spirit is on my mind more than the times I've been to the altar, not because the altar is unimportant but because marriage is not for the wedding. The wedding is for marriage. There are less butterflies in my stomach on a day-to-day basis in my life with my wife than there were when we started dating. We have begun (and will continue for a lifetime) to settle into consistent harmony. I think it's that way with God, too. Walking in step.

Entire sanctification will probably not involve God removing your temptations. It will definitely involve effort to resist temptation (Heb. 12:4). You will lean into what is already true about you because you were united with Christ at salvation (Rom. 6:1-10), believing and living out what is already true (Rom. 6:11-14). And as you pursue being influenced by the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), He will bless your effort. You will find that you have abilities you didn't know you had--abilities like... Working with God on the renewal of your mind and growing in your ability to discern God's will and how good it is (Rom. 12:2). Practicing and growing in gratitude toward God (Eph. 5:19-20). That seems like it would involve practicing viewing things that happen in your life as under His control and as evidence of His goodness, wisdom, and power. Seeing things that way will probably help you speak to others in God-glorifying ways (Eph. 5:19). Submitting to other believers, not necessarily...