Chris R. Quinlan

Recently, a question was posed regarding overcoming temptation as a Christian. I deal with temptation the same as everyone else, and I've come to realize certain truths about this subject that I thought would be good to share. I found myself convicted by my own words. The following is what I wrote: Remember that sin is what required the sacrificial death of our Lord on the cross. As Christians we need to see the temptation as the nails that would be driven into Christ's body, and see ourselves as the Roman Soldier about to drive them in. We give into temptation when we are not believing sin is as abominable as God believes it to be. When we choose sinful pleasure, we (at least temporarily) reveal our disbelief that Christ suffered the full wrath of God to purchase our freedom from the clutches of Satan and the eternal suffering of hell. We defeat temptation only when we are so repulsed by sin that the disgust of that sin outweighs the temporary pleasure that it b

As a Christian, I must always be careful not to get caught up in the wisdom and philosophies that grow popular. With the recent death of Steve Jobs, there has been an outpouring of praise and adoration for this man who brought us really neat gadgets, and by many accounts was a tremendous success. With that success, many have wondered how they can also have such success for themselves. One way is to look at the life of someone like Steve Jobs and study his methods of doing business and his leadership techniques, and then try to imitate these things. But to really get at the core of someone like Steve Jobs, you need to understand the values and principles that led to his actions. Over Ten Million people have viewed Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address on YouTube and other places on the web. In this speech Steve tells his life story and gives the hearers a glimpse into the philosophies that drove him. Many of the statements were very motivational and inspirational to th

I was having a pleasant conversation the other day with someone who I haven't seen in a while. The subject of Calvinism came up. Without knowing my personal position, this person began to express disdain for people who embrace any form of Calvinism. To which I politely replied, "Well, I'm a Calvinist." After squirming a bit from my unexpected statement, I was smugly asked the following (I assume, rhetorical) question: "So, which one of your children did God create to go to hell?" I guess that's supposed to be the ultimate gotcha question from the anti-Calvinist.  I, without hesitation, politely answered, "God does not reveal to us who is elect and who isn't, so I have no idea." My aquaintence squirmed a bit more and replied, "I just know that God does NOT create people just to send them to hell." At this point, to debate further would have made the situation terribly uncomfortable, so I wrapped things up by saying something t