The number of Muslims in England and Wales surged by 75 per cent – boosted by almost 600,000 more foreign born followers of the Islamic faith. While almost half of British Muslims are under the age of 25, almost a quarter of Christians are over 65. The average age of a British Muslim is just... Continue Reading

Biblical Christianity teaches that believers live a day to day struggle against temptation and sin and that the journey of discipleship involves recognizing our sin, confessing it and letting God transform it. At the heart of the antinomian is a false assurity that he can do whatever he wants now he is saved. By contrast,... Continue Reading

Some men who hold a position of leadership think wrongly that it’s a sign of failure or weakness to appear to be in need of help. They feel that they are supposed to have the answers not need them. This is sad and inconsistent with the gospel. The poor in Spirit inherit the Kingdom, not... Continue Reading

Z STREET’s initial hearing is scheduled for July 2 in federal district court in Washington, D.C. What is lamentable is that any nonprofit educational or charitable organization would find itself pressured by the federal government to prove that it’s charitable, religious, or educational goals are not incongruent with the foreign or domestic policy agenda of... Continue Reading

Whatever happened to “bloom where you’re planted” as an ethos for ministry?  If God is calling you to the urban core, go to the urban core.  If God has called you to suburbia, stay in suburbia, or go there, if you’re someplace else.  And if you think God is calling you to exurbia or rural... Continue Reading

Redeem the time: We all have time in the car, doing chores, or relaxing after the kids are in bed when we can have some audio going in the background.  Providing sermons gives us more “meat” to listen to while doing those other activities.   A while back I reviewed the book SimChurch (part 1... Continue Reading

We sing the Psalms because the people of God have been doing so since as early as Moses (Ps. 90) and especially during the days of David, when the Psalter became the “hymnal” of Israel. When we sing them, we identify with our most ancient forefathers and offer transcendent praise, applicable in all times and... Continue Reading

Scripture tells us that there are costs associated with being a disciple of Christ. We must place Christ ahead of all we cherish, including our family (Luke 14:26). Christ says we must set aside all we posses and place nothing in front of Him (Luke 14:33). There will be sacrifice, persecution and even threats of... Continue Reading

Nevertheless, since Gosnell will now get life instead of death, let us pray he gets life indeed. Time in prison means time for repentance, and repentance of a sinner is always the heart of God, who “is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Scripture exhorts us... Continue Reading

In 2001, I was invited to come to North Korea to found an international university there as well. I told them that I would bring Christians who were international academics from many countries, people who were excellent teachers. They would be carefully chosen people who would love the North Korean students and care for them... Continue Reading

My role is not exactly like that of other married women; my life as Mrs. Pastor, by God’s design, is unique. Thankfully, I have fundamentals to guide me, such as God’s inspired Word, my husband’s biblical wisdom and the needs of God’s people. After that, I use my God-given gifts, prayer and the guidance of the Holy... Continue Reading

But, and this is key, that does not mean every sin is equally heinous. Missing in Piper’s analysis is a careful discussion about how some sins are more grievous than others and therefore warrant a more vigorous Christian response. I appreciate Robert Gagnon’s fine response to this problem: …   In a recent article, Barnabas... Continue Reading

In any case, what we have is a failure to communicate that is leading to serious misunderstanding and misrepresentation. The purpose of this brief post is to explain what the traditional Reformed doctrine of general revelation is, and just as importantly, to explain what the traditional Reformed doctrine of general revelation is not.   In the... Continue Reading

In response to the laziness of Southern Baptists and the non-existent fervor for soul-winning in SBC churches, pastors have resorted to using unbiblical methods to get lost people in the doors of the church for worship. Pastors, God’s shepherds, have sought to adjust worship within the Body of Christ to appeal to those who are... Continue Reading

I’ve been bitten by a serpent-shaped lie that says I can orchestrate all the details of my life. That I can plan them and execute all on my own. The lie then produces fear when the reality crashes in that I actually can’t do it at all. Because rather than being in control of all... Continue Reading

Family Talk Action’s attorney asked her when the IRS would issue its determination letter. Ms. Medley responded saying, I don’t think your Form 1024 (application for exemption) will be granted because Family Talk Action is “not educational” because it does not present all views. She continued, saying that Family Talk Action sounded like a “partisan... Continue Reading

If you are a faithful pastor or church member, the probability that you have met one or both characters in this evil duo is quite high. In Scripture, Diotrephes and Jezebel were both abusers. Today, they still exist within many if not most churches. Masquerading as pious saints, they set themselves up in power and... Continue Reading

And then finally, the pièce de resistance, the moment to which the whole service had been leading, the climactic moment when the congregation was taken to the very gates of heaven: the service ended, not with a benediction or even a prayer, but with another chance to meditate, this time not to waves crashing on... Continue Reading

In choosing to remove this beautiful song from the hymnal, the committee suggests that this notion of God’s wrath is no longer compelling to the majority of PC(USA) congregants. I fear that this is yet another symptom of our loss of any sense of sin that is personal (rather than systemic) and of our cheapening... Continue Reading

But those churches who would accept sinners “as they are” (whether homosexuals or any other variety of sinner) into their memberships, and who would encourage such sinners to ponder the glories of justification rather than repent, engage in a great evil. Such acceptance violates this and every biblical text on church discipline, destroys the purity... Continue Reading

I find this distasteful. The church is the body of Christ. From the church’s institution, the office of pastor has been of central importance. Christianity has its own traditions, language, and culture. Why would Driscoll jettison those things in favor of trendy jargon? Tribes and tribal chiefs. Sounds decidedly pagan to me.   I don’t... Continue Reading

Of course, God blessed Paul’s urban strategy to build the church, but I’m not sure metro-evangelicals are gathering the right lesson from this history. It is true that Paul avoided the countryside for the most part, but not because he expected to find more open-minded folks in the cities. ‘Cause that isn’t what he found.... Continue Reading

There are certain things we don’t talk about much in church. Like eating disorders. Or cutting. Or depression. Or same sex attraction. Or sexual enslavement. The list could go on, but you get my point. The reason we don’t talk about these things is because, frankly, they make us uncomfortable. If we struggle with a... Continue Reading

Uwe said he was extremely disappointed that their petition to seek asylum was appealed by the Obama administration. “If we go back to Germany we know that we would be prosecuted and it is very likely the Social Services authorities would take our children from us,” he said. Uwe said German schools were teaching children... Continue Reading

He once told me that he found Christmas and Easter services the least effective, relative to ordinary Sundays – and Sunday-evening services perhaps most effective – in mediating redemptive grace. Indeed, his ministry confirms the observation of British historian Herbert Butterfield that “the church has best served civilization not on the occasion when it had... Continue Reading

In changing the nature of childhood, Stearns argues, we’ve introduced a tendency to assume that children can’t handle difficult situations. “Middle-class parents especially assume that if kids start getting into difficulty they need to rush in and do it for them, rather than let them flounder a bit and learn from it. I don’t mean... Continue Reading

Most students then agree that those things are evil, if by evil we simply mean profoundly immoral….What about Jim Crow, for instance? I encourage them to forget about the United States. Regardless of whether the United States was/is just as evil or less evil or pretty good, was Soviet tyranny evil? I do this exercise... Continue Reading

There are thus only two ultimate alternatives: either the thinker, activist, or leader can subject sexual desire to truth or he will subjugate truth to sexual desire. If a person is dominated by desire, i.e., Eros, then that desire will be the surest explicator of his thought. The turning away of the mind from truth... Continue Reading

North Park Presbyterian church of Jackson, MS, has always loved us and cared for us well.  Even greater was their love for Christ and their desire to see His church spread to all corners of the earth.  Their zeal for global missions was evident when their doors were open, and it will continue to be... Continue Reading

The most fascinating aspect of Stonewall’s character was his intense Presbyterian faith. Having been baptized an Episcopalian, Jackson joined the Presbyterian Church after thorough study of the Westminster Confession of Faith, becoming “the bluest [most traditional] kind of Presbyterian,” according to one newspaper account. Jackson was rigorously principled and devout, assiduously avoiding activities on the... Continue Reading