Seven (Lame) Excuses Why Christians in the West Neglect Our Brothers in the East
As Christianity nears extinction in the heart of its ancient homeland, we in the West do little to stop it
We don’t know what to do. This is perhaps the most common (and seemingly plausible) excuse for not assisting persecuted believers. We see their plight, we share their pain, and we desire to do something to help them – but we just don’t know how. Without any government position, public voice, or significant financial resources,... Continue Reading
What Does It Mean To Fear God?
We need to make some important distinctions about the biblical meaning of “fearing” God
“The focus here is on a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God. That’s often lacking in contemporary evangelical Christianity. We get very flippant and cavalier with God, as if we had a casual relationship with the Father. We are invited to call him Abba, Father, and to have the personal intimacy... Continue Reading
You Might Want to Fact-Check Your Pastor’s Sermon
Preachers love to drop statistics and historical tidbits into their sermons. Too bad so many of their facts are untrue.
I’ve heard most of these in church or seen them in the pages of Christian publications. You may have heard a few of them, too: Church members get divorced at the same rate as anyone else. The church in the U.S. is dying. Most Christian young people are shacking up and having sex. Half of... Continue Reading
Parenting By The Book Versus The Insanity Of Parenting In Real Life
When it comes down to it, God absolutely must be the one who saves my kids.
The hearts of my children are too messy, my wisdom is too limited, and my heart is too sinful in order to successfully shepherd my children into the kingdom of God. Only God can do that, and that actually gives me a great amount of comfort. I firmly believe that God will save my children.... Continue Reading
Reaching People in Evangelism
We have to reach out to people who will never come to church or read the Bible.
In His exchange with Nicodemus, Jesus gave us a very negative explanation for unbelief: He said that people love darkness and hate light (John 3:19), so they have no interest in Christ. But more of the story is shown in John 4. Many people are kept from God simply because they think they don’t belong... Continue Reading
Reincarnated or R.I.P.?
22% of Christians believe in Reincarnation?
My point is, the effects of the spiritual shift in our culture to a predominately Oneist view of the world are all around us. According to Pew, those affected by that shift are often sitting right next to us during service at church. Knowing this is, I think, the first step to speaking to the... Continue Reading
Emotional Bullying: Using Guilt to Lead Kids to God
How many of you were told about your personal responsibility for Christ's death as a child?
We need to be mindful of how we communicate these profound truths to children (and, let’s be honest, adults too). The emotional implications for some of the extremely dramatic language, imagery, and metaphors we use can be damaging. Jesus simply said, “Let the little children come unto me.” Not, “Compel them to come unto me... Continue Reading
Why I Don’t Hate the Word ‘Inerrancy’
The idea of there being mistakes in the Torah, for example, would not have occurred to Jesus, or to any of his earliest followers
Most of Jesus’s famous statements about the truthfulness and permanence of the Jewish scriptures—”not one iota will disappear from the Law until all is accomplished,” “the scriptures cannot be broken,” “it is written,” “the scriptures must be fulfilled,” “David, speaking by the Spirit,” and so on—give the impression of having been largely uncontroversial to their... Continue Reading
Dodging Bullets Over Religious Freedom
We are dodging bullets, bullets that would be fatal to our way of life because they are aimed at our religious freedom.
Given the choice between religious freedom and sexual expression, President Obama picked sexual expression. The Executive Order announced Friday and signed Monday contains no exceptions for faith-based contractors. It makes you wonder how long we can try to dodge bullets before our religious freedom is little more than a faint memory. We dodged a bullet (for now at... Continue Reading
Panting for Paradise
Where are our friends, who walked with Christ as their Savior and Lord, and walk no longer on the earth?
Heaven is a place of restoration. Weak hands are strengthened. Feeble knees find vitality again. Paradise is void of rheumatoid arthritis, prostate cancer, and all other effects of the fall that trouble mankind today. In heaven, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame... Continue Reading
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