Walking the Graveyards
Everywhere that seeds have been planted, sooner or later, the dirt gives up its dead.
Though the work is daunting, our home “graveyard” has many more workers who are going to keep doing the work faithfully. But our corner of Central Asia? There are towns and villages that we have visited that have no known believers. Places where we may have been the first to ever share the gospel of... Continue Reading
Ministry when there is a Miscarriage
How can the church minister to grieving families?
“Miscarriage is a pain too often unacknowledged. Yet it is real, and what [women who have miscarried] have lost is real. We feel sorrow and we weep because our babies were real.” Recently, several couples have publicly spoken of the deep emotional pain they experienced at the death of their preborn child. When Chrissy... Continue Reading
When Godly Brothers Disagree: Lessons from the Division of Paul and Barnabas (Part 2)
How should we view and respond to some of the disagreements and divisions among godly believers in our day?
Sometimes we do have to take sides. In many cases, however, we don’t. We don’t have to form firm opinions. We may have concerns. We may have suspicions. But in many cases, it’s the better part of wisdom to leave the matter with the Lord. Read Part 1. What Should We Think? If I polled... Continue Reading
Reflecting on a Broken Vow
Let us not fight among ourselves but seek to address the problem together.
I learned what I have long suspected, that Twitter is not entirely representative of Christianity—left or right, white or black. Perhaps the future lies with that gracious but understandably more timid group stepping forward and gently but firmly taking over the reins of the discussion from today’s loudest voices. Some years ago, I took... Continue Reading
How the World Embraced Consumerism
Capitalism preserved its momentum by moulding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for its "wonderful stuff."
Over the course of the 20th Century, capitalism moulded the ordinary person into a consumer. Kerryn Higgs traces the historical roots of the world’s unquenchable thirst for more stuff. The notion of human beings as consumers first took shape before World War One, but became commonplace in America in the 1920s. Consumption is now... Continue Reading
Any Sin Can Be Forgiven
What We Still and Will Believe
Sin was the air we breathed, and the god we served. And if God had not intervened, it would have dragged us, lifeless and hopeless, to hell. I believe in…the forgiveness of sins. (Apostles’ Creed) An awful storm fell on the still fragile church in Rome. The emperor had demanded that Christians be arrested, their... Continue Reading
The Mystery
The truth of the gospel made clear.
The Gospel is not mysterious because it is hard to understand. It is mysterious because it is unexpected, unmerited, and free. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and... Continue Reading
QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within
Until last week, too many in the Republican Party thought they could preach the Constitution and wink at QAnon. They can’t.
If the GOP is to have a future outside the fever dreams of internet trolls, we have to call out falsehoods and conspiracy theories unequivocally. We have to repudiate people who peddle those lies. Eugene Goodman is an American hero. At a pivotal moment on January 6, the veteran United States Capitol Police officer single-handedly... Continue Reading
The Eight Cities of Revelation
While the seven are situated in the fallen world, the eighth city belongs to the new creation.
While we live in the city of man, Revelation stirs in us a longing for the city of God. It exerts the gravitation pull of hope while we live in this world. But that longing is for more than relief from sin and suffering, more than delight in heavenly habitation; it is a longing for... Continue Reading
Remembering God’s Faithfulness in the Face of a Detour
Look to the ways God has delivered in the past.
Do you trust God’s faithfulness to deliver again in the midst of your daily detours? Perhaps you feel it now each time you leave your home: the great unknown awaits out in public. Traffic stood still. That’s never a good thing when you’re traversing the Pennsylvania Turnpike. After thirty minutes without moving, curiosity began... Continue Reading
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