The Sanctifying Grace of Inefficiency
There may come times in our lives—like this season of sustained seclusion—when efficiency slips through our fingers.
If you’re in a season that seems “wasteful” because of the current pandemic, or because of where you live, or chronic illness, or crying babies, or elderly parents who need your help, or whatever other reason you can’t “get it all done,” then perhaps this is the training ground that God has readied for you.... Continue Reading
God’s Calling on Men to Be Protectors
When someone with a specific vocation not only abandons that vocation but pursues its opposite, we recognize that something especially heinous has happened.
Our problem today is that God’s design in creation, reflected in the differing vocations given to men and women, is something that sinners routinely try to suppress or distort (Rom. 1:18). And sadly, they do so to their own hurt. Last night, John Piper participated in a panel discussion about complementarianism, and today T4G... Continue Reading
Born for These Unstrange Days
Whether we live or we die, we are here by the very will of God for such a time as this.
Covid-19 is the great revealer when it comes to our homes. Many of us are spending more time at home than ever before, as are our children. We may be shocked to learn that we don’t really like being home, at least not when everyone else is there, too. Perhaps what we’re discovering is that... Continue Reading
Not Too Clean
God wouldn't have given us all those "one another" passages if it was going to be an easy road.
Just as an immaculate barn might be a nice place to visit, a problem-free church may have some attraction to us. But it’s the barn with the messes on the floor and smell of animals that will see “abundant crops” at harvest time. Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant... Continue Reading
Coronavirus19—What’s It for?
What do Creed-reciting Christians have to say about the plague?
Whatever purpose plagues played in the O.T., we should hold to the fact that now the people of God are no longer ‘slaves’ but ‘sons’ (Gal. 4.3), Jesus taught that evils act as ‘reminders’ or as warnings of human mortality and weakness and need, and of the personal accountability before God of each of us.... Continue Reading
For, Not To
God's Word was written for you, but it was not written to you.
While the Bible is perfectly designed to be our guide for faith and life, we were not the original audience. And reading it as if we were is simplistic and dangerous. Learning this one, simple truth will both unlock the depths of God’s Word while also guarding us from bad interpretation. When people becomes... Continue Reading
5 Post-Lockdown Regrets
Some will look back on lockdown with a deep sense of regret at having missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow closer to God.
As I spoke with a good friend yesterday, we were pondering how lockdown does not create new spiritual or emotional issues for us. It is the kind of pressure that merely reveals issues more blatantly. So now is a good time to anticipate how we will feel coming out of lockdown. Why? Because now we... Continue Reading
Context Matters: Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing
We cannot know Jesus’s full meaning in John 15:5 without understanding “abiding” and “bearing fruit.”
Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. When we read this verse in context we see that Jesus is not primarily warning against self-reliance nor dismissing the contributions of non-Christians. Yes, he is drawing a sharp line between those who follow him and those who do not. But this is a call to life. ... Continue Reading
Crunching the Numbers on the Resurrection Toll
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead is a gigantic deal.
Don’t let the roller-coaster resurrection story become stale for you. Grab a Bible, plop down on a couch with your kids, read it over and over, talk about it, and feel the awe. For those who are hidden in Christ, sin is forgiven. Death is done. Fear not. He is risen. Reading through the... Continue Reading
A Creedal Crescendo—Risen, Reigning, Returning
Exploring the work of Christ under headings of the Apostles’ Creed.
Jesus rose bodily from the grave, but where is He now and what is He doing? Jesus came into this world in the humblest of ways – born a helpless baby, in an obscure town, among the animals in a stable. He was born a king but yet to conquer. Christ left the world, however,... Continue Reading
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