Preachers tend to think about exegesis, appropriately relating the text to Christ, contextualization, and so on. This is all so very important. But most of your listeners don’t look for these elements; instead, they have much more simple and practical things on their minds.   As a preacher, your aim is to please God and... Continue Reading

What was so amazing about Newton anyway? An apple falls, and he’s a genius? Everyone has always known that things fall. As one of my students said about something, “It’s as obvious as gravity.” And yet it was revolutionary? To understand a revolution, you have to understand from what it revolted.   Like most of... Continue Reading

The Christian faith has objective content that must be believed. Those propositions are more extensive than many might like to think, but all that content must be appropriated personally by faith or it remains only theoretical. The Spirit works through the proclamation of this gospel, these truths, to produce new life, true faith, and sanctity.... Continue Reading

No mistake about it, we Christians are bucking the trend. The trend in the West is less and less children, and having them later and later. The West is defined by its incredible shrinking families.   Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior... Continue Reading

It may be timely to ask what Jesus thought about the Old Testament.  If Jesus is who he claims to be, then surely his opinion should be very influential in shaping our own…Should we bail on the Old Testament?     The Old Testament has run into some hard times as of late.  It’s seen... Continue Reading

We live in crucial times for the church, especially in the West. There are skirmishes a’plenty, opportunities every day to go to war with our neighbors, with our brethren, with every Twitter rando with an itchy keyboard finger. We are called to wage relentless war on our sin (Heb. 4:12) and the spiritual powers of... Continue Reading

The temptation of Jesus was different from ours. His temptation did not come from within, but from without. Whereas we fail, he was successful. That’s why we need a sinless Savior outside of our fleshly desires, that is, a righteous Christ in whom we place our faith, rather than supposed sinful similarities between the flesh... Continue Reading

God gives grace to the humble. To those who humbly trust him with all their heart, he gives the grace of guidance. To those who humbly refuse to be wise in their own eyes, he gives the grace of refreshing peace. To those who humble themselves under his hand, he will give the grace of... Continue Reading

Where does the power for discipleship come from? We can’t convert anybody, and we certainly can’t cause someone to grow in spiritual maturity. As a result of the curse of sin, an unbeliever is spiritually dead with no ability to revive himself. How, then, are we to obey the command to make disciples in the... Continue Reading

Let us keep in mind all of God’s abundant kindness to us suggested by this parable: the carefully prepared vineyard, the hyper-patient dealings of the landowner pleading for a response, and the Son who died. The brave man who spoke this parable was shortly on His way to “taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).  ... Continue Reading