Once we understand the term “expressive individualism” we get from Bellah and his fellow sociologists as well as the “Age of Authenticity” as defined by Taylor, we begin to see the elements of this worldview and how it affects life in Western societies today. This is where Australian church leader Mark Sayers helpfully sums up several... Continue Reading

From the catalogue of sins and injustices we hear about in our day, bribery is almost entirely absent. However, Scripture repeatedly sets out this evil–even to the supreme example of it in the betrayal of the Son of God. In our day, bribery in all its sophisticated and subtle forms may be the least mentioned... Continue Reading

You may read Ephesians 1:1-14 in thirty seconds, but you can study it for years. You may come to the end of reading the gospel of John in two hours. But you can never come to the end of searching its depths. This means we can expect a lifetime of happily moving deeper and deeper into... Continue Reading

There are certain devices in our lives we expect to run without ever shutting down. Refrigerators. Water heaters. Sump-pumps. If these devices ever shut down, food spoils, showers are cold, and basements flood. But we who are created in our Creator’s image are not cogs and widgets. We’re flesh and blood. We bear the mark... Continue Reading

So, what should we tell our children about death? In my experience, children want answers to three basic questions. Why do people have to die? Are you/am I going to die? What happens when we die? These can be hard questions to answer. The good news is that God has given us answers in the Bible.... Continue Reading

The Apostle Peter acted hypocritically when he refused to eat with the Gentiles (Gal. 2:13). Later, that same apostle would write to many: “Put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1). We must come to realize that even as Christians we are not immune to any sin.... Continue Reading

Whenever we begin to think of suffering in terms of what is or is not deserved, or are directed by some form of karma, or declare that what one reaps he has sown, or say that what goes around comes around, this logic begins to niggle its way into our hearts – the unrighteous suffer... Continue Reading

In a materialistic world, whose gods include “career advancement” and “more take-home pay” there’s no end of the work that can be done to earn the gods’ favor. Enough is never enough, because extra work can help you advance further and faster, and help you earn more. In that kind of world, the idea of... Continue Reading

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word we translate as “covenant” is berith, and it was used for centuries by the ancient Israelites. However, after Alexander the Great conquered the Eastern Mediterranean world and brought with him the Greek language, many Jews became more familiar with Greek than with Hebrew. Consequently, a Greek translation of the... Continue Reading

The original chaos was not evil; God created it. In fact, God called the “Seas” and even the “great sea monsters” “good” (Gen 1:10, 21). But after the fall into sin and God’s curse on creation, “chaos” took on evil connotations. God banished our ancestors from Paradise (cosmos) and sent them “east of Eden” where... Continue Reading