A few years back, I had the chance to visit with an old friend in California with whom I attended high school. Our wives and we all attended college together, and we were close for about a decade while our now-adult children were young. Over the years, Facebook helped us follow the general trajectories of... Continue Reading

Lots of ground is given an inch at a time leading up to the fall. So if you’re like me, you’re weary of seeing man after man fall, seemingly week by week, and you’re wondering: Is there anything we can do? The answer is yes, I think. Again, we can’t keep a sinner from sinning, really, but there... Continue Reading

I was done. My coach and my teammates encouraged me to get back on the track and finish the race. I didn’t want to finish the race. They kept encouraging me. I finally walked back on the track and slowly jogged until I crossed the finish line. There is a parable in this experience.  ... Continue Reading

Work is a creational or natural necessity but it’s also a Christian obligation. Charity is also a Christian virtue and obligation. Our English word charity is derived from the Latin caritas, which simply means love. We have come to think of charity as giving money and/or food to those in need but that is an application of charity but not charity... Continue Reading

Let me define what I mean by “pragmatist.” It’s the approach that says a church can use any effective means to win people to Jesus, make disciples, grow the church, or build the kingdom. A church may adopt any structure, program, or strategy that “works” to reach people for Christ as long as the initiative... Continue Reading

The study of Protestant churchgoers found most are committed to staying at their church over the long haul. But more than half say they would strongly consider leaving if the church’s beliefs changed. Pastors often worry about changing church music and setting off a “worship war,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. But few... Continue Reading

 I remember being enraptured, but not so much by the spokesperson — though Piper is of course a powerful preacher — as by the force of these verses that spoke to me that day. There is a sense in which that was the first time I began to understand more clearly what a call to... Continue Reading

In and through every hurt, every suffering, every hardship, he is unfolding his purposes for your everlasting good. He is working this — even this — for your final joy. God gives us glimpses into his peculiarly loving ways throughout the Bible, but he does so with particular power at the very turning point of... Continue Reading

As those boys became men, I wonder how many of them walked their pilgrimage with a limp, like I did. How many of them felt the frustration of remaining sin, knew defeat just as often as victory, and stuffed any honest engagement with sin deep down into their psyche? To succeed in the Christian life,... Continue Reading

It’s not as if Christ became the delight of God at the baptism or transfiguration. Instead, Jesus is the eternal delight of his Father. Have you considered that love existed before creation? Since God is love (1 John 4:8), and he is uncreated, then love existed prior to any creation. Who or what did God... Continue Reading