Christians are “under construction.” But God never stops working on us until the project reaches completion. That starts in this life and continues slowly, but is always completed on deadline.   Second Timothy is Paul’s swan song. He was writing to his protégé from prison. He was about to be decapitated and yet he doesn’t... Continue Reading

Epaphras is one of those names that only appears three times in the whole Bible (Col 1.7, 4.12; Phm 23), and yet he was a spiritual giant whose example we would do well to follow. He was a church planter and the pastor of the churches in at least Colosse, Laodicea and Hierapolis, if not... Continue Reading

The work of the Holy Spirit is a gradual one in the Christian life. He sharpens our conscience, so that sins that we were committing unwittingly before become conscious later on. This process can have the incidental effect of tempting us to think that we are worse sinners later in the Christian life, when what... Continue Reading

Lament is a biblical way to process grief. It gives us the opportunity to face and name our pain and then to create space for future hope—all without glossing over tragedy. It allows us to cry and rage and even protest life’s difficulties to God and others without fear of judgment. It gives us permission... Continue Reading

Pride and an elevated sense of self-worth might drive us to assume we are a lot more important than we really are. Yes, our ministries are meaningful and we should be faithful, hard workers for Christ’s Kingdom. However, there are at least four important considerations before you call off another tee time.   Pastors, play... Continue Reading

Far too often as Protestants we are guilty of theologically bowling alone. We think that we can sit down with our Bibles all by ourselves and figure everything out. It’s time wake up and smell the roses and realize that we don’t do anything in life like that. We can’t figure it out alone.  ... Continue Reading

As early as the age of nineteen Edwards recognized that if he lost a sense of the greatness and generosity of the divine love, there would be no resources of grace to motivate the life of holiness to which he committed himself in his resolutions. Therein lay wisdom far beyond his years.   When Sereno E.... Continue Reading

God alone is eternal, immortal, all-powerful, all-wise, and all-knowing (1 Tim. 6:15–16). His spectacular majesty is beyond our ability to comprehend. God is infinitely great. Here are five ways we see that.   God loves to share things with us—life, breath, all of creation—but there are some things that only he has because he is... Continue Reading

Much Evangelical teaching on devotional practices is only loosely connected to a robust understanding of the gospel of grace, or worse, leads undiscerning believers into practices more characterized by mysticism, asceticism, and legalism, than the gospel-grounded, grace-oriented piety of which Calvin spoke, namely, “that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his... Continue Reading

John Gray—veteran British philosopher, intellectual historian, and book reviewer—has no intention of converting anybody. But his Seven Types of Atheism is a searching and helpful taxonomy of unbelief ancient and modern, and it has the potential to make the second of these two scenarios disappear altogether.   Imagine a conversation in which well-meaning skeptics try to deconvert... Continue Reading