A Christian church teaches the Bible. It is committed to the inerrancy, sufficiency, clarity, and authority of the Word of God and therefore preaches it week by week with confidence and consistency. A Christianish church teaches about the Bible. It is committed to imparting life lessons and uses the scriptures as a starting point to... Continue Reading

Flack and Makenzie have undergone hormone therapy and certain surgical procedures but claim medical health providers have recommended they obtain additional surgeries. Both also say they have experienced severe emotional distress, including self-harm and suicidal ideation, due to their inability to undergo the operations.   Two transgender residents this week pushed Wisconsin to move into... Continue Reading

Christ loves his church with a sacrificial love. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Jesus’s life culminated in an act of sacrifice for the sake of his church. He sacrificed himself to all the horrors of the cross so that we would not need to endure it ourselves. He turned himself over... Continue Reading

Archaeology is not central to preaching, but it can play an informative role primarily in the areas of context and content. It is one of the sources that ought to be used to gather information about a particular text that is being preached. Other disciplines are also to be brought into the study: geography, linguistics,... Continue Reading

When you don’t read the text before and after a verse, you create a context vacuum that you are tempted to fill with your own life circumstances. Since context determines the meaning of the smaller unit of text, your own life situation becomes the new context that changes the meaning of the verse.   Never... Continue Reading

In 1900, only 1 percent of the country’s population was Christian. But that began to change after the “Pyongyang Revival” or “Korean Pentecost” in 1907, the first important religious movement for Korean Protestant Christianity. As Kirsteen Kim, professor of theology and world Christianity at Fuller Theological Seminary, says, “The revival had lasting effects on Korean Christianity and... Continue Reading

Today is the 399th anniversary of the publication of the Canons of Dort. The word canons means “rules” or “rulings” of the Synod. These are what people commonly (but incorrectly) call “the Five Points of Calvinism.” First, Calvinism was a nickname given to us. The Reformed Churches do not call themselves by Calvin’s name. We designate ourselves by our theology,... Continue Reading

Making the choices below won’t guarantee that you won’t experience seasons of depression, anxiety, or other forms of mental unrest. But the kind of choices listed below, if made before-during-after a time period of mental unrest, will still make a significant impact on your quality of life.   Good physical health does not happen by accident.... Continue Reading

Careful reflection on Christ’s return, sustained meditation on what it will mean in that moment and for all eternity, has a purifying effect on the soul. It turns sin sour in our mouths and serves to conform us ever more to the image of Jesus himself. After all, who can truly set their sights on... Continue Reading

For seven years, T and her husband had been active church members with marital problems, and many people had devoted hours of marriage counseling with them. The couple even flew to Missouri to participate in an intensive four-day marriage conciliation program. Now T was saying that after all that effort, things had become worse—and she... Continue Reading