We sometimes neglect to remind people that walking in repentance and integrity is a good gift to leaders (Hebrews 13:17) because it keeps them from having to enter conflict. Us folks under accountability can take real burdens off those holding us accountable by striving to act right.   “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill... Continue Reading

Our church recently surveyed people from within and without as to the most pressing questions they’d like to ask Christians. We received a rich pot pourri of responses—the existence of aliens, the Christian understanding of gender, the failures of the Church, will my dog be in heaven and so forth. However, the number one question was surprising... Continue Reading

Though the Father’s will to make us happy does not change, and though the Son’s work of securing our happiness is complete, the Spirit’s work of showing and bestowing happiness to us and upon us has only begun. By God’s triune mercy, we have been reconciled to the order of beatitude, what Augustine calls “the perfectly... Continue Reading

In the 6th article of the Apostles’ Creed, we confess Christ “ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty” (ascendit ad coelum, sedet at dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis). The language of “sitting” is symbolic of his present heavenly rule or royal session over all things. It is ecumenical, ancient,... Continue Reading

So, we all have feelings. But are these feelings always true or truthful? Should we express our feelings or repress them? How can we deal with negative feelings? Should our feelings direct our lives? Should we “follow our hearts” as so many say? Should we do something if we’re “just not feeling it”?   All... Continue Reading

Those committed to Scripture’s divine inspiration and inerrancy understand that if the Bible actually is God’s word, then it must be the guidebook for living in relation to God and others. Throughout the centuries of church history, at least the Christian church has said that Scripture is God’s authoritative word, even if attending to its... Continue Reading

What’s all this stuff in the book of Hebrews about priests and the Most Holy Place and a guy named Melchizedek? It feels kinda like Old Testament stuff to me, and I’m definitely done with that. That horse has been put out to pasture and shipped to the glue factory (that’s how that analogy goes,... Continue Reading

For a secularist like Sagan, this snapshot of the cosmos is to be brought to a precipice of insignificance and to behold the meaninglessness of everything. Our lives mean nothing. Indeed the collective lives of everyone who has ever lived, combined, add up to nothing of significance. All the drama on this blue dot means... Continue Reading

To say we can never declare a behavior to be wrong is ultimately self-defeating. The rich irony for those people who say we shouldn’t judge is that they themselves are judging. They are declaring a behavior to be “wrong” (in this case, the behavior of judging), while at the same time insisting we shouldn’t declare... Continue Reading

The second noteworthy detail is the order in which they articulate their apostolic duties: prayer first and preaching second. Even by this early stage of their work, they were discovering how the Holy Spirit, as Christ had promised, would enable them to speak and proclaim God’s word effectively – even under the most unlikely circumstances.... Continue Reading