“This plan does not have set readings for each day. Instead, it has set books for each month, and set number of Proverbs and Psalms to read each week. It aims to give you more flexibility, while grounding you in specific books of the Bible each month.”   Many Christians take the beginning of a new... Continue Reading

“My best friend from high school’s mother celebrates her birthday on the 21st. God has given her another year of life, and today they rejoice in that gift. Today was also my father’s birthday. It has been four years since dad died. December 21st brings with it a flood of memories.”   “Rejoice with those... Continue Reading

Ever since the fall, being yourself is the opposite of what God desires. Since the fall, our authentic selves are unsurpassed in self-absorption; they hate God by refusing to treasure him above all things. Therefore, the authentic you is worthy of death.   She struck terror in all who met her. Her voice, like an... Continue Reading

Systematic theology constructs a well-thought-out worldview that enables the church rightly “to think God’s thoughts after him” and to set biblical truth over against its worldview competitors. The goal of systematic theology is “to bring every thought captive to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1–5) for our good, for the life and health of the church, and... Continue Reading

While many debate which terms are best to use in naming God’s covenant (works, law, grace, creation, life and redemption etc.) and which ways the Old and New Covenant relate, we should recognize that history can only rightly be understood according to God’s making and keeping his covenant. Thus, the Bible as well as history, is structured according... Continue Reading

If, however, we mean that every sermon on an Old Testament text takes into account the fact that the entire Old Testament is about Jesus Christ, and gives us a history that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ, then all Old Testament preaching (and NT too, for that matter!) must be redemptive-historical.... Continue Reading

“When Christians ask: ‘Is it ok for me to do X on Sundays?’ the first response should normally be not ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but ‘Why would you be doing it?’ The most common answer to that question is probably ‘Because I don’t have time for it in the rest of the week.’ This highlights the... Continue Reading

We’re too embarrassed, ashamed, or prideful to admit what’s really going on. We shudder to think about anyone finding out, afraid they’ll reject us if they know, so we refuse to tell the truth, put on a mask, and pretend everything is fine. These are the times when we rob ourselves of the comfort and... Continue Reading

In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent. The public reading of Scripture has been dropped from many services and the sermon has been sidelined, reduced to a brief devotional appended to the music. Many preachers accept this as a necessary concession to the age of entertainment. Some hope to put in a... Continue Reading

To assert, imply, or infer that all white evangelical Christian supporters of Donald Trump and Roy Moore are racists and white supremacists, while excusing black evangelical Christians who supported Barack Obama, a man who openly advocated for such unbiblical policies as homosexual marriage and partial-birth abortion, is tantamount to hijacking what evangelicalism truly is by uprooting it... Continue Reading