In our culture of “anything goes,” we don’t like to think that there can be a right and wrong approach to something that feels so personal. However, when we let our own preferences dictate our prayers, they will be weak and ineffective, unlike the powerful prayers of the righteous (James 5:16).   Prayer is hard.... Continue Reading

The Top Men need to listen to the critique. They need to hear from the oppressed---and do something about it. They need to correct bad teaching and not believe their own hype. Instead of posing as social equals on social media and then amplifying the same celebrity voices over and over again, they should pepper unrecognized teachers in the mix---not merely ones they are grooming to begin headlining for the brand, but ones to offer a different perspective of their shared truths. What if Top Men were willing to learn themselves? Instead of talking about decreasing, they should actually try it sometimes.

Life can be wearying. New years with all their talk of fresh starts can be wearying – the same desires for improvement, the same desires to see the church grow, to see lost loved ones come to Christ – and another year comes and goes with no discernable change. Weariness can set in at individual and congregational level. And we crank back on the enthusiasm level, afraid to keep living with high expectations amidst low outcomes.

Yet there is hope for even the sexually immoral. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul discusses the purpose of God’s law and says the law was given for “the sexually immoral, [and] men who practice homosexuality” (1:10). God has made provision for all sinners! The law was graciously given to expose their sin, their desire to sin, and their inability to stop sinning. But, of course, the law was not enough, so Paul immediately switches from the goodness of the law to the goodness of the gospel, to what he refers to as “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.”

“In the first place it must impact the way we do theology. We handle the infallible truth of the divine revelation, but do so as those who ourselves are flawed in our ability to grasp that truth in its fullness and interconnectedness.”   It has been on my mind for quite a while to post... Continue Reading

“God’s decretive will refers to the secret, all-encompassing divine purpose according to which he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. His preceptive will refers to the commands and prohibitions in Scripture.”   There is a reason I said God’s “Will(s)” (plural) instead of God’s “will” (singular). My focus in this installment of 10 things you should... Continue Reading

Instead of a “monarchal” model that views God as a king in absolute control, he offers a “parental” model of God working in the world “in which the parent does everything possible for the benefit and the good of the parent’s children.” “The God that we know in Jesus Christ always does the most that... Continue Reading

As we anticipate the challenges and opportunities of 2017, I want to repost an open letter that focuses on the most important realities in the world. And the addressee of my open letter is you. No matter who you are—whether young in the faith, a seasoned saint, or not a believer in Jesus at all; whether we’re good friends, have only spoken a few times, or if I don’t know you from Adam—I can think of nothing more profitable that I’d like to say directly to you. And perhaps the most interesting distinctive about this open letter for 2017 is that it’s nothing new.

Spiritual depression is a part of the Christian life. Lloyd-Jones puts it this way: "You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind and spirit. The greatest and the best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time and there are great illustrations of this in the Scriptures."

Jesus’ strength as a warrior was displayed in taking all the blows we could not. He went to the cross and won our salvation. And further, Jesus didn’t fully complete his mission either. Jesus came once but he promises that he will come again. And when he comes again he will destroy every enemy that he left undestroyed. He is both the infant in the manger and the rider on the white horse armed for battle in Revelation.