Regulations two years ago censored the Bible from the Chinese Internet, banned youth from church services and Bible camps, and authorized the burning of Bibles possessed without state authorization.   The Bible is America’s best-selling book, annually outpacing the top 20 best sellers combined. Yet a single Chinese company has a near monopoly on Bible... Continue Reading

We can follow in Christ’s steps and bring relief to others. We can bear their burdens. We can help shoulder the weight of life. In so doing, we can testify to the kingdom of God that we serve and seek to advance.   I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and... Continue Reading

Cleaver, D-Mo., is an ordained United Methodist who pastored a church in Kansas City for many years. His two-minute prayer was otherwise conventional, full of biblical references and King James cadences – until the very end, when he appealed to the “monotheistic God,” the Hindu creator deity “Brahma,” and the “god known by many different... Continue Reading

The whole LGBTQ+ movement has become deeply enmeshed in those kinds of cultural products that have a very, very persuasive impact on us, not because they intellectually convince us of their cause—they don’t even bother trying to do that—but because they emotionally convince us of the correctness of their cause.   Creating Our Own Reality... Continue Reading

Immanuel, God with us. Not just near us, in some nice palace somewhere. But with us, like ‘in Nazareth’ with us. Jesus of Nowhere, Galilee. He came to be with us, so that He could be for us. And He is forever with us, for He still carries the lowliest of labels. It was all... Continue Reading

Seek to put into practice some of these basic principles. Make use of the resources that willl help you better understand what you are reading. And may God send His Spirit to grant the blessing of inward spiritual illumination as we commit to reading, marking, learning, meditating on, believing, and putting His word to practice... Continue Reading

Christians of all people should certainly seek to be loving—but loving as defined and delineated by God himself, and not by the world. Biblical love is always about willing the highest good of the other person.   No, this article is not about a popular and shmaltzy 2003 film, actually. It is in fact trying... Continue Reading

The cross eats up our shame. So the shame of our sin, though felt, does not belong to us in the same way it would apart from the cross. For this reason, when we hide taboos like this, then we make shame meaningful and confession implausible and love unseeable.   Just hours away from me... Continue Reading

Even when you feel lost in the darkness—when all your senses tell you, “God has abandoned you,” and all your circumstances scream, “All hope is gone!” Even that darkness is not dark to Him, and night is as bright as the day (Ps. 139:11–12).    “I’ve been thinking about you,” we say to people we... Continue Reading

I wonder if people debating Gospel issues sometimes miss each other because they use different senses of the word “issue.” In fact, that seems almost certain.    People sometimes call something a Gospel issue. Such statements seem to mean that the Gospel implies or perhaps requires adherence to some activity or belief. Probably the most... Continue Reading