Long-view Leadership, Part 4: Long-view leaders let go
Why do so many successful leaders struggle to let go? Maybe they don’t trust the next generation. Or maybe they just don’t think God can get his work done without them.
God used Winston Churchill to save his country during World War 2 – and a legitimate case could be made that the free world would have fallen without his strong leadership through one of the greatest crises in modern civilization. But shortly after seeing victory, Churchill was removed from office when his coalition government fell... Continue Reading
An Ounce of Clarity vs a Pound of Cleverness
In writing, an ounce of clarity is worth more than a pound of cleverness.
A lot cleverness in writing functions like nervous laughter in conversation. It fills silence for the one providing it, but it’s distracting for everyone else. This is not to say, of course, that writers ought never be clever. Great writers can often be clever, and more artful expression or memorable turns of phrase are good... Continue Reading
Failure to Thrive: 6 Signs You Are Drifting from the Gospel
What are some signs that you are drifting away from the gospel? These symptoms can all be grouped under what we can call a spiritual failure to thrive.
We need to be aware of signs of spiritual illness and a failure to thrive. When we start to find ourselves disinterested in Jesus, his Word, and our future inheritance, we should be concerned. When we realize that we are having a difficult time discerning between truth and error, or that we are unable to... Continue Reading
Does the Regulative Principle Regulate More than Elements?
Some forms are merely circumstantial, but others are divinely regulated.
The irony is that many modern attempts to make worship more attractive to the world often makes worship less distinctly Christian, but the church is most compelling when she is most faithful to her identity. The church is most missional when she is most distinctly the church. One of the more common arguments in... Continue Reading
A Reading in John of Damascus, with Commentary: Or, Another Problem with Theological Retrieval Demonstrated. (Part Two)
Continued analysis of John of Damascus’s arguments for image worship which are considered one of the greatest works on the doctrine of the Eastern communions.
Yet those who cannot read can hear the spoken word, which is how God’s Spirit worked through his apostles to convert the heathen. We nowhere read that the apostles went to the lost with images, nor that artistic skill at fashioning images is a gift of the Spirit. Yet time and again we hear of... Continue Reading
My Marine Buddy’s Witness Led Me to Christ
Don’t underestimate the influence you can have on others for Christ.
Men, who really knows you in your church? Your soul was made for godly masculine intimacy with other Christian men, and with Christ. Take time to pursue it. Heaven and hell really are hanging in the balance. Two audible dings immediately rang out as my cell phone turned on. “Heard you guys lost a... Continue Reading
Why the Church Must Recover a Theology of Life
Abortion rates are rising. The church must step up with a lived theology that proclaims a pro-life ethic.
Our congregations begin to truly mirror the image of God when we move toward broken people instead of away from them. Only that kind of church will meaningfully confront abortion. The Post-Roe Paradox: Why Abortion Rates Are Still Rising On January 27, 1973, a single decision legalized abortion in every state. Almost fifty years... Continue Reading
A Marriage with Christ in the Middle (Colossians 3:18-19)
Kindness, compassion, and forgiveness are all found and pictured in our Lord Jesus Christ.
If Christ is in the middle of a marriage, a wife will gladly submit to her husband, and the husband will gladly love his wife. May God give grace to our marriages today, and may all glory go to Him. Husbands and wives find much in Scripture for how to love and respect one... Continue Reading
An Optimistic Farmer
The sower appears to be more concerned that that a section of good soil might remain unsown, than that the seed might be sown too liberally.
The return on good soil will more than make up for any “wasted seed” along the way. As we preach and promote the gospel, there might indeed be hard soil. But we must, like Jesus, be willing to sow optimistically. The story of the parable of the Parable of the Sower (Mk 4:1–20 and parallels)... Continue Reading
“Praying in the Holy Spirit”: What Does Jude 20 Mean for Christians Today?
In Jude’s context, prayer is directly connected to spiritual perseverance amid false teaching and moral compromise.
In an age of distraction, superficiality, and spiritual confusion, Christians must recover serious, Scripture-shaped, Spirit-dependent prayer. Not theatrical prayer. Not mystical speculation. Not cold formalism. But humble, biblical, Christ-centred communion with the living God. Among the shorter books of the Bible, the letter of Jude contains some remarkably weighty exhortations. Writing to Christians threatened... Continue Reading
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