Andy Stanley Trashes Expository Preaching; Calls it “Easy” and “Cheating”
Stanley says, "My challenge is to read culture and to read an audience and ask: What is the felt need?"
Stanley and other seeker-friendly “creative” preachers improve upon the Text by incessant story-telling and personal anecdotes. That’s the “engaging” part of his shtick. I’ll remind you, beloved, that Jesus taught in parables not to reveal engaging and compelling truths from Scripture, but to conceal truth from those who didn’t need it at the time (Matthew... Continue Reading
What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?
A review of Kevin DeYoung's new book
Normalizing homosexuality and getting marriage wrong isn’t just a matter of mishandling a few texts, then. It’s a matter of undermining the entire storyline of Scripture—a storyline that begins with a marriage in Genesis 1 and ends with a marriage in Revelation 21. As DeYoung writes, “If God wanted us to conclude that men and... Continue Reading
Pulling Together: Marriage, Ministry, and Calling
This is what a truly Christian marriage looks like—two people bound together by a mission greater than either one of them; two people bound together to love Christ and serve His people.
Don’t Christian women understand this? No, I’m afraid that some don’t. Some, in fact, believe that the calling to help their husbands trumps every other ministry calling or desire. Sometimes they believe this because of their own immaturity; and sometimes they believe it because this is what they have been explicitly told. The result is... Continue Reading
Believe it or Not: 5 Types of Doubters (Part 2)
The final three categories venture onto the darker shades of the spectrum of doubt, “shading into unbelief”
This cadre of unbeliever also has doubts. But they are not asking you questions in order to resolve confusion, but to spread the contagion of their doubts to you. They ask questions like “How can you believe the Bible when Matthew says Judas hanged himself and Acts says he died by falling off a cliff?”... Continue Reading
Sanctification By Grace Versus Sanctification By Scolding (1)
In her own way, the medieval church turned the covenant of grace into a covenant of works.
In effect, the medieval church said: God has done his part. Jesus qualified himself to be the Savior. He died to facilitate your salvation/justification/sanctification. In baptism we were said to receive initial justification. We were given a clean slate. From confirmation on it was up to us to do our part, to cooperate sufficiently with grace in... Continue Reading
Living Without Worry
A review of a new book by Timothy Lane on how to replace anxiety with peace
Living Without Worry doesn’t offer a magic cure-all but encouragement to remember God’s character, and promises and to live in that light of those truths. For the non-Christian reader, this book also clearly presents the gospel especially as it relates to the weight of guilt and the fear of eternity. I thought this was a... Continue Reading
A Critique of Family Driven Faith
Baucham’s fervor is commendable, but too often his diagnosis and cure is a confusing blend of general biblical principles and his own personal practice within his family.
Family Driven Faith (FDF) offers solutions to these errors which are problematic on three fronts. First, FDF over-generalizes the issue by equating all involvement in age-graded ministry to children/students with abdication of parental responsibility. Second, FDF sets ministry within the family and within the church at odds. And third, FDF convolutes clear biblical mandates and... Continue Reading
“Whoever Would Save His Life Will Lose It” — A Charge for Graduates
Those who demand their best life now will forfeit life with Christ
“Jesus is not looking for mere believers, though belief is the first command. Christ has called for those who believe in him to serve him and follow him and obey him — even to take up our own cross as his disciples.” And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to... Continue Reading
Atheists Anonymous
In Psalm 53, David addresses the sinful dysfunction of being an atheist
“We might like to view ourselves as gods. We might like to reason we have no divine law to keep. It might make us happy to conclude we have no one to whom we must answer for our conduct. However, this is but a mere rebellious, human fantasy. There is one God.” “Hello, my name... Continue Reading
Recovering the Family Dinner Table
Here are three basic reasons that we need to recover the family dinner table
“In our lives we tend to ignore important things to focus on urgent things. Practice, homework, and squeezing in an extra thirty minutes at work feel urgent. It seems as if these things must be done and they must be done now. Taking the time to share a meal together does not invoke the kind... Continue Reading