The message of the gospel gives confidence for Christ’s appearing. When we proclaim the name of Christ to a lost world, we are proclaiming that sinful mankind can be made right with the sinless Creator. Man, by nature, is at enmity with God, but there is a mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5).... Continue Reading

Stewardship in all of life rests on the knowledge that all we are and all we have has been given to us by God through Christ and belongs to God. We are therefore under His lordship. Laziness and selfishness are acts of ingratitude and betrayal toward God, and they portray a lack of trust in... Continue Reading

There is a gaping wound between us, a chasm of theology, culture, history, and pain. But Christ bridges chasms. And so I extend this invitation—not in spite of our differences, but because of them: Come, let us reason together. Let us sit across tables, walk through one another’s streets, hear the Psalms in each other’s... Continue Reading

“But preaching is more than teaching – not less, but more! Preaching is essentially teaching plus application (invitation, direction, summons), and where that plus is lacking something less than preaching takes place…Many in our churches have never experienced preaching of the historic evangelical sort at all.”   “The community is wonderful;” “There are so many ways to... Continue Reading

We can see that the Bible is not about us—the most powerful verse will be all about God. We see how God is Father, Son, and Spirit—he was present and active before time began. Therefore, the most powerful verse in the Bible will show how, as humans who have rejected God, we are the objects... Continue Reading

When the Lord brings us limits, he’s simultaneously doing relational formation. He’s not merely exposing our lack of holiness. He’s revealing the areas where we least trust him; where we least love and treasure him. Limits are not a call to look inward and get at the work of self-transformation. They are a call to... Continue Reading

In the service of love, we want to get (and keep) our bodies, depending on our season of life, in the condition needed to serve God’s callings on us to love others. We want to be the kind of people who desire to do good for others, knowing that such good often requires exerting our... Continue Reading

“The modern liberal believes that human nature as at present constituted can be molded by the principles of Jesus; the Christian man believes that evil can only be held in check and not destroyed by human institutions, and that there must be a transformation of the human materials before any new building can be produced.... Continue Reading

When a person calls you hateful, intolerant, bigoted, racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, hypocritical, et cetera, et cetera when contending for an opposing view, they’ve gotten completely off topic. The simple truth—and an obvious one, I would think—is that you cannot defeat an idea by attacking something else, like someone’s alleged character flaw. Yet it’s done... Continue Reading

Jesus’s blessing on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness calls for a deep inner desire for justice. It is a desire so strong, so irrepressible, that it acts on this righteous impulse. It engages in merciful action: feeding and clothing the poor, extending hospitality to strangers, and caring for the sick and those in... Continue Reading