I wish I’d known about the destructive effects of insecurity in a pastor. This is less because I’ve struggled with it and more due to its effect I’ve seen in others. Why is insecurity so damaging?   What follows has been adapted from a brief talk I delivered to the Oklahoma chapter of The Gospel Coalition on... Continue Reading

When you read the headlines, it becomes easy to forget that many homeschoolers fall nowhere near the fundamentalist Christian camp outlined in Joyce’s story, and that even many who do buy gifts from Vision Forum and send their children to Patrick Henry College are sane, loving, empowering parents. They’re not the ones we hear about.... Continue Reading

The controversy did not go away, though, as the substance of Mefferd’s accusations has proven to be mostly true. Driscoll issued a statement saying, “Mistakes were made that I am grieved by and apologize for.” But his statement, issued in conjunction with Tyndale House Publishers, did not address these new concerns.   At least two... Continue Reading

There is no way to read everything, and not everything deserves to be read. I say that in order to confront the notion that anyone, anywhere, can master all that could be read with profit. I read a great deal, and a large portion of my waking hours are devoted to reading. Devotional reading for... Continue Reading

Whenever the Wise Men visited Jesus (and I think it was likely sometime in the first 6 months after His birth), it is very appropriate for us to ponder the significance of their visit right after the beginning of a New Year. The dawn of a New Year prompts us to think in terms of... Continue Reading

In 2013 The Aquila Report posted over 2,900 stories. At the end of each year we feature the top 50 stories that were read. The top story this year had over 20,890 hits. We average 8 new stories each day, with a variety of subjects – all of which we trust are of interest to... Continue Reading

The paradox is that growing or shrinking numbers do not tell you anything. The Gospel would still be true even if no one believed it. The hopeful thing is that, where it is tried – where it is imperfectly and hesitantly followed – as it was in Northern Ireland during the peace process, as it... Continue Reading

Jesus walks down to the defendant’s table with his Book of Life. At this time, Jesus is granted the floor and he presents his personal lack of sin. Then he presents his personal obedience. Jesus shows the court his hands, feet and side, and then with his nail-pierced hands he opens the book and begins... Continue Reading

But that was then, when America was so Christian that it only took a few more tweaks to finish up the job, like abolishing slavery or prohibiting alcohol.  But somehow when that got done the results were deeper racism and the triumph of the Mafia.  It’s discouraging, isn’t it?  So it’s not surprising that by... Continue Reading

We return to the determinative factor of context. Clearly, modern preachers and believers who use terms like “passion” and circumscribe the semantic range by placing it in syntactical relation with prepositional phrases like “for God” or “in worshiping God” or “for lost souls” are well within biblical and lexical grounds of propriety and should not... Continue Reading