Don’t Waste Your Medical Mistakes
One lab error, and God exposed my pretensions
Then a routine medical lab test indicated, maybe, one of the worst kinds of cancer. The score was so bad it looked like a lab mistake, and retesting would come the next day, but instead of calmness I had clamminess, and instead of saying to God, “Your will be done,” I railed at the prospect... Continue Reading
Five Reasons Leaders Finish Poorly
What does it take to finish well so a good legacy continues?
After our meeting concluded, I continued to ponder the situation even more. Why do some leaders end so well – Calvin Miller, Jack Hayford, Bob Russell, Roy Fish, and so many more – while others go out not in a blaze of glory, but in a blaze of gory? They finish poorly and leave a mess in... Continue Reading
21st Century Preaching: Cowards Need Not Apply
God’s man encourages where the Word encourages, teaches where it teaches, and rebukes where it rebukes
God save me and all church planters from such drivel. The world needs the word of the living God, unadulterated, uncompromised, and undiluted. It needs men who are more afraid of one day standing before a Holy God to give an account of their lives than they are of standing before men today. The world... Continue Reading
Capitalism, Ideology and the Abortion Debate (After 40 years)
Capitalism tends to atomize society and destabilize communities and has some effects on the abortion question
Conservative evangelicals committed to life have commendably continued the fight against on-demand fetal terminations. They have also done well in caring for the physical and emotional needs of women who have had or are contemplating abortion. Yet they too need to consider how a “free” capitalist ideology strengthens abortion. Conservatives are vocal supporters of traditional... Continue Reading
The Flying Scotsman: Lessons from the Life of Eric Lidell
The word “example” has fallen on rough times in some quarters of the evangelical church
But, it is not just to biblical characters that we can look as examples (positively or negatively). We can also look at the lives of the saints throughout modern history and be inspired, encouraged, and motivated by their faithfulness. One particular example of such a saint is the Scottish Olympic sprinter, Eric Liddell (1902-1945). ... Continue Reading
Proclaiming the Exclusivity of Jesus Will Result in Persecution
Why do you have to make such a fuss and bother about Jesus of Nazareth?
And as Christians they took the opportunity to say, ‘No,’ that actually ‘Jesus is Lord.’ They were beginning to understand that every knee would finally bow to Jesus. And therefore there was a radical difference in the way in which they viewed the culture at their time. All they had to do was simply allow Jesus to... Continue Reading
First PCUSA, Edmond, Okla., Votes to Withdraw and Join ECO
The First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, Okla., voted 815-55 to leave the PCUSA and join the Evangelical Covenant Order
Church leaders have said or stated that the PCUSA no longer clearly communicates why and how Jesus matters to a world that needs to know him, citing a denomination-level rejection of the statement “Jesus is the singular saving Lord.” They also cited a change in the PCUSA’s understanding and application of biblical authority from the... Continue Reading
Re-thinking Short Term Mission Trips
Are we asking the right questions about short term missions trips and their benefits?
If I were the Grand Poobah of world missions, mission trips would continue, but I would not pass around sign-up sheets and send as many laypeople as possible; I would carefully and prayerfully approve selected specialists who had skills that could make a difference to the people living overseas. My goal is not to abolish... Continue Reading
We Are All Missionaries
The purpose of missions is to glorify God
God’s mission is to grow and expand his kingdom throughout the world, which means in your hometown and around the world. This is not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual one that is reclaiming souls from the gates of hell. Missions is God’s victory march towards his eternal triumph, and the battle is being waged... Continue Reading
Morally Straight? The Transformation of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America to make the issue of homosexual leaders and scouts a local, not national, one
Perhaps the most sobering aspect of this sad development is the fact that speaking of sexuality in moral terms is already so culturally awkward. Less than a decade ago the Boy Scouts of America declared that homosexual conduct “is inconsistent with the obligations in the Scout Oath and Scout Law to be morally straight and... Continue Reading