Being an evangelical Protestant, a Baptist, indeed a Southern Baptist, are all important markers of my place within the community of faith, but there is a more primary confession I must make: I am a trinitarian Christian who by the grace of God belongs to the whole company of the redeemed through the ages, those... Continue Reading

Crabb’s description of what it means to be masculine and feminine can stand or fall on its own merits. He supports it with scriptural argumentation, psychological observation, and practical application. But I wish he’d leave the Trinity out of it. Specifically, I wish he didn’t connect gender to the relationship between the Father and the... Continue Reading

What about free will? I don’t believe, and Scripture doesn’t teach, that God controls us like automatons or puppets. As the quote above from the Confession states, God doesn’t force us to act contrary to our wills. God doesn’t make us choose a particular person to marry. And we certainly can’t say that we have... Continue Reading

Pastors, there is much going on in our heart and there is an enemy waging war for our souls everyday seeking to destroy us, our ministries and our families.  One of the enemy’s cunning tactics is to subtly cause us to miss these warning signs in our heart that something is not quite right.  Let your wife... Continue Reading

The push to be radical, on mission, a world-changer can seem like a crushing weight. Sometimes life is just too hard and stuff is too broken. It’s all I can manage just to keep my world from flying to bits, let alone change anyone else’s. That’s so far outside of reality it sounds more like... Continue Reading

“Abigail loved Christ with all her heart, and we know that she is with him now,” he posted Wednesday. “While we are left here in grief and sorrow, we cling to Christ’s promises that Abigail is now where he has wiped away every tear and where there will be no more death or sorrow or... Continue Reading

The problem with the redemptive-historical extremists is three-fold. First, the ethical thrust of the New Testament, which is not inconsiderable, disappears. All preaching becomes about Jesus and the cross, that is, about justification by faith. Everything else is a footnote to justification. As a consequence, preaching becomes predictable, cliché, and boring. Flights of redemptive-historical fancy... Continue Reading

Sadly, we pastors often lose sight of the power that works within us (Eph. 3:20) to accomplish the purposes of the Triune God through our ministries. We easily slip into complacent, comfortable sermon prep routines. I’ve often told my wife that I feel like “a sermon machine,” punching them out week after week. We can... Continue Reading

Well-meaning folks are eager to get a Reformed Black man into leadership and help them become more multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. But these sincere offers are sincerely misguided. Most people present me with leadership positions having only just met me. They have no idea what my biblical qualifications, or skills or reputation are. They simply see... Continue Reading

Notice I do not say that they leave churches because they don’t love God, but that they leave the Church for that reason. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for leaving a local church and, though this is not the place to discuss the subject in detail, I readily admit it may be a necessary step... Continue Reading