Sometimes Christians think they are or act as if they are still under the law, so they believe their obedience will make God love them more.  Or they think their disobedience makes God love them less.  They are then terribly frustrated by their failures and try harder to obey God only to fail and feel... Continue Reading

For Sciacca, Meals from Mars is more than a story; it’s his life. He serves as executive director of Restoration Academy, a Christ-centered private school in one of Birmingham’s poorest neighborhoods. Each day Sciacca teaches and mentors young black men, empathizing with their experiences, feeling their pain, and refusing to give simple answers to complex problems.   Malik paused.... Continue Reading

“When such autonomous, free-choice consumerism washes over society from the shopping mall to the bedroom, the office and the ballot box, the result is predictable.  What will be the price of obedience to authority, and what will be the respect according to principled dissent?  Choice – unbounded autonomous, subjective sovereign individual choice – is the... Continue Reading

If Luther was talking to pastors today, what counsel would he give them about pastoral counseling? “Do it!” We think we are too busy to counsel. We think we are ill-equipped to counsel. We think we should just preach (the pulpit ministry of the Word) and not counsel (the personal ministry of the Word). Luther was... Continue Reading

The flailing Christian bookstore industry reached code red status earlier this year when Family Christian Stores, touted as “the world’s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise,” declared it would shutter all of its 240 stores across America and lay off 3,000 employees.   Back in the 1990s, it often seemed that every city and town in... Continue Reading

“We know all that, we respect all that, and we take it seriously – and yet, and yet.  So we are also always ready for the surprising voice, the far-from-obvious leader, the last-person-you-would-ever-think would be the key player.  And yes, we are always ready to recognize God’s nobodies and God’s fools.  For these may be... Continue Reading

On first hearing though, the concept of roles may sound reasonable. We readily accept that people have different roles such as those found in the military. But you quickly run into a logical problem. A person may have the rank of private, but he/she may be promoted up the chain of command. Likewise an officer... Continue Reading

“We have trusted in Jesus. But how far can we trust Him? Just in this transitory life? Just in this little speck that we call the earth? If we can trust Him only thus far we are of all men most miserable. We are surrounded by stupendous forces; we are surrounded by the immensity of... Continue Reading

Sasse proposes, “The schools are less to blame than we are, for we [parents] are the ones who have asked them to deliver more than any mass institution is competent to produce.” In part two of the book, he gives five character-building habits for parents to help kids get traction out of perpetual adolescence. “All... Continue Reading

Federal Vision advocates see a tension between that traditional Evangelical view of the Gospel (which Evangelicals have held since the Reformation) and the practice of infant baptism.  They feel that infant baptism must be more than just wishful thinking to be meaningful: It must be an “objective” covenant that actually confers what it symbolizes.  In... Continue Reading