In the not too distant future, the only couples replacing themselves in America will be religious couples. As Last puts it, although there are many good reasons to have a baby, at the end of the day, “there’s only one good reason to go through the trouble a second time: Because you believe, in some... Continue Reading

God So Loved, He Gave is a genuine joy to read. It forcefully reminds readers–or, perhaps, informs them for the first time–that Christ’s saving work and its corresponding call to faith and, ultimately, self-sacrifice flows from, and so reveals, the fundamental character of the triune God as deeply loving and profoundly generous. In that process,... Continue Reading

 I’ll just go ahead and sound like the bad Christian here. I often cringe at the thought of family devotions. It’s the combination of talking the kids into it, disciplining their behavior during (which majorly involves the skill to stay on topic), and the cheese-factor of many of the devotions we have tried. Doing family... Continue Reading

I hope there aren’t too many pastors who will be taken in by this. I couldn’t agree more with the line I saw in Jared Wilson’s twitter feed yesterday: “Pastors, your desperation to be relevant is easily manipulated.” Manipulation is exactly what is going on here, pastors, but the motivation is not the gospel. The... Continue Reading

In the end, Merling reminds us that we must ask the right questions of archaeology and not expect too much of it. He suggests that the relationship between the Bible (properly read) and archaeology (properly interpreted) is not static: “Both can help us better understand the other, but neither can, nor should, be used as... Continue Reading

I am sure my mother had days when she wanted to give toddler-me to gypsies, but no permanent record of these moments existed for adolescent-me to find. A few of those stories do survive in oral form, but they are retold with laughter, face-to-face, where tone and facial expression give them context. If my mother... Continue Reading

William Boekestein is the pastor of Covenant Reformed Church in Carbondale,PA, and the author of several fully-illustrated children’s books. These books, The Glory of Grace, The Quest for Comfort, and Faithfulness Under Fire, have been written with the hope that they would help children gain a greater appreciation for the Christian faith and Reformation church history. We recently had the opportunity to... Continue Reading

This book addresses Darwin’s most significant doubt and what has become of it. It examines an event during a remote period of geological history in which numerous animal forms appear to have arisen suddenly and without evolutionary precursors in the fossil record, a mysterious event commonly referred to as the “Cambrian explosion.” As he acknowledged... Continue Reading

I love the title: A Neglected Grace. Instead of hammering us with the heavy hand of ought, Jason holds out family worship as an example of divine kindness. Yes, we need motivation for the discipline of family worship, but the best, longest-lasting motivation comes not by feeling terrible for what we could be doing better,... Continue Reading

Clarity. Being comprehensible without being condescending. Being simple without being simplistic. As Einstein put it, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. I want to challenge you to work harder at preaching more clearly. I want to push you to prepare in a way that combines your heartfelt passion with hardheaded... Continue Reading