The Moral Elephant in Black America’s Room
What would happen if moral virtue hailed supreme in low-income black neighborhoods?
One has to wonder how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would respond to the state of black America in 2013. From the nonsense that regularly spews from the mouth of rappers like Lil Wayne to the black-on-black violence that continues to plague many black urban and rural neighborhoods, we are moving further away from King’s... Continue Reading
A Tempted Savior Is A Helpful Savior
Because Jesus suffered and was tempted, He is perfectly suited to help us in our temptations.
Jesus suffered like no one else. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He felt the loneliness of being abandoned by his family and the utter grief of being abandoned by the Father. He had a real human body that was racked with pain and sickness. He had a real back that... Continue Reading
What Are “Dead Works”?
Unless we have been washed in the blood of Christ, all our good deeds are worthless, useless, vain, and dead
These works are lethal because the thing that most keeps people from Christ is the belief that they can be good without Him. Their lives may be filled with good deeds in the eyes of men, but such works are not necessarily good in the eyes of God. Unfortunately, many have been led astray by... Continue Reading
The World Hates You!
We have become members of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that means we are automatically at odds with the world.
Because the world first hated Christ. If we just look at the number of times that John talks about how Jesus was not received, or rejected or hated or threatened with death, we see that the world absolutely despises our Savior. The rejection is complete. I know that there are those who like to say... Continue Reading
Keep Calm and Carry On: Assessing Tim Tebow’s Public Testimony
The culture is transforming but not in ways conducive to religious freedom in general or Christianity in particular
We really should try not to make such figures into those to whom we look for leadership and guidance. That role should be fulfilled by the elders in your local church and the experienced saints whom you know personally and with whom you have an actual relationship. Tim Tebow has, as far as I know,... Continue Reading
If You Expect Fruit Without a Tree, You’re Nuts
We can't be good people without being God people first
We equate love with indifference to sin when the Bible’s logic is exactly the opposite. The cross is the fullest expression of God’s love not because it shows God’s indifference to sin, but because it shows God’s holy hatred toward sin and his willingness to pay for it himself. That’s love. At the end of... Continue Reading
Why the Afterlife Bores Us
Too many Christians see the hope of resurrection life as a capstone on their lives now
If we miss this, then we become just like those with no hope. We talk about our “bucket lists” of what we have to do before we’re gone since “you only live once.” We worry about our future and we nurse grudges because we fear our lives can be ruined by circumstances instead of by... Continue Reading
Help Save the Ones Around You
An entire industry is rising up to detect genetic anomalies much earlier in pregnancies. And they aren’t doing it to improve the care of those unborn babies.
When parents hear this news they are immediately assaulted. Sinful impulses along with the father of lies and the culture conspire together and pressure them to make a quick, fatal action. Will you stand in the gap for that baby? Before a young couple is faced with the hard news of disability, will they see... Continue Reading
If Jefferson Were a Secular Humanist and Not a Theist, He’d Have Written “We Hold These Truths…”
Thomas Jefferson, something of a “bare theist” or “Christian rationalist” wrote the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. But how would it have read had he been a secular humanist instead? As charitably as possible, here’ s my educated guess: We hold these truths to be good opinions of men; that all men should be... Continue Reading
The Introverted Evangelist
If you have introverts in your church, empower them in the ways God has made them.
Don’t let the introvert use their design as a crutch for mission. “God didn’t make me that way” is a crutch. Instead, show them what mission could look like. Find another introvert, or functional extrovert, that can aid them in steps of what mission might look like for them. Don’t just tell them; have someone... Continue Reading