Jesus Doesn’t Want Your Risk, He Wants Your Life
Being a Christian is fundamentally radical, risky, and crazy
I’ve been thinking a lot about risk lately. In my little circle of Reformed theology, taking risks for God is currently cool. It’s in. It’s what all the cool kids are doing. Piper and Platt and Chan are writing about crazy, don’t waste your life, radical love. And I really am grateful for these guys.... Continue Reading
How I Know the LGBT Movement Hates the Boy Scouts
Most of those that have put on the pressure on the relatively feeble Boy Scouts of America do not give a care for the organization; it is just another casualty in their culture war
The LGBT champions on company boards and positions of cultural leadership that are putting the pressure on the BSA have no love for the organization. If the organization keeps its current standards, it loses big-time corporate donors. If the Scouts change their policy, then they are going to lose grassroots participation via facilities, membership, and... Continue Reading
A Pattern Developing: Another Court Grants Injunction on HHS Mandate
It’s possible that the Supreme Court could take up appeals from the circuit courts on these cases in its next term, which begins in October.
The government argued, like it has in other cases, that the mandate does not violate the family’s religious liberty because the company is a separate entity that doesn’t qualify for religious liberty protections. The court rejected that argument, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which granted First Amendment... Continue Reading
When He Feels Far Off
God's nearness is not a feeling, it is a truth
When we doubt our feelings, when it seems he is not coming through, not answering us, or has turned a cold shoulder, it is time for us to first confess those emotions to him. He is not surprised by our doubt. He is not scrambling for plan B. He is not trying to sweep up... Continue Reading
Don’t Let the Screen Strangle Your Soul: Part 2
The danger of never being alone
What if we prefer endless noise to the deafening sound of silence? What if we do not care to hear God’s still, small voice? What if the trivialities and distractions of our day are not forced upon us by busyness, or forced upon us at all? What if we choose to be busy so that... Continue Reading
The Left’s War against Science
Ignoring scientific consensus when it challenges cherished beliefs
According to many, especially among the secular and liberal cultural elites, the arrow runs only one way. Conservatives and evangelicals have been engaged, we are told, in an ongoing “war” against modern science (science defined as acceptance of Darwinian evolution, global warming, and embryonic stem cell research). Despite evidence to the contrary, I simply want... Continue Reading
A new President for BioLogos, but no progress on the Adam and Eve question
An evolutionist on the significance of BioLogos' new president, Deborah Haarsma
Founded by Francis Collins, who resigned when he became director of the National Institutes of Health, BioLogos had the goal of turning evangelical Christians towards accepting evolution. They proposed to do this by showing literalist Christians that the Bible and Darwin were completely compatible. It didn’t work of course. Efforts stalled, and BioLogos began engaging... Continue Reading
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
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
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