Isn’t it confusing to preach to people, telling them to be passionate about something good, when all that they read about passion(s) in the Bible is evil? What do they think when they read the scriptures? And making matters even more confusing for serious minded believers, our Confession tells us that God is “without body,... Continue Reading

With that said, though, within confessional bounds intellectuals should feel exhilarating freedom as they research, write, and teach. They are serving the Lord in their work just as Christians in all other honorable professions and callings do. They are not hampered by the Bible; they are set free by it.   But when the Pharisees... Continue Reading

It’s just so much easier (and more pleasant) to work out how other people should change than it is to unsettle our own hearts and lives. If you really want to listen to sermons in an apparently godly but non-growing way, pick one encouragement from the sermon which will make no difference to your life,... Continue Reading

At some moment in the past, feminists decided that objectified sex and objectified sexuality, far from being degrading to women, were their most potent means of empowerment. Part of me thinks that that may be the greatest confidence trick which men ever played on women. I am sure if the average fourteen year old boy... Continue Reading

Is your Christian education based upon evolutionary and secular thinking? It is if your church practices the usual age-segregated Sunday school according to a new church movement. The family-integrated church movement, primarily within the homeschooling community, is a self-conscious challenge to classic Christian nurture. It has already affected some Reformed churches. But what exactly is... Continue Reading

Have we in our quest for theological precision ignored our desire for a personal encounter with the living God? Have we focused on critiquing the world around us instead of seeking the Word from above us? If we are His, have we stopped seeking to keep in step with the One within us? Have we... Continue Reading

We settle for too little. It is so easy to set the bar at mere obedience. Do right. Do right in the midst of temptations. Do right in suffering. These are certainly good, but when we know Jesus, we know there is more—we know there is joy. Joy lives in public Joy is our animated... Continue Reading

So, how can you help them NOT change? How can you help them become hardened in their sins? It’s really rather easy. Two words: get angry. That’s all there is to it! If you want to help a person not change, get angry every time they sin. Blow up. Be volcanic. Explosive even.   Dear... Continue Reading

“I gave up my religion around the time I went to college, and tried not to think too much about it.” Many of us distance ourselves from religion. ‘Religion’ is a word that has become associated with repressive dogma, guilt-ridden duty, and all too common hypocrisy. It is not unusual to hear: “I’m into relationship,... Continue Reading

I do not advocate any form of theological imperialism—indeed Reformed theology has much to learn from the black church tradition. My passion is simply to see African Americans reshaped by a bigger vision of God. Only the God-centered gospel of the Bible has the power to renew individuals and whole communities. Reformed theology helps us... Continue Reading