Christians who had taken refuge in churches were burned to death as the buildings were locked and set on fire. Churches that remained had their crosses taken down and crescents put up in their place. All of this was part of a move to exterminate Christianity from the lands of the old Byzantine empire, to “liberate” Asia Minor from Christian influence and put it into the hands of Islam.

Although the conservative confessional Reformed world is unified under the North American and Presbyterian Reformed Council (totaling roughly 500,000 Christians), that body is itself divided into no less than 12 different denominations. These denominations profess the same basic doctrines and hold to the same confessional documents, they observe the sacraments in the same way and have the same form of church government, and they even worship in broadly similar forms, but due to various cultural or theological distinctives they cannot seem to join themselves together as one church.

Men…pray this…If this is the man I am to become, may I be given the grace to lift my robe and run, like the prodigal father, with vulnerability and without fear, into the brokenness of the world – even as the onlookers jeer.

There may be good reasons to reform or replace the Sinner's Prayer in evangelical "liturgical life." But we have to do better than theological snobbery or spiritual self-righteousness

Why should Christians bother reading literature at all? Because reading literature humanizes us -- in the best sense of the word. Literature helps us realize the image of God in us in ways that we cannot afford to miss. (By "literature," I am simply thinking of published works of imaginative writing in various genres, such as poetry, fiction and drama.)

Not all Christians have similar earthly vocations, and not all Christians are called to intense political involvements. But thankfully God has called some, whose labors make our political process function. Although all are called to prayerful concern about the state and to good citizenship, most are not called directly to political activism     Liberal... Continue Reading

According to Tim Bayly: “As I’ve pointed out many times and will continue to point out, those weddings you attend or officiate that do not include the wife’s vow to obey or submit to her husband are not Biblical weddings.” Father (as in patriarchy), forgive us.     Rebellion against Nature. I have read that... Continue Reading

The following open letter is addressed to the growing demographic of self-professing Christians who prefer to worship at home than publicly in a fellowship of other Christian believers at church.     Dear Eugene, I want to thank you for the kind email that you wrote me recently after we met by God’s providence at... Continue Reading

If in the political struggle I am more committed to gaining political power and advantage than I am to my Lord, I will betray both my neighbor and my Lord. I must always be wary of political power. Being faithful to God and loving my neighbor does not mean that I do not advocate for certain political philosophies, policies,... Continue Reading

To say, OK, God, I don't get this and this hurts like a burning fire and I hate it, but I'll trust you on this one. She called it her "shortcut through grief." Jan Karon, in her Mitford books, speaks of this very thing, calling it "The prayer that never fails: Not my will, but thine"