Either at a conference or on the internet, you have heard exceptional preaching, but each Sunday you’re back in your simple little home church that hardly anybody beyond your town knows about, with its “nobody” of a pastor who will probably never preach to thousands. Many who have had the privilege of hearing John Piper... Continue Reading

The Bible is the model for and subject of more art and thought than those of us who live within its influence, consciously or unconsciously, will ever know. Literatures are self-referential by nature, and even when references to Scripture in contemporary fiction and poetry are no more than ornamental or rhetorical — indeed, even when... Continue Reading

Editor’s Note: We do not maintain a separate section for ‘Letters To The Editor’. However, we do invite such and may publish them among the regular articles in our Opinion and Commentary Section, such as the one below. When I read the article about “Short term Missionaries vs. Vacationary” I had mixed feelings. It was... Continue Reading

A muscle atrophies if it is not used. Similarly, a mind becomes lazy if it is not well fed. And a weak mind dumbs-down our politics. We elect people we come to dislike because too many of us require no more of them than we require of ourselves. We then wonder why little seems to... Continue Reading

The greatest challenge before us in 2012 is not merely to choose an individual in America who will become president and expose this ignorance and lead us back to the truth, but to recover what Churchill called for, “a large majority of mankind united together to defend” the truth that got us where we are... Continue Reading

Enjoy this stage because it all goes downhill from here…This is when they are sweet, and then they grow up to be a three-year old, a pre-teen, and a teenager…I remember when mine were this little and now they are a pain… When I was 27 years old my doctor told me that I would... Continue Reading

Personal experience, personal authority matter most. Hence Scripture and tradition are quaint, irrelevant, artifacts. Instead of followers of Jesus, they’re followers of 5,000 unseen “friends” on Facebook or Twitter. When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under “religion” he called himself “spiritually apathetic.” Sunday mornings, when Bill Dohm turns his eyes toward... Continue Reading

Most of the church in any generation comes along through the slow, patient discipleship of the next generation. But just to keep us from thinking Christianity is evolutionary and “natural” (or, to use Dr. Henry’s term “genetic”), Jesus shocks his church with leadership that seems to come like a Big Bang out of nowhere. Whenever... Continue Reading

It’s ironically comforting to me as this new year gets under way that I am weak and He is strong–that while my love for Jesus will continue to fall short, Jesus’ love for me will never fall short. For, as Mark Twain said, “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, your dog would... Continue Reading

Do you know what’s coming in 2012? As we begin the 12th year of the third millennium, it is intriguing to try to look over the hill ahead of us. At the end of each year I try to take a peek at accelerating trends, upcoming anniversaries, and planned events. My look ahead is in... Continue Reading