Admittedly, I’m not an historian and don’t know the answers to all these questions but if You Lost Me author David Kinnaman is right about nearly 60 percent of American young people involved in church life as teens drop out after high school, American Christians will need to look to Africa, Latin America, and Asia... Continue Reading

First, they are told that they should do this so that God may bless them in all they do. God’s people are to remember that all they have comes from the Lord. Because He has blessed them, they are to be a blessing to others, and God promises that He will continue to bless them.... Continue Reading

When I insist that the rest of the congregation serve as backup singers in my own little nostalgic hit parade of back-home Mississippi hymns, I am worshiping in the spirit all right, but not the Holy Spirit. I am worshiping myself, in the spirit of self-exaltation. Self-denying humility ought to show up in the way... Continue Reading

Friends of God are those who have been born again. They are those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And they are those who have given up working and striving to earn God’s love and favor, but accepted the free gift of His love and forgiveness and salvation, by grace. Reason #1... Continue Reading

As we dialogue with family about the gospel, let’s not default to quoting Bible verses that don’t really answer the questions being asked. Let’s take up the gospel in its accompanying worldview and engage their questions as much as possible in the terms in which they asked them. Tis’ the most wonderful time of the... Continue Reading

The message of Christmas is the message of the cross: all our human conceptions are turned upside down; greatness is found in a manger and on a cross; the most powerful autonomous aspirations of men and women are in comparison to the baby Jesus but childish acts of meaningless defiance; atheism pretends to maturity; but... Continue Reading

Christmas is getting “old hat” don’t you think? I mean every year the same old stuff; the children’s programs, caroling, the same texts from Scripture. Haven’t we heard this story enough, don’t we know it by now? There is (unfortunately) one thing that always make the story fresh, immediately relevant, astonishingly “on time.” It is... Continue Reading

In these songs of Christmas, Jesus is described as a kind of “death camp liberator.” How does he accomplish this? By his extraordinary coming (incarnation), his righteous life and sacrifice on the cross (atonement for our sins), his victory over death (resurrection), and promised return (second advent). This has not been a typical December for... Continue Reading

But we also praise you for the quietness of your birth. Any other king would’ve come with great fanfare, a royal entourage and muscle-flexing pride. But you came into our world in utter weakness and with profound humility. “No room in the inn” wasn’t an insult to you. It was your choice, your plan, the... Continue Reading

I maintain their liberty to do that (apart from tree worship or the introduction of a mythical figure who is the giver of all good gifts, who is the example of the spirit that we should all have, and who somehow observes us all to judge our morality–anyone that cannot see that santa is an... Continue Reading