A text message means you are probably more than a casual acquaintance because you have exchanged cell phone numbers. An e-mail might signal something more formal that doesn’t need an immediate response. Texting, chatting and even “liking” something on Facebook are often less about the actual discussion and more about the act of being in... Continue Reading

They sit there next to you and their feet don’t even hit the floor. You’re thinking, “What, if anything of this guy’s sermon is sinking into my kid’s head?” And with that little thought you’ve already decided not to engage your child about the sermon. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Let me... Continue Reading

And, as if to rub salt in the wound he cites an author from the New York Times Review whose opinion of Calvinists was that we are basically a “mild” and “recessive” group and then posts this comment from the William Butler Yeats poem, “The Second Coming”: “The best of all lack conviction, while the... Continue Reading

A school’s real creed is what is taught in the classroom. If a creed sits in a drawer, it does not matter much what is said. A school’s practical creed is the beliefs and teaching of its faculty. Erskine cannot at the same time uphold inerrancy and employ those who oppose inerrancy any more than... Continue Reading

I want control of my circumstances and gravitate to suggestions of things to try to fix situations. But at some point, as things continue without change, I tire of suggestions to try. . . . the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13). I have a friend who loves God and his Word and... Continue Reading

Even the strongly pro-union Franklin Roosevelt believed that key tactics employed by private-sector unions were inappropriate for workers on the public payroll. In his words, “The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service” due to “distinct and insurmountable limitations.” It is hard to overstate what is at stake... Continue Reading

Again, in the first, salvation is about what Jesus does for me. In the second, it is about what I do for Jesus. Clearly, we are dealing with two different doctrines of justification, the one justification sola fide and the other justification sola fidelity. The Federal Visionists want to replace the great sola fide (faith... Continue Reading

Nothing will throw off your graduation date from Seminary like a divorce. Does a husband’s subjective call to ministry relativize his objective, biblical command to love his wife? Regardless of how I might have answered this question in a theological paper, the true answer of my heart was exposed by my actions. Some said my... Continue Reading

It’s enough to make an insurance agent tremble: Millions of cash-strapped Americans are saving money by going without life insurance. Ownership of life insurance has reached a 50-year low, according to industry research firm LIMRA. Thirty percent of households (35 million) aren’t covered, up from 22 percent in 2004. Among households with minor-aged children, 11... Continue Reading

The final “Jeopardy!” question of the first game in the two-game match went something like this: What is the name of the U.S. city whose largest airport is named for a WWII hero and its second largest is named for a WWII battle? The answer was Chicago. Watson’s program came up with Toronto. I have... Continue Reading