“Last year I read through John’s Calvin’s great work Institutes of the Christian Religion with a young man in my congregation. What struck me most rereading it was the way Calvin repeatedly emphasizes God as our Father.”   “I’m writing a book on joy and the Reformation.” His raised eyebrows were enough to tell me... Continue Reading

“I do not want a soft theocracy in this sinful world. I want a fair and free democracy for believers and unbelievers. People should have the legal right to pursue happiness — even when they pursue happiness in sin.”   A nation that strips my neighbours’ liberty to sin will strip my liberty to call... Continue Reading

“Another way we might misunderstand the nature of freedom is by thinking that freedom means a lack of personal responsibility. This misunderstanding runs rampant in the world around us. We see people abandoning their responsibilities to their families because they are tying them down.”   “You can’t make me do this. Don’t you know this... Continue Reading

“You would never embark on a family vacation without knowing the destination. And you would never get on the road without how knowing how to get to that destination. You have a plan. The same is true for your financial goals.”   “I want to get financially healthy.” “I want to give generously, save wisely,... Continue Reading

I would like to offer Covenant College students something far better than what was conveyed to them in Mr. Tisby’s lecture, something that is much closer to the heart of what Reformation Day is all about.  Instead of tying up heavy burdens and laying those burdens on their shoulders, I want to point them to... Continue Reading

Because they have (the Word), they should receive (salvation). But in thinking this, I am losing sight of what a true miracle being born again really is. No one seeks for God on their own – neither children of missionaries, pastors, AWANA kids – no one. For anyone to have a desire for the Lord is... Continue Reading

If there is hope for the church today, it lies in two things. First, there is a welcome recovery in certain areas of the Protestant world of the pre-Reformation Christian tradition: the creeds, the Fathers, and the medieval schoolmen. Second, and ironically, the chaos of the Francis papacy is driving many faithful Roman Catholics to... Continue Reading

“If I am bored with ordinary people in ordinary places, then am I not bored with what God delights in? If I think that local limits of body and place are too small a thing for a person as gifted as I am, then don’t I want to escape what God himself gladly and daily... Continue Reading

“God opens the comfort and hope of certain portions of His word to our souls, when we suffer some particularly difficult trial. Such was the case for me when my mother passed away. Those Scriptures that spoke of the reality and sting of death and the hope of the resurrection were all experientially theoretical, so... Continue Reading

“Why was Luther’s marriage so precious to all he stood for as a Reformer? Why was he so eager to let the world see that he was such a devoted husband and father? In short, he believed that, beyond upending the legalistic culture of vows of celibacy, his gospel rediscovery radically re-shaped the reality of... Continue Reading