One’s history ultimately reveals the core of a candidate and in so doing brings light to determine the authenticity of their character, content, conviction, and competences. So, when assessing a candidate take the time to learn their past, to interpret their present and anticipate their future. But, it is also important to leave room for... Continue Reading

But what if there was another option? What if Christians just began to date like normal people—not dating toward immediate marriage and not eschewing dating for the less-desirable “hanging out” no man’s land? Here are a few myths we’d have to ditch in order to get there.   A wise man once told me that... Continue Reading

That’s why I am so intrigued (and honestly, frustrated) at the way the American church embraces a similar prosperity gospel, one that says when a fat person loses weight and gets smaller, she will have a better life—physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, and romantically. It’s the same message as the prosperity preacher’s: Do this and you... Continue Reading

Instead of this stress-reducing “mindlessness” we need the reassuring presence of our Savior, Christ, who takes away our genuine guilt and gives us real spiritual stress relief. We need the mind of Christ. The Prodigal son “came to himself” not by detaching himself from his pig-sty circumstances, but by coming to the realization that he... Continue Reading

In choosing things like “class favorites,” we place a premium on performance, personality, and appearance above all else. And in doing so, we harm both the kids who win and the kids who don’t. Homecoming awards re-enforce all the wrong messages that our kids get from pop culture already: you are what you can do,... Continue Reading

“First, when we employ the abbreviation R.I.P. we are inevitably admitting a state or condition inseparably linked to the idea of the afterlife. We are not speaking of something indifferent to the truth of the hereafter.”   I have great admiration for non-Christians who have contributed to the improvement of society through their inventions, production, leadership,... Continue Reading

I think that’s why we are all so prone to latch on to secondary things that give us a sense of control. We spend endless time discussing the latest dietary craze or wonder drug because it gives us the feeling that we are the captains of our own ships. Decisions about the education of our... Continue Reading

First of all, she needs to be believed. This may sound trivial, but there will be many people who will not believe her, or will minimize what she says or what she has been through. She also needs to hear you say you will never leave her.  You should show her this with both words... Continue Reading

Times have changed, of course. Diaconal models in 16th-century Geneva won’t work in 21st-century America. Our economic, social, and political conditions forbid it. These days, talk of “justice” in the church is often either politicized according to a Right or Left agenda or, reacting to such politicization, silenced altogether. But by highlighting the true nature... Continue Reading

But surely, 50 years on, with the horrific effects of secularism unfolding around us in a manner neither Stott nor Lloyd-Jones could have imagined in 1966, it is time to heed what Lloyd-Jones got so right, and with which Stott, in a real but different way, concurred: we should indeed ‘face our problems on the... Continue Reading