Suppose that He blessed all the descendants of Abraham, expanded them into a whole nation, and said, “Through this nation I’m going to bless the whole world”—but this nation repeatedly turned against Him. Suppose God sent prophets to these people to tell them to come back to Him, just as an unfaithful spouse returns to... Continue Reading

Alexander Strauch says, “Maturity requires time and experience for which there is no substitute, so a new convert is simply not ready for the arduous task of shepherding God’s flock. There is nothing wrong with being ‘a new convert.’ All Christians begin life in Christ as babies and grow to maturity. An elder, however, must... Continue Reading

In the end, it was the implicit and explicit claims Jesus made to authority, Messiahship, and God-ness, not his expansive love, that ultimately did him in. This is not an excuse for our own hard-heartedness or a reason to distance ourselves from today’s “sinners and tax collectors.” We need Jesus’s example to set us straight.... Continue Reading

I may not be electing a pastor-in-chief but, if all that I’ve said has a note of truth, I should be electing someone with a spirit of submission and humility; someone who has a sense of justice and mercy and contrition; someone with the courage to do what is right and forbid what is wrong;... Continue Reading

The question remains, how did all this happen? As already noted, the sexual revolution did not emerge in a vacuum. Modern societies created a context for moral revolution that had never been available in intellectual terms before. In other words, certain cultural conditions had to prevail in order for the revolution to get the traction... Continue Reading

I hear women talking about wanting to go deeper with God, so they buy books written by women who talk about their experiences of God. To me, that is robbing ourselves of a much richer treasure. If you want to go deeper with God, go to the source: the Bible. That is where you will... Continue Reading

God comes first. It is such an elementary point, but it needs to be articulated. Before anything else was, before there was a universe in the beginning: God. He comes first. And that is teased out in other Scriptures to show that God in eternity past was not dependent upon us.   Audio Transcript It’s... Continue Reading

Do you see that you have the constant temptation to look at Christ and the Christian religion as if they were a heavenly cosmetology program? Too often you see Jesus as the health coach, the personal stylist, or the cosmetic surgeon interested in making beautiful the outside. You are tempted to see Jesus as the... Continue Reading

“In view of the biblical significance of baptism, churches should not give, and their members should not expect or request, a repetition of baptism when some first or new experience of the work or gifts of the Holy Spirit is enjoyed. Instead, they should be taught more effectively the meaning of the baptism they have... Continue Reading

These verses, as well as hundreds of others, imply that God will remember every good thing we do in the name of Christ, and will reward us for those things. We will forget many of the good deeds we do in the name of Christ. Other will also forget those good deeds. My grandma, who... Continue Reading