Don’t get me wrong, I think the digital revolution is largely a good thing. I think children should be reared to see technology as a tool to be used for kingdom priorities. But there’s far too much at stake to turn a developing psyche loose, with no boundaries, with a technology that could psychically and... Continue Reading

Repentance is never a tool to get the victims of your heinous sins to quit calling you on it. It isn’t a tool to get out of earthly consequences. True repentance has only one object: to see the smiling face of our heavenly Father. Turn away from the rot and filth of every idol, and... Continue Reading

Our charge from this passage is this: Don’t become spiritually dry this summer by neglecting the Lord’s worship!  Remember this vivid illustration of the tree swallows and take your place among God’s people as you worship our Savior Jesus Christ this summer. Here are a few practical suggestions…   Last Sunday morning, as I arrived... Continue Reading

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote that, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” What kind of world are we leaving to our children? When our kids or grandkids ask us one day, “What were you doing when they changed America?” how we will respond?  ... Continue Reading

“To live all of life coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God. A fragmented life is a life of disintegration. It is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and chaos.”   I remember Mama standing in... Continue Reading

“Sarah had become an idolater. She had not begun to worship idols of wood or stone, but she was an idolater nonetheless. There was one thing she was convinced she had to have in order to experience joy and in order to live a fulfilled life, and that was the one thing God had held... Continue Reading

“Whether one receives the substance of the covenant of grace is, ultimately, down to God’s unconditional, eternal election in Christ. Whether children of believers are to be initiated visibly into the Christ-confessing covenant community is not determined by anything other than the divine command to initiate children into the covenant community and the his promise to... Continue Reading

“Different people respond better to different motivations. Some congregants respond better to warnings, a firm-but-loving exhortation and gentle rebuke; others respond better to promises, encouragement and indirect admonition. All of this is bound up in personality type, spiritual condition and background.”   Pastoral care is exceedingly complex. In seminary, our professors taught us to labor... Continue Reading

“We need to return to a true preaching to the heart, rooted in the principle of grace and focused on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then people will not say about our ministry merely, “He was an expository preacher,” or “That was practical,” or even “He cut open our consciences.” Instead, they will... Continue Reading

“Every single person in the world could fully support and celebrate a 65-year-old man making himself a eunuch and God would still be God and the results will still be horrible.”   Bruce Jenner is not a woman.  He is a man.  Every single chromosome in his body records this fact.  He can mutilate and poison... Continue Reading