The good news is that, by God’s grace, the true church exists but it exists in history, in time and space. Great divisions have happened. Some of them may be repaired in this life but some of them may not be. We ought to pray for reconciliation around the truth of God’s Word as summarized... Continue Reading

But you know what? I lie to myself all the time and never bat an eyelash. If the old childhood rhyme ever came true, my pants would be ablaze. That’s because the lies I tell myself are worse than what the cable company told me. These lies are harmful to me emotionally and spiritually. They hinder... Continue Reading

Similarly, those who are not in a right relationship with God can always expect Him to treat them as a judge treats the guilty defendant. God is long-suffering, and so sometimes that judgment takes a while. Nevertheless, the judgment will come. In other words, what changed in Genesis 6 was humanity, not God. It kept... Continue Reading

Several years ago I was having lunch with John Travolta, and I asked him the secret of his success. His answer? Awesomesauce. Now, it turned out that awesomesauce was actually a reference to cocaine, so that doesn’t really help us here, but the principle remains the same. It sounds like your sermons are distinctly lacking... Continue Reading

What James is saying is this: If a person says he has faith, but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him…We are not saved by a profession of faith or by a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of... Continue Reading

Without the grace of God, pastors will VERY often allow this two-pronged engine to drive us into full pathological narcissism. The ministry is all about the minister at that point. The minister usurps the place of Jesus Christ. He becomes the personal lord and savior of his flock. You know that your minister has a... Continue Reading

Now, I realize that there are nuanced arguments to be made on both sides of this debate and that there are reputable scholars who doubt the confessional Reformed doctrine of God’s Law.  But I just want to say that if the popular organs of Reformed teaching are going to promote this kind of doctrine, then... Continue Reading

So often the question of leadership is framed in terms of the differences between men and women.But what if leadership isn’t primarily about the differences between men and women but about the differences between girls and women? What if leadership means taking responsibility for those around you and utilizing your God-given gifts to help them flourish?... Continue Reading

However you might define the spiritual needs of the modern, hipster-leaning young professional, those may be even more pronounced outside the density of San Francisco’s social environment. Forty miles south in Palo Alto, I went to C3SV (C3 Silicon Valley), which declares prominently on its website: “Not religious? Neither are we!” The distinction, says pastor... Continue Reading

Arguments for optimism regarding mainlines generally involve at least one of three things.  First, there is often an assumption that liberalism, because it is ultimately a species of secularism in religious idiom, will simply die away, unable to offer more satisfactory answers to life’s questions than honest, open secularism.  Second, there is the belief that... Continue Reading