Since when does welcoming someone back to fellowship mean that you have to welcome him back to a post he abused? What’s wrong with a pew, even up front if he wants it? But just a pew? Laity, as the kids might say if the idea ever entered their heads, rocks! The verse Morris cites... Continue Reading

I don’t know about you, but I find that during phases of spiritual dehydration, the night is the hardest part of the day. It’s probably because I don’t have any activities to distract my brain; I’m forced to lie in bed and think about all the different elements that are contributing to my depression. What... Continue Reading

God is always at work. This is a glorious truth that all believers need to carry in their heart. Nothing that we experience, no tear that we shed, no pain that we endure, no sin that we commit, gets wasted in God’s economy. He uses it all to change us into the likeness of his... Continue Reading

By nature, mankind lives in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Properly ordering one’s affections, therefore, is impossible for those who are outside of Christ. But, for the Christian – the one who has been born again,... Continue Reading

The “slump” metaphor is used often in sports. The baseball hitter is in a slump because he has not gotten a hit in 15 at bats. The football quarterback is in a slump because he has only completed eight passes in the past two games. But pastors can get in slumps as well. Admittedly they... Continue Reading

I thankfully acknowledge that, mercifully, and to the best of our knowledge, Mark has not been guilty of “immorality, illegality and heresy.” Nevertheless, I protest that this is not the issue in the matter of pastoral qualification and disqualification. The presence of scandalous and often public sin would certainly disqualify any man from ministry at... Continue Reading

And the problem, of course, is that the ideas just come from our own brains, not the Bible. I’m afraid, sometimes, that because whole generations of us grew up knowing all the Bible stories backwards and forwards, we go into life with the unspoken assumption that “if I’m pretty sure it’s right, it’s biblical.” But... Continue Reading

In the absence of dad’s help, move forward to fill the gap. Without vilifying dad, simply begin having the conversationsnecessary to guide your children safely to adulthood. Continue to pray for dad. Continue to invite him periodically to join the conversation. Continue to honor him by committing to speak well of him to your children.... Continue Reading

There is nothing easy about parenting, and nothing easy about the responsibility of training our children in obedience through discipline. Because discipline is unpopular and unpleasant, parents often find themselves looking for substitutes. In her book Parenting Against the Tide, Ann Benton lists five poor substitutes for disciplining our children—five poor substitutes that fail to... Continue Reading

Whatever the law or culture may say, we must commit now to witness to the truth about marriage: that men and women are distinct and complementary, that it takes a man and a woman to bring a child into the world, and that children deserve a chance to grow up with a mom and a... Continue Reading