“When was the last time we looked around us and said, “Oh how I wish I had the sweet communion that my friend seems to have with God?” When was the last time we looked within and said, “Oh, I am so cold, crusty, stale, stagnant, dry and lifeless?” When was the last time you... Continue Reading

“Every Christian has been affected, in some measure, by a parachurch ministry, whether directly or indirectly. Still, many questions remain about the relationship between the church and the parachurch: Are parachurch ministries biblical? Should we support them? What is their appropriate role in serving the church? What kind of work should parachurch ministries undertake?”   I... Continue Reading

“Jesus undoubtedly believed that God had authored the Old Testament Scriptures and that they were so infallible that sooner would the cosmos be dissolved than they would be proven false. Christ himself believed that the whole of the Old Testament originated with God and was revealed by him. If we ever question whether a verse... Continue Reading

“Sentimental humanitarianism also assumes that all religions are more-or-less the same and, given the right conditions, will vacillate their way towards something as innocuous as today’s Church of England. But as a wise recently retired pope once wrote, a major failure of imagination since the 1960s has been the disinclination to concede that there are... Continue Reading

While it was not unusual for Roman citizens to have multiple sexual partners, homosexual encounters, and engagement with temple prostitutes, Christians stood out precisely because of their refusal to engage in these practices. For instance, Tertullian goes to great lengths to defend the legitimacy of Christianity by pointing out how Christians are generous and share... Continue Reading

Well, I’m not going to tell you exactly what words to use. I’m simply going to give you ten questions to ask that I hope will produce the right words and the right way to say them should you ever have to offer criticism to a preacher.   So you’ve heard a sermon and you’re... Continue Reading

Sin is no longer our king. It is no longer our sovereign. We need not follow its dictates. It cannot command us. We have been set free to serve a new Lord, a better Lord. Sin no longer sits upon the throne of our hearts, grace does in the person of King Jesus. That is... Continue Reading

We need to be careful not to put science on par with Scripture – a method of interpretation on the same level as revelation, itself. The disharmony that arises in our understanding of general and special revelation is not due to a deficiency or disharmony in God’s revelation. The disharmony arises because of the sinfulness... Continue Reading

In preparing sermons in my ongoing “Studies in First Peter” I found the Scottish Presbyterian Alexander Nisbet’s (1623–1669) commentary (1658) on 1 Peter 1:13–25 to be helpful and relevant to the current debate. With verse 13, Peter turns from indicative to imperative, from praise to God to exhortation to Christians. And in his comments on these verses, Nisbet lists... Continue Reading

When we think of discipline, it is often in the form of correction for what we have done wrong. But we are to endure discipline like athletes training daily. And we do not lose heart because we do have the most important finisher that went before us in the race. We are to look to... Continue Reading