Stop faking spiritual maturity! Run to the body of Christ and admit that your life is a mess. In fact, if you’re in a small group or Bible study this week, I would encourage you to hijack the discussion on what you liked about Sunday’s sermon and say, “Here’s what I’m dealing with; I can’t... Continue Reading

Pastors, guard from try to dismiss the seriousness of this loss.  It is real, painful, and will require focused time to grieve and work through this loss.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to sit with the couple, weep with those who weep, share your regret, and affirm this loss has not changed the... Continue Reading

In official eyes here, there are no Afghan Christians. The few Afghans who practice the faith do so in private for fear of persecution, attending one of a handful of underground churches that are believed to be operating in the country. Expatriates use chapels on embassy grounds, but those are effectively inaccessible to Afghans. Only... Continue Reading

What I am contending, however, is that—in the decades that followed the synod of Dort—the five points from Dort took on a life of their own, independent of their original confessional context and intent. The canons of Dort provided a summation of one aspect of Reformed theology—the soteriological aspect—that was no longer inextricably entwined with... Continue Reading

Submitting to the authority of God’s Word means to set aside our own will and way in deference to the One we claim as our God.  Usually there is a price to pay, something we sacrifice. We don’t get what we want or would prefer.  But God is honored and trusted. Our model is the... Continue Reading

Persecution is close at hand. It already came to the wedding cake bakers and photographers and craft-supply store owners and public-university evangelical groups.  In our current culture, it often comes through biblical stands on homosexuality and the sanctity of life, but it came recently in my life from the T-ball coach at the annual meeting... Continue Reading

False teachers cause division within the church and often cause division even among true Christians. Because false teachers tend to remain within the church, and because they claim to be honoring the Bible, they confuse true believers and drive wedges between them. Amazingly, it is often those who stand fast against falsehood who get labeled... Continue Reading

It has long been standard in scholarly circles to claim that whereas Lutheran Protestantism tends to be passive and pietistic due to its emphasis on justification by faith alone and on the difference between the two kingdoms, Calvinism is active and vigorous in every area of life due to its emphasis on sanctification and the... Continue Reading

If the devil were to design a system to subject the believer to the ever-expanding rules and regulations of man-made legalism, could he do better than this? Get rid of God’s law, invent a doctrine of revelation in which the Spirit may or may not be speaking to us, and allow a generation of dynamic,... Continue Reading

Wouldn’t the truth that Christ is going to receive us at the place he is preparing also encourage us not to be too deeply attached to this world, no matter how much the transformers transform it?   It is an odd thought if you partake of the neo-Calvinist worldview, the thought being that Christ has... Continue Reading