While the wilderness does not change Who the Lord is, it can absolutely change how we perceive His nearness and nature. And because of that, we are dangerously prone to trusting our feelings about Him over the truth of Him.   If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you know that I’ve... Continue Reading

We can become so accustomed to hearing biblical truth that we stop being confronted by it. The Bible becomes something we teach rather than something that teaches us. The sermon becomes something we evaluate rather than something that searches us. The passage becomes something we explain rather than something we obey.   Last Sunday our... Continue Reading

One of the most important ways Christians must be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within them is by making the case for marriage. Marriage as God intended has always been one of the best gifts we can give to the wider world.   The old joke, that “whoever said marriage... Continue Reading

We need not run from suffering or lose hope if God doesn’t remove it or do so as quickly as we’d like. We can trust that God has a purpose for whatever He permits.   A Jesus-loving young friend who is going through deep suffering sent me these wonderful words: “I pray God just keeps... Continue Reading

Science and religion should complement each other, not be enemies. God has given us a world to explore, and He has also revealed things in the Bible we could never discover by ourselves.   Isn’t the Bible really big and hard to understand? Well, yes, the Bible is a big book. I know it can... Continue Reading

Notwithstanding their personal flaws, each of the judges, by virtue of his or her calling and office, was a type or picture prophecy of Christ as the ideal Judge/Deliverer who was coming.   The setting of the book of Judges is all too familiar. It was a world marked by religious apostasy and pluralism, civil... Continue Reading

We can have joy as we pursue holiness because we know, despite our ups and downs, the Spirit is working through us to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.    One thing you will hear at least once in your life as a Christian is this: “Christianity is so restricting; it’s so boring;... Continue Reading

We grow in holiness because the Son has gifted us His Holy Spirit to indwell us, energize our souls, and to cause us to will and to do of His good pleasure.   Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD... Continue Reading

On the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of how a sinner is made right with God, two anathemas now stand in the historical record, pointing in opposite directions.   In the year 2000, Rome’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published a declaration called Dominus Iesus. It was signed by Cardinal... Continue Reading

The Democratic candidates are long on quoting Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, but they will have nothing to do with the rest of the New Testament. Their theological liberalism comes to the fore the moment you talk about the Apostle Paul’s teachings on homosexuality. At that point, their liberalism goes into overdrive and... Continue Reading

Theology is paramount. It is the mind and heart’s action of bending toward God as a plant leans toward the light.   It is two o’clock in the morning. A Christian man stands in a hospital hallway as his wife lies asleep in the room behind him. He’s holding a cup of coffee in his... Continue Reading

God wants you to understand that He knows better than you what is good for you, that He is much wiser and more powerful than you, that He promises to look out for you and give you what is best for you. And God wants you to choose to follow Him because you love Him... Continue Reading

In the final Narnia installment, The Last Battle, Lewis ironically and unintentionally gave us an unsettling foreshadowing of what Netflix would do a mere 70 years later. In that tale, in the “last days of Narnia,” a donkey named Puzzle appears in the land and wears a lion suit at the behest of a conniving... Continue Reading

You and I don’t know the future. This ignorance can cause us to despair or think the worst, but that is not ours to possess. It is pride to say that our situation will not improve. It is to attribute to oneself the possession of God alone, the fact of omniscience.   John Bunyan’s The... Continue Reading

Our minds might be full to overflowing with knowledge about our position in Christ. We might have memorised dozens of key texts on this. But as can so often be the case, while these truths fill our minds, we struggle to have them impact our hearts.   The good news of the gospel is that... Continue Reading

What do I need in order to follow God faithfully? I need to be aware of the ways the world is shaping me and refuse to be conformed to what will keep me from serving God faithfully.   A couple of thoughts have come together that helped me recently. They have given me insight into... Continue Reading

What has passed away is the Law Covenant; what remains is the God whose character it still reveals, and whose people now keep his commandments not as subjects of Moses, but as sons of the Father, indwelt by the Spirit, under the law of Christ.   Every Christian who knows the prohibitions in Leviticus 11:7–8... Continue Reading

Jesus understood something we often forget: we are servants, not saviors. Christ alone carries the weight of being the Savior of the world, which means we are allowed to stop. We do not rest because nothing matters; we rest because God is God even when we are not working.   The apostles returned to Jesus... Continue Reading

Much of the modern conversation about worship begins with the question, “What can we add?” Perhaps covenant theology teaches us to ask, “Why do we think we need more?” The simplicity of Christian worship is not evidence of its poverty, but evidence that Christ has come.   Last week I was teaching through Ryan McGraw’s... Continue Reading

Ultimately, the confrontation with Islam is a spiritual battle. “Proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Islam is antithetical to the Jesus of the Bible. There is one Lord, one Savior, one faith, one baptism, and we need to proclaim Him to Muslims.”   America’s growing embrace of politicized Islam is “perplexing” to those with first-hand... Continue Reading