Week after week, the Spirit of Christ does His quiet work, and one day you look back and realize you are not who you were. Why would God work this way? Paul answers: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us”... Continue Reading

Light sermons heal deep wounds lightly. When we stand before suffering people and give them five steps to a happier life, we aren’t offering good news. We’re just giving them more work to do. We tell wounded, exhausted souls to pull themselves together and try harder. In doing so, we become like Job’s friends, those... Continue Reading

Many of us think ourselves innocent of theft, but still scheme to gain the possessions of others by legal means. This applies even if the ‘neighbor’ whom you defraud is an extremely wealthy corporation with an overly generous return policy. Likewise, the commandment speaks to the common envy today that drives the intent to use... Continue Reading

The world tells us the key to happiness is “extreme personal freedom”, a world where we don’t depend on anyone for anything. But Jesus says the key to a flourishing life is “extreme personal dependence” on God, our Heavenly Father.   Nothing is more American than thinking of ourselves as people who pulled ourselves up... Continue Reading

This is the root of the issue. This is the bottom of it all. The question behind the question of what you are going to do with what God has given you is the question of how well you really know Him. Do you really know His generosity?   “You evil, lazy slave!” These are... Continue Reading

The Song reminds us that our bodies are not inherently ungodly and that sexual intimacy within marriage is not a concession to sin but part of God’s good design. “The Song guides us to see with scriptural sensibilities that the earth is ‘crammed with heaven’ (Elizabeth Browning, ‘Aurora Leigh,’ line 61), the way of a... Continue Reading

A key characteristic of the Word dwelling richly is that believers are willing to lovingly confront one another in their walk of sanctification…I am at work and have a poor, self-centered attitude. A fellow believer sees this and gently confronts me about my sin. Lovingly, kindly, and without assuming, he asks me questions that reveal... Continue Reading

Nigerian and other media routinely omit reference to religious identity of assailants and victims in attacks that may have a religious targeting component, contributing to the misperception that violence is mere rural insecurity, the report states. “This issue has significant implications for both public understanding and policy analysis. Datasets that rely heavily on media reports... Continue Reading

He super-regards and cares when enemies set traps, or hunt us down in hot pursuit (in all places that they lurk – at home, school, work, minds or even church). We may be in a gravely weakened, enfeebled, state, or hyper-triggered by stress and prone to constant fainting fits: still, our first, last and best... Continue Reading

Paul draws a sharp contrast between tongues and prophecy, but he’s careful to not declare tongues worthless or a problem. He makes this clear with , “Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.” But that line is sandwiched between two harsh statements. Paul’s point is that speaking in... Continue Reading

Raising children well weaponizes them for advancing the gospel. Building well enables you to fight well. I wanted my stories to reenchant the world — but what if I raised sharp children who are renegades, mavericks, iconoclasts, insurgents, and terrors to all the dark enchantments of unbelief? Kids don’t anchor ambition; they amplify it. They... Continue Reading

A young man with the Holy Spirit has a destiny mapped out by God’s sovereignty.  So this reality requires the pastor to recognize that he will pour into the young men, guiding and correcting them, but his job is not to suppress them.  Many ministry successions have been ruined because a clinging pastor refused to... Continue Reading

We’ve simply been reading a chapter of Proverbs each day as a family at the breakfast table. We’ve done the time-tested practice of reading the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month (for instance, Proverbs 12 on the 12th, etc.) My wife and I and our two older boys take turns reading verses... Continue Reading

Our theology may be sound, but we’re often worse than our theology. Deep down, we can still harbor contempt for those who we perceive haven’t come as far as we have—or at least as far as we think they should have by now. Can you truly delight in people who aren’t like you, who do... Continue Reading

We might wonder, though, how God can forgive sin and yet “not clear the guilty”? Isn’t that the nature of forgiveness: to clear guilt, to leave wrongs unpunished? This tension confronts us all throughout Scripture, as well as our experiences in life: How can God be both good and just? One answer is that in... Continue Reading

If people saw that he was a godly man and that he accurately taught the Word of God, then they would know that he was worthy of commendation.   We often think too highly of ourselves. If we need to consider who we really are before God or speak of ourselves to others, how can... Continue Reading

In Ephesians 1:21-23, Paul declares that Christ has won a victory and now reigns over “all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” In Christ, God completed his plan of uniting heaven and earth (1:10) by... Continue Reading

To wave sinful identity banners in pride is to miss the very point on the tip of the nail that went through Jesus’ willing hands. Labeling ourselves with the things that God hates is to hate God himself. We are to count his cost, not just our own.While we may think our sins aren’t harming... Continue Reading

We are, of course, not the first to ponder the meaning of life, so we would be foolish not to consider how those who preceded us have struggled with this question. Perhaps the most renowned effort to locate meaning in a world without God is represented by atheistic existentialist philosophy. Existentialism powerfully captures the emotions... Continue Reading

In the midst of the exile, when God’s vine has been all but destroyed, they pray for God to raise up a root of dry ground. It reminds us of Isaiah, where just after the vineyard is destroyed in Isaiah 5, a stump remains in Isaiah 6, from which a shoot will come forth in... Continue Reading