How might a glam, rainbow, gender-bent Aslan be like Jesus? The simple answer is that he can’t be.…This Aslan is not and cannot be the Aslan of Lewis’ books.   It was Carl Trueman who introduced me to the idea of a deathwork, though the concept is Philip Rieff’s. According to Rieff, a deathwork is... Continue Reading

We want sons and daughters who are wise, who fear the Lord, who love what God loves and hate what God hates. We want children who govern their appetites, confess their sins, receive correction, work with their hands, worship with gladness, and gladly spend their lives serving the kingdom of Jesus Christ.   The goal... Continue Reading

In our modern circumstances, we frequently examine our résumé to see if it looks like King Saul’s—great career, great family, etc. Yet we forget to look at what God calls success: living faithfully before him in the circumstances he puts in our lives, waiting on his word as we live before the face of God.... Continue Reading

We must present what is good, lovely, true, and honorable in such a compelling way that our children learn to recognize the counterfeits. We want them not merely to reject poison, but to hunger for what is genuinely nourishing.   It’s important to remember that someone is always trying to sell us something. Some of... Continue Reading

The brokenhearted do not approach the throne of grace with ego and bravado; they go to God with a divine mixture of humility and dependence, offering themselves wholly to the Lord.   For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;  you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices... Continue Reading

Medicine can (and will) acknowledge that treatment has its limits. Families may decline further interventions and allow death by natural means. But there is a world of difference between eliminating suffering, ceasing medical treatments, and terminating the patient.   The child never asked to die. Unable to speak, the child could not describe its suffering... Continue Reading

You don’t need to relocate to draw near to God. Improved circumstance won’t necessarily lead to more earnestly seeking Him. He is near. And in the risen Christ He’s found.   Standing in the Areopagus, Paul made an unsettling claim. Only it’s still unsettling when we hear it today. For Paul insists that no one’s... Continue Reading

Go to receive what He gives: His voice, His table, His ear, and His people. It might happen in a plain room, with a plain man preaching. The bread you eat isn’t different than your weekly bread. Yet, behind all the plainness—and the noisiness of our children—in and through the means God has given, the... Continue Reading

Even if an authenticated portrait of Jesus had survived, it could truthfully preserve the contours of His human face. But once presented as an image of Christ for worship, it would be asked to do what pigment cannot. Christ is not merely an extraordinary man who happens to share space with God. He is one... Continue Reading

The early church devoted itself to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Those priorities remain essential. Many churches today treat worship and prayer too casually, acting as though just because Jesus is a Friend to sinners, that He can be approached casually. He is a holy God, and worship... Continue Reading

How to sleep like Jesus is not a prescription for how many hours you need to sleep each night. It is about progressively transforming into someone who can entrust both their sleeping and their waking to God. If sleep doesn’t come, this perspective of trust allows you to pray openly and honestly to the Lord.... Continue Reading

A lot of the practices that go under the heading of meditation are things that essentially try to manipulate physiology, like postures and breathing techniques, to try to push away all the distractions, clear the mind, and get to a quiet headspace. Whereas the meditation commended in Scripture—in Psalm 1 and picked up by the... Continue Reading

The Hebrew word translated “heart” (leb) covers a much wider range of intellectual, emotional, and volitional activity, including deciding, loving, longing, and sorrowing.  Your heart, in other words, is the part of you that imagines what is best for your life and acts accordingly. Your heart has the capacity to envision something—whether a marriage, career,... Continue Reading

Suffering, Scripture reminds us, is never random, because the world is not random. Rather, suffering is, as John Flavel put it, God’s “workman,” accomplishing precisely what He, the wise Physician, intends. Further still, the Bible reminds us that God has put an expiration date on mourning and crying and pain (Rev. 21:4). As astonishing as... Continue Reading

Nothing in the text calls the eunuch transgender, homosexual, or “queer.” A eunuch was a recognizable social and courtly category in the ancient world; it is not a synonym for contemporary claims about sexual orientation or gender identity. Scripture nowhere invites readers to convert the eunuch’s status into an identity label unknown to the passage.... Continue Reading

There is an old story about an elderly man planting a fruit tree. A friend said, ‘Surely you realise you might not live long enough to eat its fruit?’ The old man replied, ‘All my life I have eaten fruit from trees I did not plant. I am planting this one for those who come... Continue Reading

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