Get up and go to Bethel. God is waiting there. If you will turn in humility, confession, and repentance to Him, He will help you.   What do you do when your life or your family is in a terrible tangle? When everything is out of sorts? When the problem is insurmountable and the solutions... Continue Reading

The Lord has gifted you with an instrument, your voice. Raise it up in faithful adoration and praise, and use it to His glory. Its result will be for your good.   The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. —Psalm... Continue Reading

The apostles are Christ’s instruments and organs for the fulfillment of revelation. As a second Mosaic ministry they share in establishing Christ Himself. Together with Him they constitute the rock, the foundation, the pillars of the church, of which Paul is the last.   While this suggestion might strike you as quite strange, even irresponsible,... Continue Reading

Scripture gives no indication that natural winsomeness or comfort before people marks the gift of teaching. This warns those who treat natural gifts as proof of a calling to teach God’s Word, while encouraging the reserved that a lack of such ease does not disqualify them.   Sound teaching is the lifeblood of the church.... Continue Reading

How can a just and holy God promise to bless Hpeople with life when they deserve death? The Lord Himself will bear the penalty of covenant breaking.   A Mighty Deliverance In the Normandy village of Sainte-Mère-Église an effigy of paratrooper John Steele hangs by a parachute from the church belltower. A surprising memorial of... Continue Reading

Proverbs gives us a number of warnings against behaviour that can lead to poverty, but it does not teach that poverty is always a disgrace. Poverty is only wrong when it is the result of sinful conduct. The Lord Jesus gives dignity to poverty.   Where did Jesus sleep? Where did he get his meals?... Continue Reading

As the sheep of God’s flock we need good shepherds protecting, leading, and providing for us. Men who fit the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Without such men we will be a flock in constant danger from wolves and from ourselves.   Because of Moses’ sin in front of the people... Continue Reading

Zephaniah points us not to any son of David but to the Lord Himself, present among them as “a mighty one who will save” (Zephaniah 3:17). This is the hope fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in whom God Himself has come to dwell with us.   We know very little about Zephaniah. The book that bears... Continue Reading

Did Jesus dine with sinners, love the outcasts, and push back against the reigning power structures? Yes, He did those and many other things, but they were not the main goal of His mission.   Progressive Christians often present a truncated portrait of Jesus, highlighting the parts of his ministry that fit their emphasis on... Continue Reading

Hebrews’s message to fallen sinners isn’t that their sin is so bad that it bars their way back to Christ. The point is that fallen sinners should cling to Christ, since there is no hope of cleansing, even in the old covenant, apart from him.   Years ago, a woman wrote me with an agonized... Continue Reading

Go hard, reject laziness, pursue excellence, but remember, Christ secured your salvation through the cross and you are not what you do. Your identity is rooted in Whose you are.    Laziness is not a virtue I tolerate in my own life, nor is there a long runway for it with anyone we hire at... Continue Reading

Contemporary witchcraft is critical theory religion—built on perceived, victimization, grievances, and revenge. Christians have something far better to offer.   The witches are back, and it’s not even Halloween yet. Practical Magic 2 opened September 11 and was the top grossing film that weekend. In less than a week, it topped the $30 million mark... Continue Reading

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

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