“Jesus flips everything on its head. Jesus puts this little boy in the center and tells his disciples they need to become like a child, otherwise they will never enter the kingdom. Forget about being the secretary of defense; you won’t even get in without becoming like a child.”   Can you imagine if all... Continue Reading

“So what do the Puritans have to say to the weary, exhausted, discouraged pastor? Look to Christ. By faith, look to Jesus Christ, the One who is mighty and glorious and whose steadfast love is better than life. Out of a love for the glory of God, the word of God, and the people of God, the... Continue Reading

“The history of the Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and the history of Israel is the history of the institutional church. To be sure, Israel was a national church, and we are not. The national promises and conditions given to her have been fulfilled by our Lord Jesus. Still, the pattern is instructive.”   In a recent... Continue Reading

It is plain that a very serious responsibility before God and man is assumed by those who return an affirmative answer to that question. It is something more than ordinary falsehood, if our inward convictions do not correspond with a profession made in presence of the Church, and as the condition of our receiving authority... Continue Reading

The fall of another pastor means the agony of another church, as yet another community of Christians grapples with the fallout of their pastor’s great sin. The fall of another husband means the agony of another wife, as she bears the weight of her husband’s immorality. The fall of another leader means the disquiet of... Continue Reading

Squandering time and living and leading lazily are foolish. Like all sin, laziness can slowly creep into our lives and leadership. If we fail to address the temptation to move toward laziness, we become unfaithful in our leadership. Here are five warning signs.   The people of God have always understood laziness to be a... Continue Reading

Charging second century Christians with superstitio declared them a threat to the common good. This is especially vivid in Pliny who notes how in Bithynia the pagan temples were being deserted, religious rites were being neglected, and sacrificial animals were not being purchased, all declines Pliny links to Christianity breaking out like a contagious superstitio.     A... Continue Reading

I suspect that most people don’t how to listen to a sermon. I say this not as a preacher, primarily, but as a listener. During the past thirty-five years I have heard more than three thousand sermons. Since I have worshiped in Bible-teaching churches all my life, most of those sermons did me some spiritual... Continue Reading

In 2009, after spending nearly two years caring for a terminally ill parent, which I knew was going to cost me my home, I was not looking for something that would turn around my material situation. I was looking for a place in a community where I could find solace for my loss, grief, trauma.... Continue Reading

This metaphor is first used by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 12:12-13, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews... Continue Reading