We live in divided times—we live in polarized times. There are reflections worthy of making in this fractured relationship between two Puritan giants. Are all matters worth dividing over? Were the issues that Owen and Baxter divided over worthy of division? Are your divisions with your reformed and evangelical brother worth dividing over? Again, I... Continue Reading

In his new book, Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church, historian Stephen O. Presley draws on the Bible and an extensive array of early church primary sources to tell stories of Christians (including Paul) engaging their pagan neighbors wherever and whenever they could. Faced with a hostile culture, the natural reaction would... Continue Reading

Truth Be Told is excellent for those grappling with anxiety about our culture’s loss of objectivity, refocusing our energy towards the real goal of living with integrity as people of truth. This is a welcome move away from handwringing about our generation’s “feelings over facts” tendencies and gives us something we can work on: our... Continue Reading

Anger is right when we respond to the right things in the right way. It is the appropriate response to sin and injustice. What provokes Jesus’ outburst in Luke 11 is the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and the way they prevent other people coming to God. The climax of his tirade is: “Woe to... Continue Reading

In my new book, God’s Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for A Divinely Created Universe, I take this very approach. It’s reasonable to build a case for an extraordinary claim (the existence of God) with rather “ordinary” circumstantial evidence (particularly when this cosmological, biological, mental and moral evidence is cumulative in nature). In the... Continue Reading

Our tendency is to feel that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are. As we sink further into pain, we sink further into isolation. The Bible corrects us. He is in us, and he bears our pain with us. We are never alone. The sorrow that feels so unique to us was... Continue Reading

 It’s a wisdom that says, I know that trouble will come. As it came to Job, as it came to Jesus, it will come to me. But God has said, ‘I will be with you. I will never forsake you. And I will redeem all things. This is not the end.’  “All things work together for... Continue Reading

Fraser and his wife have been involved with crisis pregnancy centers, and he cites Care Net (which operates pregnancy centers in the United States), Avail NYC in New York, and ProGrace in Wheaton, Ill. as models for approaching abortion at the level of the individual heart. “This is where lives are being saved and the... Continue Reading

In Jesus’ various teachings concerning the end of time and His return there is a great emphasis on being ready.  So I have to ask you, ‘are you ready?’  He speaks about this readiness in relation to how we live, ‘do our lives show the evidence of being born again’?  Jesus wants us to have... Continue Reading

Just as the family-friendly, tradition-oriented culture championed by old country (think Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man”) has undergone a sharp decline over the past couple of decades, so has country music. Traditional country has been largely replaced on the Top 40 charts by what has been dubbed “bro-country” or “stadium country,” which Wikipedia helpfully... Continue Reading