Why We Work
Why it’s good, why it’s hard, why it’s still worth doing, and when it will be redeemed.
God makes humans and then he invites humans into the work of creating other humans. God calls us to himself as disciples and then invites us into the Great Commission work of making other disciples. The same is true of the other, more mundane work that fills our days. In one sense, it has inherent... Continue Reading
To the Pastor Who Feels Inadequate
If we felt sufficient for these days and this calling, then something would be terribly wrong.
And yet, as inadequate as we most certainly are—the Lord has made us more than adequate to fulfill our calling. Isn’t that what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:5–6? “Not that we are adequate in ourselves … but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” We... Continue Reading
Federal Court Rules Ban On Therapy For Unwanted Attractions Unconstitutional
'The First Amendment has no carveout for controversial speech...'
“This is a case about what speech the First Amendment allows the government to ban, and under what circumstances,” the majority justices wrote. They were particularly interested in the question from the point of view of speech “content.” They noted that the “First Amendment exists precisely so that speakers with unpopular ideas do not have... Continue Reading
Conflict Grabs Attention, But We Need to Bring Grace Instead
Even before the Mandalorian popularized the phrase “This is the way”, I was ready to tell you that your way was wrong.
If we’re not careful, social media can turn our natural desire for attention and approval into an environment where we seek those by being controversial, making extreme statements, stirring up anger, or the “playing to our base” at an individual level. I ran into those same pitfalls previously when I blogged, and in hindsight, regret... Continue Reading
The Denial of Truth in the Bostock Decision and the Destruction of Freedom – Part 3
In place of traditional, fixed institutions of marriage and the family, the operative law of today’s society is really a materialist perspective on humanity.
Christians understand that we have a duty of faithfulness to the truth, regardless of the perversions of law. It may mean exclusion from much of society, loss of jobs, friends and family, religious institutions, freedom to speak the truth, fines and even for some incarceration. But we know that our trials will finally redound to... Continue Reading
LGBT Group Urges Biden To Strip Accreditation Of Christian Schools With Biblical Beliefs
One of the recommendations proposes the elimination of nondiscrimination exemptions for religious colleges if the institutions support biblical definitions of marriage or fail to offer "scientific curriculum requirements."
The request was part of the Human Rights Campaign’s “Blueprint for Positive Change,” a recent document which offers 85 policy and legislative recommendations for a potential Biden administration. The document comes as Biden pledged throughout his 2020 campaign to advance “LGBT equality” in the U.S. and around the world. One of the leading national... Continue Reading
China Turns Churches into Factories, ‘Cultural Centers’ to Ensure Christians Can’t Meet
The church was just one of many shuttered by the CCP in recent months.
These activities are part of a larger strategy on the part of the CCP to shut down any kind of organizing outside of the party, according to persecution watchdog Open Doors USA, which ranks China 23rd on its list of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. According to estimates, there are more than... Continue Reading
Worst-Case Scenarios: 3 Truths to Keep You from Despair
What if the worst-case scenario occurred? What will keep you, as a Christian, from despair?
What would keep you from despair in this kind of worst-case scenario? What prevented the Stams and the Scotts from losing their faith in God? Still reeling from the news of their children’s barbaric deaths, these grieving parents left a written record of three truths that kept them from despair. In the past few... Continue Reading
After the Flood – The Promise and Perils of Unity
Whether or not the nation can heal and unify, the church must. Jesus gives us no choice.
There is something that unifies each church. That something should be Jesus, of course, but there is usually also something else. And that something else will always try to displace our first union with Christ, becoming – in the words of Paul from the book of Galatians – another gospel instead. If our first union... Continue Reading
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Revisiting the Prophetic Work of Neil Postman
It’s pretty obvious that our digital age, in innumerable ways, aggravates our social and political distemper.
Postman’s analysis of technology is prophetic and profound. He warned of the trivializing of our media, defined by “broken time and broken attention,” in which “facts push other facts into and then out of consciousness at speeds that neither permit nor require evaluation.” He warned of “a neighborhood of strangers and pointless quantity.” That’s a... Continue Reading
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- …
- 471
- Next Page »