The Paradoxes of Christianity

Learn how to engage with cultural issues in a deeply countercultural way. When we embrace the paradoxical character preached by Jesus in the Beatitudes, we experience rich and surprising blessing.
Learn how to engage with cultural issues in a deeply countercultural way. When we embrace the paradoxical character preached by Jesus in the Beatitudes, we experience rich and surprising blessing.
To be human is to be finite—to be limited in our knowledge of past, present, and future. We exist within strict boundaries of time and space, so that we cannot see beyond our present location or beyond our present moment. This is a feature of our humanity and not a bug…
A La Carte: I miss the stars / Count the cost / Shame as the vicious trap of sexual sin / Clouds of shame and unbelief / When you’ve been blindsided / Book and commentary sale / and more.
We must be as eager to hear the Scripture as to hear the sermon, and we must be as expectant that God will speak to us through the Word as through the message. Rightly do many churches preface their Bible reading with words like, “Listen as I read God’s holy Word.”
A La Carte: Why dads still matter / Character in absurd times / Don’t get baptized in the Jordan / Gen Z is spiritually hungry / Extending hospitality to children / and more.
Free Stuff Fridays: Cold Tumbler Giveaway!
I am about to turn 49, and a few months later, Aileen will turn 50. But these are just numbers, and already we have a deep awareness that we have entered into this afternoon of life. Already, we are seeing how different our lives have become, and already we are grappling with new challenges and…
A La Carte: Parenting an autistic child / Sexual reorientation therapy / The Voyage of Life / A possible revival / Broken families and God’s grace / Belief trumps understanding / Logos deals.
A La Carte: What have you in your hand? / Work as worship / Eight purposes of the Lord’s Supper / Creating vs consuming / Identifying spiritual scrupulosity / Kindle deals / and more.
It is good to pray that God would save the ones we love. As Christians, we believe that God loves to save the lost and that it gives him special pleasure to do so in response to the prayers of his people. It is good to pray, but sometimes also difficult, especially when we have…
A La Carte: Watch your language / Are we tired of the ordinary? / Her view from the pew / Who am I to question my captain’s orders? / What I want to leave to my family when I die / Why God made sheep / and more.
On October 7-8, Amazon is hosting Big Deal Days for people who have a Prime membership. They have a huge number of items on sale, covering most product categories. Of course, my interest is in books and Bibles and, thankfully, there are lots of great deals to be had (in printed, not Kindle editions). Most are discounted by…
A La Carte: Take it on the chin / The Archbishop of Canterbury and the slide into irrelevance / A quick change to improve your sermons / Hymns for the end of life / Cultivating gratitude / Huge book sale / and more.
How do you know if God is calling you to ministry? In this article, Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. explains how to discern God’s call—through both an inward drawing and the confirming voice of the church. Ministry is a high and holy calling. Could God be calling you? #Sponsored
Here is the kind of question I sometimes enjoy pondering: How much money is God not really concerned about? I guess I’d better explain what I mean by that. If someone told me a wealthy neighbor was handing out $100 bills to anyone who dropped by, no strings attached, I would immediately go over and…
A La Carte: In the ruins of Rome / Evaluating fictional magic / We still need gentlemen / Your Father’s care / Loving your wife like Christ loves / Meditation / Kindle deals / and more.
Many of us live in contexts and cultures in which there is fierce competition among churches, each advertising itself as more interesting, more appealing, more entertaining than the others. It sometimes seems that no gimmick is too crass and no strategy too absurd for these churches as they attempt to one-up the others and fill…
A La Carte: Gospel hospitality / K-Pop Demon Hunters / Does appearance matter? / Teenagers and mental health / A post-literate culture / Even more Kindle deals.
Free Stuff Fridays: Book Giveaway! #Sponsored
While making a long journey across the world and enduring the fatigue that comes with it, I thought it would be nice to enjoy some light reading along the way. I mean it as no pun when I say Zero Gravity proved to be just the thing.
A La Carte: Conrad Mbewe and Voddie Baucham / Piper on the evil that stuns heaven / Paths we did not choose / The hollow comfort of AI / The nuance of healing / Made for approval / and more.
Bible biography Bonhoeffer books Christian living church current issues disability marriage parenting personal prayer sin suffering theology
Genesis 1 Genesis 3 Psalm 119 Matthew 18 John 3:16 John 10:10 Romans 1 Romans 8:28 Romans 12:2 Ephesians 5 Philippians 4:8 Colossians 3:16