It was a couple of weeks ago when I first heard that Petra had officially announced their retirement. One of the pioneering Christian rock bands, and for many years one of the most popular, Petra has decided to retire after 33 years of ministry. I am a little embarrassed to admit that the news hit…
In four previous articles, I have discussed the tendency of Christians to put God in a box of our own imaginations. Allow me to briefly review each of those articles before moving forward in this discussion. In the introduction we looked at the apparent conflict between God’s revelation of Himself and our tendency to put…
It is the Lord’s delight to give us what we ask of Him in prayer. With David we all ought to cry out, “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth” (Psalm 54:2). If Christians did not believe this, there would be no reason for us to ask God of…
Love him or hate him, George Barna often presents interesting information to the church. His latest study, dated May 30, 2005, asked pastors to identify “the three books that had been most helpful to them as a ministry leader during the past three years.” There were over 200 books listed, but only 9 that were…
Since publishing this article new information has come to light. I’d encourage you to read this article also published on this site instead of this one as it contains more information and better information. The Purpose Driven Life is a runaway bestseller. In truth, it is in a category all its own. It is closing…
This is the fourth installment in a series of articles discussing the Christian tendency to put God in a box. In the first article we saw that we tend to feel insecure about God unless we have contained Him within a box in our minds and then saw that God has revealed Himself to us…
The following article was penned by Pastor, Doctor, Professor and all-around nice guy Ron Gleason and is posted here with his permission. Ron and his wife Sally are very close friends of my parents and Ron was my pastor back when we were both significantly younger and when we lived significantly closer. You can read…
This is the third installment in a series of articles discussing the Christian tendency to put God in a box. In the first article we saw that we tend to feel insecure about God unless we have contained Him within a box in our minds and then saw that God has revealed Himself to us…
In the first article in this series we looked at the tendency Christians have to put God in a box. We seem to feel insecure about Him unless we have contained Him within a structure of our own making. We also saw that God has revealed Himself to us in the Scripture in a way…
My family owns a beautiful cottage in the woods near one of the most picturesque villages in Ontario. This village was once a center of commerce along the Rideau Lake system – a series of canals and both natural and artificial lakes that span the miles between the cities of Kingston and Ottawa. The canal…
Several weeks ago my dear friends Chris and Rebecca shared with us that her grandfather, Art, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The doctors considered it terminal and inoperable, describing it as one of the worst forms of brain cancer. He would have only a couple of months to live and for much…
Pornography is having an increasingly-harmful impact on the church. Pollsters like Barna have been telling us for years now that more and more Christians, including, and even especially, those in positions of leadership are as prone to pornography addiction as anyone. The effects of pornography, as most of us know (as most of us, by…
Most Christians have heard of the inductive approach to studying the Bible (though some may know it by the more dramatic name “grammatical historical hermeneutics”). This technique, drawn from the Scriptures, allows the Bible to speak to us within its proper context instead of having us read our preconceptions into the Word of God. I…
I have often found it odd how the word “son” is used in the Bible, particularly when it is used as part of a title. Matthew 5:9 reads, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Why should they be called sons of God? Or consider Acts 4:36-37 which speaks of…
I was recently asked to work on a rather strange project – a web site dedicated to teaching the Bible through limericks. Yes, limericks – commonly known to be the lowest form of poetry. While I was certainly glad to work on the project and to help the poet bring his ministry to a wider…
This is one of those articles I am going to post even though it goes against my better judgement. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, or maybe there is just something I really want to get off my chest. So let’s talk about Protestants and the pope. Uh oh. It has been a few weeks…
Several days ago I posted an excerpt from an essay written by D.A. Carson that is published as the introductory chapter of Worship by the Book. Carson suggested that some Christians have come to worship worship instead of worshipping God through worship. He says, “This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like ‘Let’s forget…
In the first article of this brief series we examined Total Depravity, as a prerequisite to evaluating the following statement: “Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to the footnotes knowledge- than many who don’t call themselves Calvinists.” I indicated that I did…
The bulk of this article was published on this site in November of 2004, but I am going to repost much of it in response to discussion about my article from earlier today entitled, Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge. There has been discussion about whether the act of regeneration – the act whereby those who…
Following the article I posted on Saturday, which you can read here, Michael Spencer posted a link to it on Boars Head Tavern and included the following comment, which I would like to address today: Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to…