The thing about legalism is that it’s far easier and far more satisfying to spot in someone else’s life than in your own. We are masterful at identifying it and calling it out in other people, but not nearly so good at doing so in our own lives. In Pat Nemmers’ book Retractions he offers…
The sermon fizzles instead of sizzles. The text seems to become opaque rather than clear. The illustrations fall flat while the application somehow fails to strike the heart, the mind, or the hands. The pastor seems distracted and discouraged while the congregation seems uninterested and unmoved. I expect we have all sat through a few…
It is engraved on many tombstones, inscribed in many cards, expressed in many obituaries: He died too soon. She was taken before her time. Of all the mysteries in this universe, few are more perplexing than the mystery of God’s sovereignty over life and death. Why do some live to so advanced an age while…
The son of King Jeroboam had fallen deathly ill. His father was understandably worried, concerned to know whether his child would live or die. He knew just where to go for a trustworthy answer. Yet he also knew that he could not go himself. He came up with a devious plan: he would send his…
Many years ago a great sailing ship was crossing the Atlantic when it came to the treacherous Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Though this is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, it can all also be one of the most treacherous. Its waters are shallow and often blanketed by dense fog. Icebergs lurk…
We refer to the first person of the Trinity as “God the Father,” and it is important to understand that God’s fatherhood comes before any fatherhood among human beings. In other words, God did not create human fathers and then begin to describe himself in reference to them. Rather, God has always been Father and…
I was once told the story of a child who had been invited to spend a sunny summer day playing with his friends. He lived in a rural area and it took him a good bit of time to make the trek. But the child made his way toward his friends as they made their…
It was around 150 years after the birth of Christ that the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy determined that the earth must be at the center of the universe. If the earth was at the center, then the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets must orbit around it. Though many people had observed…
The old adage may be trite, but that makes it no less true: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. There is something about being apart that stirs our affections, that causes us to understand and articulate what we might otherwise have taken for granted. It is often only through a time of separation that we…
So many people live with a deep sense of failure. So many people go through their lives convinced they are a constant disappointment to the ones they so naturally long to please. Children consider their parents and feel a sense of shame, certain that in some way their parents regard them as a disappointment. Meanwhile,…
The world was still new, the earth was still young, humanity was still barely east of Eden. And deep in virgin forests, unseen by human eye, untrod by human foot, a gentle fern was summoned forth from the soil. Its fronds were perfectly symmetrical, its leaves were vibrant green, it was uniquely patterned with the…
There was no silence like the silence that descended over the trenches of Western Europe on the morning of November 11, 1918. At exactly 11 AM, an armistice came into effect that brought a halt to all fighting on land, sea, and air. Never had silence been better appreciated than when that silence marked the…
It has been about 8 months since the release of my book Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God. And it has been an encouraging time. I wanted to share a few updates and pieces of information that may be of interest to you. Perhaps the greatest encouragement has come…
I am tip-toeing—or perhaps lurching—toward the age of 50. Whatever it means to be middle-aged, I am indisputably now well within that range. This stage of life has introduced some new trials, new difficulties, and new indignities, many of them related to a body that is no longer what it once was. But this stretch…
The history of warfare has provided some shocking defeats. There’s the infamous battle of Cannae, of course, in which Hannibal routed the Roman forces, despite being significantly outnumbered. There’s the battle of Agincourt in which the English had a force just one-third the size of the French, yet inflicted vastly more casualties. There’s the utter…
We are weak creatures—little, frail, and lacking in wisdom and knowledge. But all is not lost because the Bible assures us that God is fully aware of our weaknesses and, even better, cares about them. As the author of Hebrews says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our…
I have given behind-the-scenes looks at book endorsements and conference speaking and thought I’d wrap up this little series with a look at publishing. I’m familiar only with Christian books so will keep my comments focused on that small corner of a much larger industry. From my perspective, here’s a look at how Christian publishing…
I have often thought that people who desire a modern-day gift of prophecy ought to be careful what they wish for. After all, the biblical prophets were often asked to speak words that immediately brought about their own persecution or even death. And even if they did not suffer to quite that degree, they were…
Every now and again I like to share one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this to provide just one example of how a church applies the principles of Scripture to its public worship. If there is something you see here that would bless your church, you have permission to pilfer…
We live out our Christian lives in a place between Egypt and the Promised Land. We have been justified but not yet glorified—we have been delivered safely through the Red Sea but have not yet forded the Jordan and arrived on its far bank. We may not physically wander as did the Israelites of old…