Sin has made our vision opaque and our minds dull. We do not see God for who he really is and ourselves for who we really are. We think far too little of God and far too highly of ourselves. On our own we are doomed to look blindly and think badly. But as our…
When it comes to the Bible, we’ve all got a choice to make. We can take the Bible on our terms, or on its terms. We can choose to follow it some of the way, or we can choose to follow it all the way. We can dabble in it, or we can dive deep…
Every now and again I like to share an example of a pastoral prayer from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this because there are few examples of pastoral prayers online and I thought these may serve to inspire themes, passages, or ideas as other pastors and elders prepare to lead their churches in prayer. Here…
A few years ago, the “hundred pushup challenge” began to trend online. At a time when gyms were opening on every corner and roping people into increasingly expensive and complicated workouts, there was a call to the simplicity of the pushup. Those who could rattle off 100 were proving they had a solid baseline of…
For years now, I have made it my goal to release something every day that will encourage people, or challenge them, or instruct them, or otherwise bring them some kind of spiritual benefit. Not surprisingly, I receive all sorts of feedback, and there are a couple of kinds that, more than any other, discourage and…
Every few weeks I like to share an example of one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this simply to provide an example of how one church structures our time of worship, hoping it will prove a helpful resource to others. This service’s cast of characters included Paul as the preacher,…
When we sin against other people, our natural response is to distance ourselves from them. The naughty child who has defied her parents will look at the mess she has made, then slink away to her room. The church member who has spread gossip about another person will keep his distance the next Sunday. In…
A recent story from Wired helpfully explains the latest batch of changes Facebook has made to its algorithm—the algorithm that sorts through the billions of available articles, photographs, and videos to determine the few we will actually see as we scroll our news feeds. This is just their latest attempt to head off the never-ending…
We were driving across Africa’s dusty plains—he, a man who has never left his nation and I, a traveler far from my own. We bounced along rutted, unpaved roads and passed by villages with access to little more than the most rudimentary infrastructure. As we chatted about his life and mine, he asked me what’s…
While it’s always a joy to be encouraged by others, not all encouragement is created equal. Thinking through the right and best words can make the encouragement greater to both the one offering it and the one receiving it. Having spoken to many preachers and having preached a fair bit myself, I began considering the…
Everyone is talking about PreachersNSneakers. Well, not everyone, I’m sure, but enough that it has ended up in my inbox plenty of times over the past few days. PreachersNSneakers is an Instagram account that simply shares photos of preachers in their sneakers. No big deal, right? It wouldn’t be, except that these are not just…
The longer I live—the longer I live out this life as a Christian—the more I see my desperate need of the Lord’s Day. Though it once seemed like the kind of day I could take or leave, I’ve since come to rely on it and to see God’s goodness in giving it. It’s a day…
There are lots of odd beings in the Bible, aren’t there? There are the Nephilim of Genesis 6 who some believe were the offspring of fallen angels that bred with human women (though others believe they are nothing more than depraved human beings). There are angels and archangels, giants and demons, and even a talking…
Every now and again I like to share an example of a pastoral prayer from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this because there are few examples of pastoral prayers online and I thought these may serve to inspire themes, passages, or ideas as other pastors and elders prepare to lead their churches in prayer. Here…
This flight from Kansas City to Toronto is uniquely significant to me. Though on one level it’s just another uncomfortable short-haul flight on another rickety regional jet, it marks the end of a journey that has taken me to the ends of the earth. Almost eighteen months ago I boarded a plane to Israel to…
Just a couple of blocks from my home is the concrete shell of an unfinished mosque. Several years ago they broke ground and quickly after poured the concrete for the foundation and the four great minarets. And then the project went dormant. For almost three years it has sat ugly and unfinished, a grey concrete…
Every few weeks I like to share an example of one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this simply to provide an example of how one church structures our time of worship, hoping it will prove a helpful resource to others. This service’s cast of characters included Paul as the preacher,…
Over the past eighteen months, I have been traveling the world searching for objects related to the history of Christianity. Over the course of my journey I have visited some of the world’s great museums. And as much as I have enjoyed these world-class institutions, I have also found special benefit in visiting much smaller…
I have been at this blogging thing for a long time now, and would like to think there are a few lessons I’ve picked up along the way. There is a challenge I’ve been reflecting on recently, and it’s one I want to share with other writers: There is no necessary correlation between how many…
We Christians like to tell people where and how to look. To those crushed under the weight of sin or guilt we say, “Look to the cross! Look to the cross and see God’s justice for your sin being satisfied in his Son.” To those wearied by sorrow and suffering we say, “Look forward! God…