Earlier this year I wrote a short series called The Commandment We Forgot. These articles looked to the fifth commandment (“honor your father and mother”) to explore an angle few of us have seriously considered: What does it mean to obey this commandment as adults? Along the way I offered a number of practical suggestions…
“Productivity? But I’m a stay-at-home mom!” That’s roughly how Aileen replied when we sat down to talk about the fact that our lives were veering out of control. We were emerging from an especially busy season but coming up to what promised to be an even busier one. Our son was ready to begin high…
We all know that the world has become pornified, that the internet has made available to all of us an entire universe of pornographic content. Yet many of the statistics we rely on and commonly quote have become outdated. As technology changes and as new generations grow up, the pornographic landscape inevitably changes. I went…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Ever Thine Home who also sponsored the blog this week. They have one item that is free for anyone and several which will go only to the winners. There will be 5 winners who will each receive the three items listed below. Free for everyone! Ever Thine…
One of the great sorrows of life is its brevity. This life is but a breath, a vapor, a mist that vanishes with the sun. Even the eldest among us dies too soon, for we were made to live forever. Yet, while it is right to lament life’s brevity, we can also find in it…
I don’t think we should go back to using hymnals. But I do think there’s value in considering what we lost when, over the course of a relatively short period of time, we gave up hymnals for PowerPoint projection. Not all of us, mind you, but most of us. It’s worth considering because it helpfully…
Young men have it tough. In so many ways, this world seems to have been custom-crafted to take advantage of their weaknesses, their flaws, their immaturities. Solomon lamented this in his day, telling of the seductresses and prostitutes who laid in wait for young men. He told as well of the immaturity and ungodliness of…
It is a conviction meant to quiet our minds and encourage our hearts: In some way God has a hand in our suffering. Whatever circumstances we experience can no more arise without the hand of God than a saw can cut without the hand of the carpenter. Job in his suffering did not say, “The…
God promises that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). This gives us assurance that God can and will turn anything to our good. No situation is too grave, no enemy too strong, no temptation too great. Yes, God…
It was a joy to finally visit your church a couple of Sundays ago, and to worship with the believers there. You know I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. Just as you promised, the pastor is an excellent communicator and a man who loves God’s Word. His sermon was deeply challenging…
It’s a funny little story that could only have happened during the church’s earliest days. Paul has been on one of his missionary journeys and, while traveling through Asia Minor, stumbles upon a little group of believers. But there’s something unusual about them, something missing. Here’s how Luke describes it: And it happened that while…
Let me begin with a question: Do you shop at the grocery store closest to your home, or at the grocery store you like best, even if it’s a little farther away? If you are like my family and live in the endless suburban sprawl that surrounds so many of today’s cities, you probably drive…
I recently read an article about the architectural design of airports. Yes, that was an actual article I actually read, and I found it fascinating. A specialist in airport design told how he had been involved in planning Atlanta’s new international terminal and how he and his team had been specially tasked with finding ways…
It was such a blessing to receive your note and to hear that you’ve decided to follow Christ! Sometimes it takes many years for those Sunday school stories to ring true, doesn’t it? It touched me to hear your gratitude for the Bible I sent and how it challenged you to get right with God.…
Over time, a word can change its meaning, sometimes picking up an entirely new definition and sometimes expanding or contracting an existing one. It is not unusual to see a familiar word explode into contemporary parlance with a far more expansive definition than it has had in the past. Think about “tolerance.” For many years…
I think she might actually hate her child. She sat beside me at the soccer game, her daughter competing against mine. Meanwhile, her son sat beside her. Or he did for a minute, at least, until he got up and began to look longingly at the concession stand. He demanded a treat, first plaintively, then…
Over the past few weeks I have been reading through The Lord of the Rings, slowly meandering my way through Middle Earth for the umpteenth time. Every time I read the books, I find myself drawn to something different, some new demonstration of Tolkien’s brilliance. One of the strengths that distinguishes his work from other…
I consider it the greatest privilege, the highest act of God’s providence, that I grew up in a Christian home. I consider it no small responsibility to ensure my children, likewise, are growing up in a home that is distinctly Christian. Then, it is my sincerest desire and confident hope, that my grandchildren will have…
There’s a lot of porn in the world. When I first began to write the articles that would become Sexual Detox, this sin was still lurking in the shadows. Few people knew just how deep and deadly it was. Nearly a decade later, we get it. We know now that nearly every boy and a…
I was making my way home after speaking at an event in Indiana. Or maybe it was Illinois, or Idaho—they all kind of blur together sometimes. Either way, I boarded my plane to find the seat beside me empty. I couldn’t stop myself from hoping that it might just stay that way, that I’d be…