Jet lag and culture shock are just plain cruel when they team up. This week I find myself halfway around the world, in a time zone ten-and-a-half hours removed from my own and in a culture so vastly different that it is difficult to comprehend. After two or three days in the east, I fooled…
Last Friday I worshipped at Redeemer Church of Dubai and then spent the rest of the day with Pastor Dave Furman and his wife Gloria (read A Day in Dubai). Saturday morning I got up early (along with Murray Robinson, who is traveling with me) and headed to the airport to continue the journey east.…
This is the tenth installment in a series on theological terms. See previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, creation, man, Fall, common grace, sin, righteousness, faith, pride, and election. Revelation refers to the revealing of something that was previously unknown. In the case of theology, revelation refers to the revealing of the knowledge of…
It must have been almost a year ago that I received an email from a pastor in India, asking me if I would consider traveling all the way to New Delhi to teach at his church and to meet some of the Christians in that country. I thought about it, prayed about it, and talked…
One week from tomorrow I will be heading east. Way east. Along with Murray Robinson, one of my fellow elders at Grace Fellowship Church, I will be heading to Dubai and then to India. I am going there to meet fellow believers, to teach them and to learn from them. It promises to be rather…
Today we will be introduced to the next big thing–the next next big thing, that is. This afternoon, in one of Apple’s much ballyhooed events, they will take the wraps off what most expect to be the iPad Mini, a scaled-down version of the iPad. The iPad Mini will be smaller and less expensive than…
I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Bible has a great deal to say about anger. Anger is, after all, not only a result of sin but also a common cause of sin. Here is what the Bible has to say: It is good to be slow to anger. Those who are…
If the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Corinthians 1:11) so that he could endure the hardships of ministry, how much more do you think your local church pastor needs your prayerful support? I’ve been noticing a lot (an awful lot!) of articles lately that call on people…
There is etiquette that surrounds the disposal of a flag. According to VFW, the dignified way to dispose of a tattered or soiled flag is to burn it, but to do so with discretion and to ensure that it has been entirely consumed. The reason flags are treated with respect is that they are symbolic.…
October is here and to ring in the new month I’ve got great new desktop wallpaper for you to download. This month’s wallpaper was designed by Mark Priestap. I asked Mark to introduce himself: My wife Meredith and I have one girl (10) and two boys (8 and 4) and we’ve been married since ’99.…
Government is one of the facts of life in this world. All of human history has shown that we need to be governed. Not surprisingly, the Bible speaks to government. Here are five things the Bible teaches us. Every government is put in place by God. Jesus answered [Pilate], “You would have no authority over…
Over the past few years I have had opportunity to attend a lot of Christian conferences, sometimes to sit and learn but more commonly in a kind of official capacity as a speaker or reporter. From either perspective I enjoy them most of the time. I will grant that without some vigilance we can overdo…
It’s funny how life works, isn’t it? It is so often the little decisions–the decisions that at the time seem so inconsequential–that have such far-reaching impact. Exactly ten years ago today, rather on a whim, I paid a few dollars to register the domain www.challies.com. A few hours and a few clicks later I had…
A couple of weeks ago I invested an hour and a half in watching Lakeland: The Movie, a documentary about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland “Revival.” You may remember that in April of 2008, a preacher and revivalist named Todd Bentley was invited to Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida. The plan was to have Bentley…
A couple of years ago Microsoft put together a clever marketing campaign for Windows Phone 7, their new mobile operating system (which is to say, the software they were introducing that would power the new generation of Windows-based cell phones). The commercial poked fun at the fact that so many of us spend so much…
We live in a culture of celebrity, a culture where fame and greatness have little to do with heroism and accomplishment. The people who influence us, the people who dominate the headlines and the covers of magazines, are so often people who are famous for being famous rather than being people who have contributed anything…
Earlier this week I posted a short article showing how the Toronto District School Board has chosen to effectively drive churches out of the public schools by pushing through a massive fee hike. In a city of small congregations and expensive real estate, renting space from public schools has long been one of the few…
Every Christian parent longs for his children to trust in Christ and to make this profession public. In Baptist churches, such a profession is made public through baptism. One of the ongoing discussions among Baptists relates to the age at which children can or should be baptized. (Here’s a brief article that lays out the…
Toronto is a city of 2.6 million where churches are small and real estate is costly. For this reason many churches meet in gymnasiums and cafeterias they rent from the Toronto District School Board. But now, very suddenly, the TDSB has taken action to get churches out of its schools. At the end of August…
Has anyone ever seen God? This is a question that arises naturally when reading through Scripture. You’re making your way through Exodus and then you read in 24:9-10, Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under…