It is not quite time to return home from Scotland; Aileen and I are first spending a couple of days together in the Highlands. We spent much of yesterday exploring the area, driving the narrow country lanes, visiting churches, graveyards, memorial markers and artifacts, each one somehow significant to the history of the church. At…
I think I saw about half of Scotland yesterday. I am here to see the work of 20schemes, an organization dedicated to providing gospel churches for Scotland’s poorest. Scotland’s poorest tend to live in schemes, government housing that is free for the destitute or subsidized for the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Scots live in…
I have not traveled often beyond the North American continent, but when I do, the truest joy is not in seeing the sites or getting a glimpse of the culture. The truest joy is in worshipping with fellow believers. Last fall I was able to worship with Christians in Dubai and India and was deeply…
I mentioned on Friday that I had arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland and am here to look into the work of a ministry called 20schemes. 20schemes is dedicated to providing gospel churches for Scotland’s poorest people and these are, almost by definition, people who live in schemes. “What is a scheme?” you may ask. It is…
I am writing today from Edinburgh, Scotland. Aileen and I boarded a flight last night and arrived first thing this morning. It has been twenty three years since I was last in Scotland; Aileen has never been. We are here with a small collection of pastors and church leaders who have traveled from all over…
Satan bears many names. Satan has many schemes. Satan wears many hats. Satan comes in many disguises. And through it all, one of his favorite tactics and one of his most successful tactics is to be an accuser. The book of Revelation assures us that night and day he stands as our accuser. accuser (noun)…
A music studio in Peoria, Illinois recently launched a singer-songwriter contest and asked local musicians to upload their original songs to YouTube. The studio got one song that did not quite meet the requirements, but it was a song that told a story too good to ignore. Fred Stobaugh had been married to Lorraine for…
Bookstores have fallen on hard times. Christian bookstores have fallen on especially hard times. Of all the industries utterly savaged by the rise of the Internet, e-commerce and digital distribution, books and music, the mainstays of Christian bookstores, are right near the top of that list. The consumer’s win has been the bookstore’s loss. Christian…
Christians differ in their attitudes toward alcohol. Some Christians believe that we have freedom to consume alcohol in moderation. Others hold that the Bible forbids all consumption of alcohol or that, even in the absence of a clear command to abstain, it is so dangerous and so likely to lead to addiction, that it is…
Dear Southern Seminary, If I am reading the seminary calendar correctly, this is the day you begin classes for your fall term. And as you begin your classes once again, I want to send along just a brief note. I should begin with a word of explanation. A little while ago I signed up for…
For months now the question has been in front of me. It has been there in the document I open every day, the document that contains a list of articles to write, and questions to explore. “What will be the cost to the church if young men continue to give themselves to pornography?” What do…
The iPad, and other tablets around it, are coming into their own. As the medium matures, we are discovering new ways to exploit their abilities. One of the encouraging developments is the rise of the premium app. We all love the free or $0.99 app, but there is only so much we can expect for…
Self-salvation is sinful man’s most natural inclination. We all know there is something wrong with us, that we are not all we want to be and not all we were meant to be. And left to ourselves we look for that salvation anywhere and everywhere except in the place it can be found–in Jesus Christ.…
I am often asked how I organize my books and how I maintain my library. Because I am a book reviewer I receive new books nearly every day and this has forced me to discover a few principles I might otherwise have missed. I have found that the key to organizing and maintaining a library…
I did not set out to be a preacher. Ten years ago I would have laughed out loud if someone had told me that a decade hence I would be a regular in the pulpit. As I’ve slowly acclimated to preaching, I have found myself thinking very differently about sermons. I’ve been listening to sermons…
I love to receive challenges and lessons from unexpected places. Lately God has been teaching me so much through the book of Jonah. Yes, Jonah. Jonah is a book that ends in an unorthodox way. Where most books end with a satisfying conclusion, this one ends with a question mark. Where most books end with…
I am convinced that some day we will all have a really good laugh at ourselves for ever using a form of communication as ridiculous as email. We will laugh that we ever tried to make it do the things we make it do. It is my hope that we will soon move to more…
We Evangelicals are known for our obsession with virginity. Now don’t get me wrong–I affirm that it is good and God-honoring to remain sexually pure before marriage (and within marriage and after marriage). As a pastor I want to teach the people in my care the value of having their first sexual experiences with their…
So you want to sin, do you? I get that. I’ve been there. I’ve been there today. And yesterday. And the day before. Can I beg just four or five minutes of your time? Then you can go and sin all you want. But first I want you to read just a few words and…
Later this week I am going to have the opportunity to interview Paul Washer. You probably know him as the man who preached the Shocking Youth Message, but there is much more to him than that. He was a missionary in Peru for ten years and in that time he founded the HeartCry Missionary Society…