Years ago, a mundane event turned into one of the more interesting and memorable moments of my life. I was flying from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas, to speak at a men’s conference. I was seated in the dreaded middle seat, slowly progressing toward El Paso. The man in the window seat next to me was a Muslim from the Middle East. His presence was distinguished and palpable—he was ...
Read More
How are you doing serving in the mission field under your own roof? For those of us with children, we have a solemn biblical responsibility to evangelize them—“to train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6).
Read More
Servanthood isn’t typically synonymous with leadership. In the political and secular realms, leaders are generally people who spend their lives being served rather than serving others. The most visible segments of religion seem to reflect the same attitude as well. Popes and prosperity preachers spend their lives surrounded by an entourage of minions waiting upon their every whim.
Read More
False and superficial religion fills this world. But we who love Christ dare not accommodate our worship to the styles and preferences of an unbelieving world. Instead, we must make it our business to look to Scripture alone to direct our church practices.
Read More
In the book of Revelation, Jesus wrote seven letters to cities in Asia Minor. He didn’t write them to city hall; He wrote them to the church.
Read More
Music, movies, and social media all contribute to shaping the world’s view of love. It is regularly confused with lust and usually driven by the quest to gratify our own selfish desires. As Christians we need to recognize the hypocrisy of that worldly mindset. The defining quality of God’s love is that He set aside what rightfully belongs to Him in order to benefit those who rightly deserve His judgment ...
Read More
We live in a world where morality is constantly evolving. Sins once frowned upon are now celebrated as liberating and legitimate. And those who consider themselves spiritual demand a god who is flexible and accommodating to our shifting moral standards.
Read More
Just let go and let God. If you’ve been around the church for any significant time, you’ve probably heard someone offer that passive maxim as spiritual advice. In fact, many believers might use that as shorthand to describe the process of sanctification. It’s the idea that God will do what He wants, when He wants, and believers are just along for the ride.
Read More
The Christian life is anything but a passive pursuit. The New Testament commands believers to “be all the more diligent” (2 Peter 1:10), to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), to “strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24), to “run” that we may obtain the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24), and to “work out” our salvation (Philippians 2:12). Our spiritual growth clearly involves ...
Read More
What did Jesus set out to accomplish? Did His death and resurrection have any practical effect for this life, or was it all focused on eternity? Consider this: the holy Son of God set aside His glory, humbled Himself by taking the form of a man, lived a righteous life, and willingly surrendered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of others. Was this all intended merely to forgive ...
Read More