When you read a passage in the Bible, you can talk about its main point in several ways. You can say that the main point is the biggest, greatest, most important reality in the text, or you can say that the main point is the biggest, most urgent implication for my life. So, if you…
Category: Health
Our Children Need Stories: The Power of Fiction in Forming the Heart
The walk to school from our back door takes 195 seconds, give or take. This means our morning story has to hit its narrative climax somewhere around two minutes, leaving a solid minute for the dénouement, or a minute to set up for the next installment of the escapades of George, the renegade alley cat,…
If You Confess: How to Bring Your Sins to God
When it comes to confessing our sins, many Christians fall into one of two errors — both of which steal joy, disrupt peace, and undermine assurance. On one side are those we might call non-confessors, Christians who rarely confess specific sins to God. Maybe the reason is theological: “Christ has already covered all my sins,…
Your Holy Deeds Are Not Filthy Rags
Audio Transcript Holy works and filthy rags. It comes up time and time again, and it’s the topic of a question from Hanley in New Zealand. He’s onto the topic. And it’s a timely one as he reads Nehemiah 13 — and as many of us read Nehemiah 13 — to finish out the book…
Our God Is Still Global: How to Remember World Missions
I hesitate to say this as a missions pastor, but I’m a pretty locally minded guy. I’m naturally inclined to pay attention to the people, places, and tasks at the tip of my nose. Faraway friends and places become far too easily out of sight, out of mind. I’m often more interested in the happenings…
Love Her Less to Love Her More: The Dangers of Idolizing a Wife
Wars rage for it, blood spills for it, leaders trade men for it — the crown. Souls exchange God for it, young men deceive for it, Christ has been sold for it — money. Fathers desert families for it, Pharisees crucify their Messiah for it, men sell their souls for it — glory. Yet what…
‘May Our Hearts Bleed’: Reaching the Lost with William Carey
On October 7, 1805, nine men signed their names to a document that would govern their lives and efforts to proclaim the gospel throughout India. The document became known as the Serampore Form of Agreement (sometimes inaccurately called the Serampore Covenant). The signers, many of them pioneers in the history of baptist missions, included William…
Are Motorcycles for Fools?
Audio Transcript Are motorcycles for fools? That’s today’s question. And we’re speaking of recreational motorcycles here, of course — their primary function in the States. And it’s really a question about providence more than anything else. Here’s the email: “Hello, Pastor John. My name is Ian, and I live in the beautiful city of San…
Why Foster Care Is Worth the Costs
I looked in the rearview mirror at my kids, their cheeks wet and blotchy, their expressions contorted by grief. But I didn’t need to look to know how they were feeling; I could hear how they were feeling, as loud sobs echoed through the minivan. Two and a half years is a long time for…
Truth Triumphs Through Providence
Few things in my fifty years of ministry have been more gratifying than to see the purposeful, all-wise, absolute sovereignty of God, which we call “providence,” move from being a stumbling block to faith to being a faith-sustaining, sanity-preserving rock of refuge for ordinary Christians passing through hellish circumstances. For example, a quote from one…