There is no wrong time for world evangelization. And there is no wrong time for theological clarification. If you wait for the optimal time to become a missionary or to send a missionary, you won’t be one or send one. If you wait for the optimal time to get theological clarity about what the Bible…
Category: Health
He Came to a World Condemned: O Root of Jesse
O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem,Unto your own and rescue them!From depths of hell your people save,And give them victory o’er the grave. Rejoice! Rejoice! ImmanuelShall come to thee, O Israel. “O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem” is initially an unassuming, even underwhelming line. We might expect to hail the promised deliverer as…
Mobilize the Globalized: Creative Pathways to the Unreached
I can still remember the pang of distress that flushed through my body when I discovered that our country of service was no longer classified as “unreached” by the Joshua Project. Four percent of the ninety-million-person population was reportedly Christian. That percentage is twice the standard threshold for qualifying as unreached. Since we had gone…
Will I Suffer My Singleness Forever?
Audio Transcript If you’ve listened to the Ask Pastor John podcast for more than a few weeks, you know that we regularly explore life’s deepest sadnesses and most painful losses. This is a fitting place to hear Pastor John address hard situations, and those hard situations include couples who are unable to bear children of…
Male and Female Forever? Complementarity in the New Creation
Will male-female complementarity exist in the new heavens and new earth? If so, what can we learn about the continued distinctions between men and women in the new creation? Scriptural data on the contours of the life to come are limited, so we must admit the speculative nature of our question up front. However, we…
He Came to a World Held Captive: O Lord of Might
O come, O come, great Lord of might,Who to your tribes on Sinai’s heightIn ancient times did give the lawIn cloud and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! ImmanuelShall come to thee, O Israel. “Great Lord of might” hardly seems an appropriate handle for the son of Mary. In his infancy, needy, dependent, vulnerable — like…
Hold True, Sing New: To the Next President of Our School
My charge to you, Brian Tabb, as the third president of Bethlehem College and Seminary, may be spoken in a rhyming couplet with iambic tetrameter. It goes like this: Hold fast the word, unchanged and true;Let insight, joy, and song be new. Hold Fast the Word Hold fast the word, unchanged and true. Be like…
Beware the Wolf Within: Six Signs of Diseased Leadership
“Did he actually say that?” I can imagine one of the Ephesian elders turning to a fellow elder to say those words after hearing the apostle Paul say, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking…
Why Your Life Isn’t Working
Are you happy? Are you satisfied? You tour the zoo with your daughter and peer into the glass with the gorilla. You stare at the gorilla; he stares back. Are your lives all that different? He lives one outdoor-time to the next, one feeding to the next — what is a jungle? You live one…
The Song of Love
The Song of Love Posted by appolus on December 5, 2024 I wrote this song seven months ago, in the very depths of my cancer and chemo. The presence of the Lord and His grace and mercy had settled on me for that whole time and I sensed a very strong anointing from Jesus. Its at…