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Engaging Race Face to Face
.longform-text img {display:none !important;}The American church is at a pivotal moment. It has been years since the issue of ethnic and racial tension has received the important attention and...
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Praise We Didn’t Plan
The Psalms are an inspired record of the fight of faith; that’s one of the reasons we love them. By the time we get there in the story of Scripture, two competing realities grab our attention — the...
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Preempt the Next Newsflash: Overflow from #ATimeToSpeak
On December 16, 2014, I was part of a conversation on racial harmony gathered by Bryan Loritts at the former Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis, Tennessee. In preparing...
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Did Tolkien Waste His Life?
There were imaginative flickers of Middle-earth in the precocious child, Ronald Tolkien. Enchanting English landscapes, a language invented with a young cousin for kicks, an awakening love of...
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Christmas Is the Greatest Mystery
It is the hour that split history in half.Until that first Christmas, he had been, from eternity past, the divine Son and second person of the Godhead. He was God’s glad agent in creation (John 1:3;...
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Glory to God in the Lowest
It may be the greatest choral presentation in the history of the world.One nameless angel had the honor of playing the lead, with a veritable angelic multitude behind him. But no tickets were sold, and...
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Top 14 Posts of 2014
We surveyed our most-viewed articles of 2014. It’s an interesting mix of commentary on current events, advice for seasons of life, and insight into the mind, heart, and life of a Christian. All of it,...
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When God Gives You an Overcrowded Christmas
For many, the last few days before Christmas are rarely peaceful. This is especially true for parents and pastors. These days are packed with final (and often pressured) preparations of presents and...
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Christmas Happened Because It Is Fitting
Jesus Christ existed before he was conceived in Mary’s womb. You and I did not exist before conception.So when we speak of our coming into the world, or speak of John the Baptist’s being “sent from...
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When Grandma and Grandpa Don’t Celebrate Like We Do
Your Christmases may have been hang-loose back in the B.C. years — before children. You were thankful for Jesus, but you didn’t give much thought to how the event was observed.Now you have young...
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You Were Made for Christmas
Few things are more tragic than taking Christmas in stride. Its spirit and magic, that alluring sense of supernatural goodness, are not just for children, but even for the grownups. Especially for the...
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The Christmas Invitation to Everyone
.longform-text img {display:none !important;}.longform-text img {display:none !important;}.longform-text img {display:none !important;}Christmas means that a king has been born, conceived in the womb...
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Unbroken Uncut
Louis Zamperini (1917–2014) was a miracle of a man. He truly lived — better, survived — one of the greatest stories ever written. Nonfiction stories are written, too, you know. “In your book were...
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Our Obligation to the Unreached
Well over one hundred years ago, a single missionary named Lottie Moon, serving in China, began writing letters challenging the church back here to send and support more workers to go there. After her...
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Don’t Get Too Familiar with the Bible
Beware the deceptive wiles of familiarity — that sweet but double-edged virtue that makes you feel at home in the word of God. Familiarity of the tender variety persists in reminding you of the gospel...
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A Dream Come True in Corporate Worship
Something remarkable, even unimaginable will take place when you gather with God’s people this weekend. Most of us have lost our sense of wonder and awe with what’s happening, but it’s a phenomenon...
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Don’t Just Read the Bible for Yourself
On page 511 of my ESV Bible, crafted by the careful penmanship of a novice writer, nestled in the inside margin of Psalm 116:12–13 and Psalm 118:6–7, are three words: “I love Dad.”The ink is as red as...
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Seven Resolutions to Pursue Love in 2015
Among the Devil’s chief strategies is destroying relationships of love between Christians by eroding their trust in one another. It is highly effective and highly destructive. As we ponder new resolves...
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New Year, New Adjective: “Christ-Exalting”
There are serious theological reasons why we love hyphenated phrases that turn verbs and nouns into adjectives. God-centered. Christ-exalting. Spirit-dependent. Bible-saturated. Gospel-rooted....
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Bible Reading Is an Art
There is some science to good Bible reading.It’s important to know the fundamentals of language and communication, of subjects and verbs and objects, and most importantly conjunctions. Much can be...
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