Spiritual life treats God as attractive and trustworthy. His character—wholly righteous—brings light to the darkness of our selfishness. And faith is our response to Christ’s call to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” God’s attractions become ever more obvious to the eyes of faith. We realize that he created all things well. […]
Jesus offered a parable about the types of soil farmers find in casting seed. He then explained the parable. Those who hear God’s word are the soil and the quality of the soil defines the fruitfulness of a teaching ministry. As context, Jesus was preaching God’s word and was finding mixed responses from the crowds. […]
An unlikely Old Testament hero—the African eunuch, Ebed-melech—offers us a model of courage. We first meet him in Jeremiah 38 when he rescued Jeremiah. The prophet was in trouble—discarded to die in a muddy cistern—until Ebed-melech acted. In the rescue this African’s faith invites admiration and imitation. And through his story we gain another facet […]
Have you ever stopped to think about the underlying motivations for looking in the mirror everyday? Maybe you haven’t, it’s just a pragmatic moment in the morning to make sure your hair looks right and you don’t have anything stuck in your teeth so you look appropriate for work or whatever. But even as I […]
In the last week or so I’ve been revisiting the primary sources of the often so-called New England Antinomian Controversy of 1636-1638. I’m repeatedly struck by the differences that were discovered among a group of people that assumed they were all on the same theological page. Yes, they knew that differing opinions were held with […]
My friend is an evangelist, a global Christian activist who offers the gospel whenever and wherever he finds opportunity. After any restaurant meal, for instance, he’ll fold the tip in a gospel tract. His voicemail message offers a gospel invitation to callers. His favorite strategy is to take non-Christian friends golfing in order to engage […]
Righteousness—and how to achieve it—is at the heart of Christian faith. But what, according to the Bible, makes us righteous? Another word, justification – “to be made righteous”, refers to the same issue: how do we come into a proper standing with God? In Christianity at least three ways of determining righteousness have been promoted: […]
A feisty debate stirred the New England churches in 1636. The question at stake was the nature of faith—what is it that makes a Christian? In an early exchange of letters between two of the pastors, Peter Bulkeley asked John Cotton whether he would agree that there must be “the work of faith in us […]
Of all the questions we may ask few are more important than the simple query, “What really matters?” What should be our greatest priorities in life? The question presumes that priorities shape the way we live—that some options are more important to us than others. A corollary for most people is that we can examine […]
A couple of nights ago my three-year-old son came downstairs and in his best superhero voice said (just imagine his fists on his hips and chest pushed out), “I’m the strongman, I can do nothing!” With big smiles on our faces, we tried to correct him, “Don’t you mean anything?” He replied, “No, I can do nothing!” We’ve […]
