We will not leave this earthly life unscathed. The longer we live, the more we will see and experience suffering. Since we will experience grief and will need comfort, we need to think clearly and biblically ahead of time about how to walk through...
As I look back on my life as a Christian who experiences mental illness, I think of passages from these two psalms: One thing have I asked of the Lord;one thing I seek;that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;To behold the...
Our Christianity is rooted in our physicality. The first chapters of Genesis describes God creating matter and calling it good, followed by God creating male and female bodies and calling them very good. The incarnation of Jesus adds special dignity...
Caring for the sick and distressed is a God-given opportunity to show love and good works in God’s presence, by his power, and in collaboration with others. Mutual care was a vital way members of the earliest churches related to one another...
Loneliness is truly an epidemic in our Western culture. Countless people lack any close friends or romantic partners. They join no groups. They go bowling alone. What can churches offer to the lonely? One answer: the practice of public confession...
Charles Spurgeon criticized Robert Hawker's Bible commentary for seeing Jesus in unnecessary places, such as every Psalm, a view widely held in Christian interpretation until John Calvin rooted Psalm interpretation in historical context. There's now...
What do good works have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing! I would like to contest the notion that Paul contradicts himself when he insists that salvation does not come from works and that we must work out our salvation. We will investigate...
When I was sixteen, a youth ministry challenged me to share my faith with my family and classmates. I had grown up in and out of church and didn’t know much of the Bible beyond the epic Sunday school stories most people with some church background...
The Anglican Church, originating in 16th-century reforms in England, is now a global faith group of over eighty million people. With the Holy Scriptures as its basis, Anglican belief supports a variety of doctrines informed by the three historic...
I have a confession: I’ve been a full-time evangelist for over two decades and I rarely do the job you think I do. In a moment, I’ll tell you more about what I actually do. More importantly, I want you to know what evangelism really is, why it is...
The only way to get think rightly about spiritual warfare is to tie ourselves to what God says in Scripture. So what does the Bible say about spiritual warfare and the demonic realm?
Prayer by itself has no power whatsoever. It wields no inherent supernatural sway; nor does it involve a formula or ritual which, if done right, guarantees any desired result. Christian prayer is not magic. The measure of prayer’s power, then, is...
Poet Robert Frost famously wrote about two roads that diverged in a yellow wood, and he expressed regret that he could not take both paths. This captures a universal human experience: as finite humans, a yes to one path is necessarily a no to the...
Life is messy. Really messy. And it presents humans with all sorts of complicated spiritual, social, and legal challenges about what’s right and wrong, or even good or best. Ethics relates to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions. When...
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires (Ps 37:4). This oft-quoted verse has profound implications for the believer. Before we can explore the landscape of this powerful statement, it’s important we take note of its...
The world with its flashing screens, its promises of pleasure, its offerings of wealth, its promotion of power and fame, screams for our attention. It is like Lady Folly in Proverbs, luring us to fix our gaze on things below. Much of what we see in...
What is the most violated verse on the internet? Probably love the Lord your God with all your heart. Every online sin draws its nourishment from that root. But right behind that violated verse might be—our second-place winner—Paul’s words: Speaking...
Among the divine attributes, none is so mysterious and sublime as that of divine holiness. In systematic theology, the divine attributes—aspects of God’s character and being—are normally divided into two categories: the incommunicable and the...
I was born with a Bible in my hand (not literally), in church before I was even born (literally). I can’t remember my first Bible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of those soft, cute little fabric storybook Bibles with crunchy things on...
Nearly a third of high school girls in the US confessed to contemplating suicide,a 60 percent rise in the last decade. Young women are experiencing tragic levels of emotional trauma, physical abuse, and sexual violence. One of the primary culprits...
When it comes to understanding the person and work of the Holy Spirit, theologians often use the term mystery. Reflecting on John 3:3–8, Graham Cole writes: Jesus said that the Spirit’s action is like that of the wind. The movements of the wind have...
Few issues in Christianity today are more controversial than speaking in tongues. The Lexham Cultural Ontology Glossary defines tongues speaking as: The act of speaking a language one did not acquire by natural means. This is often related to either...
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.—Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38 Every year as a kid I looked forward to New Year’s Eve because it was the one time a year when all bets were off when it came to bedtime. The mysterious happenings of the...
While serving in a small church plant during my first year of college, I remember being given for the first time something called a spiritual gifts test. I don’t remember the specific questions on the test, but I do remember the result. For the...
Jesus’s words frequently shock me. They bring me up short. Honestly, sometimes when I read them, I think, I wonder if he knew to whom he was speaking. Of course he knew, I mean no disrespect. But still. Really? Telling Nicodemus he must be born...
Can we, or can we not, pray to the Holy Spirit? Augustine (354–430) composed this prayer to the Holy Spirit: Breathe in me O Holy Spirit that my thoughts may all be holy; Act in me O Holy Spirit that my works, too, may be holy; Draw my heart O Holy...
Most everyone knows the Great Commission by heart: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). But why make disciples, and why baptize using that...
A few years ago, I tweeted something that made pretty big and unexpected waves on social media. The tweet read, “Sisters, if we are smart enough to cook, raise/teach children, take care of homes, work 9–5s, or do whatever it is that we do daily...
“Is this worship?” That’s not a thought I expected to have nearing the end of my first 15K race, but there it was. As I watched seagulls soaring overhead and one foot fell in front of the other, my reasoning went like this:...
“Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.” As a child, it often seemed like this command was about attending church services and not doing certain things we did on other days of the week. But what does it mean to remember the Sabbath? Is...
Your email address has been added
Mitch Chase
John Andrew Bryant
Sandra Glahn
Scott Harrower
Elliot Ritzema
Stephen Steele
Jon Pratt
Tobin Perry
Mark Brians
Sean McGever
Matthew Stanley
Layton Talbert
Loraena Tuttle
Mary DeMuth
David P. Barshinger
Mark Ward
Michael F. Bird
Mary Jahnke
Kelley Mathews
Matthew Harmon
Ryan Lytton
Zach Hollifield
Bryan Blazosky
Elyse Fitzpatrick
Gregg Allison
Harold L. Senkbeil
Portia Collins
Jessica Clark