Mark BriansShowing kindness to the sick from a distance—paying bills, meal trains—is surely not wrong, but what is interesting about the biblical command to visit the sick is the emphasis Scripture places on embodied presence. I was hungry and you gave me...
Kelley MathewsShuffling along the dusty paths of ancient Israel, travelers and residents would inevitably stumble upon piles of rocks. A particular pile near Gilgal, however, showed evidence of being constructed with purpose. The mighty warrior Joshua had...
Tobin PerryNothing gets to the heart of who God is more than his generosity. From the first chapters of Genesis—when God creates the world for humanity to steward—to the last chapters of Revelation—where God recreates the world for humanity—God gives. God...
Kyle BeutlerEaster Sunday is right around the corner. As you prepare for your service, meditating on the glory of the cross, take a look at these Good Friday and Easter worship songs and hymns. Some are traditional, some are contemporary, and some are somewhere...
Jason HoutsmaI don’t know a single worship leader who doesn’t want more solid musicians on their worship team. Identifying those musicians through an audition process is the first step to getting them there. But how can you set new worship team members up for...
Vern PoythressAre there analogies to the Trinity? If so, what? Sometimes when people talk about analogies for the Trinity, they are exploring analogies from within the world that might help them better to understand the Trinity, or at least to illustrate the...
Elliot RitzemaLoneliness 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...
Benjamin FischerAs interest in traditional churches and liturgy has grown among evangelicals, there is also growing curiosity about liturgical terms and actions such as confession, absolution, and benediction. Because the word “absolution” has changed in meaning...
Mary JahnkeSometimes the easiest tricks are the best. You know, the ones that make you wonder it has been all your life. Proclaim has some juicy tricks, too. (Proclaim is presentation software designed for churches. With it, anyone on your team—even...
Richard LintsWhat is idolatry? Idolatry is seeking ultimate security and significance in that which is not ultimate. It is also an inversion of the original relationship between the Creator and the human creature. Man and woman were created as images of God...
Brad KellyGrace is generally understood as a gift: the favor or kindness one person gives to another. Grace is, therefore, generally understood to be something that is not earned or deserved. Your paycheck is not grace. Your boss is not expecting a thank-you...
Christopher KouWe call ourselves Christians. This name was first given to us in the city of Antioch. It distinguished the disciples of Jesus—those who professed him to be the Messiah or the Christ—from other Jews of the day. Christians continue to be identified by...
Robby LockettIt’s a very catchy song. A mysterious minor key, a melody that sticks in your ear, cadences that just ache their way to resolution. It is also ubiquitous—and received uncritically by many who hear it. The song Mary, Did You Know? is as much a...
Stephen SteeleCharles 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...
Jon PrattWhat 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...
Kirk E. MillerWriting and delivering well-communicated, biblically faithful sermons demands our study and energy. But having the right tools can help us in that effort. In this article, we’ll survey some of the best tools and resources available to preachers in...
Wendy WidderIf someone or something has ever put the fear of God in you, it likely wasn’t a positive experience. And you’d be happy if it never happened again. That cultural idiom is resoundingly negative. But the Bible calls the fear of the Lord the beginning...
Sandra GlahnLife 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...
David P. BarshingerThe 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...
Mark WardWhat 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...
Peter KrolOne of the greatest threats to our study of the Bible is our familiarity with God’s Word. When we believe we already know something, we tend to stop laboring to understand it. Familiarity thereby breeds presumption. And when presumption reaches full...
Daniel K. EngThe Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7) contains some of the most memorable sayings of Jesus: Love your enemies. Seek first the kingdom of God. The Lord’s Prayer. Do not judge. Figures like Mahatma Ghandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. were heavily...
Jeremy D. BlaschkeDiscovered in the sparse wetland environments of northeastern Australia, one remarkable species of frog swallows its own fertilized eggs, sending them to what seems to be their digestive doom. But by transforming this normally hostile environment...
A former coworker of mine, now retired, a very sharp editor and faithful Bible reader, sends me occasional Bible questions. She sent one the other day about the alleged secret meaning of God’s name, YHWH.
Mitch ChaseCreation is there, and it is not silent. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1), the floods lift up their voice (Ps 93:3), the rivers clap their hands (Ps 98:8), and the mountains praise the Lord (Ps 148:9). But amid the shouting and...
Daniel StevensThere are many, many options for reading and studying the Greek New Testament. There are more studies, editions, and tools available to the student or scholar than ever before. Manuscripts are available at a click. Surveys of historical opinion are...
Matthew HarmonWhen 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...
Wyatt GrahamIn 2 Corinthians 3:17, the apostle Paul writes, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Two immediate questions come to mind. What does “the Lord is Spirit” mean? What sort of freedom does the Spirit give...
Jonathan ShirkOn every page of the Bible are words of comfort for our souls, but how those words comfort us is not always immediately clear. The more we understand the meaning of a passage and how it connects to the grand redemptive story of Scripture, the more...
Rhyne PutmanOpen your social media feed or turn on the news, and you will quickly recognize that we live in a fractured society, one that is deeply divided by competing worldviews and ideologies. In this fallen and broken world, it comes as no surprise when...