Category: CHRISTIAN LIFE
In Hope You Have Been Saved: Suffering and Realistic Eschatology
I spoke with a friend last week, a man who has shown godly perseverance through a lot of health problems. But now he’s facing a new problem: his kids are suffering chronic pain. This has been tough on his family, he admitted to me, and tough...
The Hard Road is Where You’ll Find the Lord
Recently, there has been a lot of construction downtown where I live. Cones, dusty white rock, makeshift fences and lots of expensive equipment have lined the streets for months. This makes it difficult to drive near the downtown square, very difficult actually, because most of the...
Bearing with the Failings of the Weak
A confident man once invited the most inexperienced person in the church out for evangelism at a local park. On the drive over, they prayed and strategized a few conversation starters. The inexperienced member remained a bit fuzzy on what passages of Scripture to reference, and...
The Friendships You Can’t Keep
Yes, friends you have are SO important . . . and your family. But what about the friendships you can’t seem to keep? First, make sure you are not the problem. I once knew a couple who owned a bookstore. You had to walk between them...
The Lot of Man vs. The Legacy of Christ
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting...
Talk about Others the Way You Want Others to Talk about You
A friend and her husband recently told me the story of how they met and married. One day, sometime before they moved into a serious relationship, he called her about something completely unrelated. The phone picked up, but he soon realized that it had answered by...
Overcoming Self-Consciousness
Self-consciousness is a destroyer of authentic Christian experience. We’ve all been singing in church when all of a sudden the thought races by: “Look at me here singing. I’m enjoying this.” And from that moment on your joy in singing is somehow less real than it...
Three Non-negotiables for Christians In the Upcoming Presidential Election
It is a blessing to live in a country where citizens are free to participate in the political process, deciding through a voting system who governs and, to some degree, how they govern. It is also a reality that even this comparatively good system is not...
Paraphrasing Scripture as a Way to Meditate
Like a beautiful landscape or a good song, the riches of biblical literature can be experienced in multiple ways. You can read it closely, pencil in hand. You can memorize it, mulling over the verses. You can listen to it taught. Or you can simply lie...
Production or Virtue?
We are fanatics for productivity. Some of us are like miniature corporations ticking off our project objectives and meeting our target points. And for many, productivity is the canon for self-evaluation. I started to realize this about myself early in my marriage when I would get...
