Category: . . . Regeneration

Can These Bones Live?

In his classic book, The Cross and the Switchblade, David Wilkerson remembers his transition from pastoring in rural Pennsylvania to evangelizing the teenage street gangs of 1950s New York City. One gang, the Mau Maus, figures prominently in the book because of its unusual hardness and...

You Cannot Because You Will Not, But If You Will, You Can

The Bible makes no secret of the fact that God works first in a sinner becoming a Christian. Conversion happens at his initiative, not the sinner’s. “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). The redeemed are those who...

We Must Live With This

“Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed.” (1 Cor 16:22, NET) These are such striking words! Can they really be true? The verse seems to dangle there with no immediately apparent connection to what precedes it or follows. Paul placed this thought...

When the Bible Isn’t Boring Anymore

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” -John 10:27 Jesus Christ knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him (John 10:14). They don’t “know” one another in the sense that they were merely introduced sometime in the past, but they...

The Difference Between Moths and Cockroaches (The Anatomy and Importance of Desire)

What is it that you want the most? What are you irresistibly drawn to? What do you prefer over everything else? These are not inconsequential questions. The answers reveal who (or what) you really are. Believe it or not, the importance of these questions can be...

Babylonian?

I talked with a charter member of the church I attended in another town that Sunday, a church with less-than-conservative views on the Bible. The question I asked was designed not only to give me information, but also to engage my new friend in thinking about...