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Trying to tame sin rather than killing it is as silly as people making pets out of predatory animals. I once read an article with the headline, “Pennsylvania Woman Killed by Pet Bear.” This woman had raised a black bear named Teddy from cubhood, and for nine years, there were no incidents. But then, one day, as she was cleaning his cage, the bear mauled her.

Salvation through Jesus Christ does not distinguish by ethnicity, economic background, education level, religious history, or moral blamelessness. Everyone who calls on God’s name will be saved. Romans 10:12–13 says, “Since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (CSB).

The question about the cessation or continuation of special revelation has very practical ramifications for the Christian life, for God’s special revelation carries great authority. When people ascribe that authority to mystical experiences, the results are damaging to their spiritual lives, sometimes tragically so.

Time Well Spent? If someone observed an average day in your life, how would they see you spend your time? How much of your time is given to TV, Facebook, YouTube, podcasts, hobbies, and housework? How much time do you devote to Bible reading?

Most of the new Christians in the early church were Jews, and Jews had been raised to believe that obedience to the law was how you got close to God and obtained favor from him. After these Jews (called Judaizers) came to faith in Christ, they still kept some of this old law mentality, because—as we all know—old habits die hard. So, they taught that in addition to faith in Christ, real believers needed to make themselves acceptable to God by forcing themselves to obey the law. By keeping the commandments, they believed, you could transform yourself into the kind of person God wanted you to be. Chief among their concerns was the Old Testament command to be circumcised, which, for 1,500 years, had been the primary distinguishing mark of the Jews. The Apostle Paul calls what the Judaizers were teaching a different gospel (Galatians 1:6), a perverted gospel (v. 7), and a contrary gospel (v. 8).,,

Most pastors are more than happy for someone else to choose the songs on Sunday morning. With sermon preparation, counseling, and countless other responsibilities, shouldn’t someone else worry about what the congregation will sing? While I understand the difficult demands of being a pastor, I want to encourage pastors to be involved in the selection of songs for corporate worship. Levels of engagement may differ (based on a number of factors), but it’s not appropriate for pastors to disengage completely. After all, there’s truth to the saying, “We are what we sing.” The songs we sing together shape our thoughts of God, the gospel, and the way we see the world. In fact, singing to one another is a mark of the Spirit’s filling (Ephesians 5:18–19) and the word of Christ dwelling in us richly (Colossians 3:16). With this in mind, I want to share six imperatives I’ve come to value in the selection of songs for corporate worship. Then I’ll describe how we put these principles into practice for a Sunday service at my church. Six Imperatives for Selecting Songs...

Science is an amazing thing! It’s enabled us to transcend so many of our previously existing barriers, from being able to walk on the moon to being able to carry on a live conversation with someone on the opposite side of the planet, from helping us know what makes fevers run hot to knowing what makes stars hot, from giving us the flashlight to the strobe light to the blacklight. It’s an amazing thing, but unfortunately, many seem dedicating to pitting science against Christianity and vice versa.On the one hand, you have the atheists who have tried to monopolize science as theirs and nobody else’s (Their symbol is an atom for Pete’s sake). On the other hand, you have Christians who insist that a strict, literal, face value reading of Genesis is the only way to read it, and if you deviate from the 7 24-hour day view, you’re a man pleaser and a compromiser. The Bible and Science both talk about our origins, so it’s no wonder that people would wonder if they’re simpatico. I would affirm that there is no conflict between God’s world and God’s word. There may be a conflict between science and theology, but not between the world and The Bible. Science and theology are both interpretations of God’s world and God’s Word respectively. If the universe and The Bible have the same author, then

Bible study is not the same thing as Bible reading. If Bible reading is like raking for leaves, Bible study is like digging for diamonds. The Christian life calls for both. When we study the Bible, we are on a quest for meaning — and not just any meaning, but God’s meaning through the Bible’s human authors. Discovering God’s meaning may require hard work (digging for diamonds always does), but the journey will leave us with deeper knowledge, more Christlikeness, and a stronger sense of God’s beauty in his book...

A while back, my good friend Tony Vance sent me an article and asked for my feedback. After reading only the title, “Why Are You Still A Christian, After Reading This? (Thorough)”, I answered: because Jesus. With a little prodding, (and some late night facepalming), I worked through Ben Alonzo’s piece, and jotted down some responses to his work. Shake Your Faith: The Truth In this section, Ben points out he was a hardcore Christian “until I started questioning what was actually in the Bible.” My first response to Mr. Alonzo, “Just how ‘hardcore’ were you if Bible study wasn’t even a part of your Christianity?” Choosing Jesus was a hard decision for me. In fact, just yesterday I shared with some close friends that I believe being a faithful Christian is the hardest job in the world. Bill Hybels in his book, “Courageous Leadership”, recounts a speech he gave to a group of Harvard business students. One student asked how church leadership had anything to do with secular success. “You are the best and brightest this world has to offer. You are going to do great things and make the best widgets and gizmos ever known. But the church is charged with changing the world.”...

As a Christian, I come across many challenges to my worldview. Some challenges come from those in other worldviews; others come from other Christians. One of the most common challenges from outside is to God’s existence. One argument observes all the evil and suffering in the world and asks how a good God could allow it. Many Christians also struggle with this very issue. They know that God exists, but they see suffering in their own lives and wonder why God is allowing so much. Because of this, some question whether God is even there, or if they’re not willing to go that far if God is even good. This was articulated to me very clearly not too long ago: “The story of Job is just a chess game between God and Satan, and my life is no different.”...