Knowing When to Speak Up and Knowing When to Shut It
“Sometimes the way of wisdom is not to say anything until the appropriate time.”
“The great temptation that we face as Christian people is to talk too much, and to talk a lot about spiritual things to people who are not ready to hear it too much. And when you’re up close and personal, whether it’s with your unbelieving husband or your children who are going through a rebellious... Continue Reading
4 Reasons Spurgeon Died Poor
Charles Spurgeon could have been one of the richest millionaires in London. Instead, he died poor.
Spurgeon possessed an attitude of stewardship, not ownership. Spurgeon believed the God who called him would equip him. His finances reflect an attitude of stewardship, not ownership. “Our confidence is that God will supply all our means, and he has always done so hitherto” (Lectures to My Students 1:vii). Charles Spurgeon could have been one of... Continue Reading
Faulty Focus: Placing Our Trust in Earthly Princes Who Cannot Save or Transform
Absolutely no one but God is worthy of our trust for now and eternity.
Trump’s morality would certainly causes this writer pause. But I wonder if the real stumbling block for many of us this presidential season is that we expect our “saviors” to be moral, you know, like us. Biblically speaking, our problem is not that we lack people with better morals in whom we can place our... Continue Reading
Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators
The psychological origins of waiting (... and waiting, and waiting) to work
A golden credential is no guarantee of success, and in the process of trying to secure one for their kids, parents are depriving them of what they really need: the ability to learn from their mistakes, to be knocked down and to pick themselves up—the ability, in other words, to fail gracefully. That is probably... Continue Reading
Churches Reaching Millennials: Causes For Celebration And Concern
What can we learn from the research about the churches that are effectively reaching millennials?
The Present at the Expense of the Eternal In the chapter on taking Jesus’s message seriously, the researchers say “there was very little focus on going to heaven and hardly any talk of hell. Salvation was a major theme, but a kind of salvation that is more focused on life in the present than something... Continue Reading
The Devil and The Dunk Tank
Satan devours men with his cunning and his deceptiveness; he appeals our weakness of the flesh urging us to react in sin rather than in the Spirit.
Satan wins when he gets you and me to take our eyes off of Christ and to stop walking in the confidence of Christ’s death, resurrection and power over sin. He cannot destroy the whole Church, so he pulls in the individual Christian who’s forgotten to be watchful and sober. Just like the dunk-tank clown,... Continue Reading
John Knox on Predestination
John Knox’s sustained defense of the sovereignty of God in predestination.
It is, in short, a sustained defence of the sovereignty of God in predestination. Quite what led Knox to focus his only major theological treatise on predestination has been a matter of some dispute. Some have held that Knox was motivated to write it to restore himself to favour with one of his spiritual mentors... Continue Reading
California Governor Signs Bills Aimed At First Amendment Freedoms
New laws target Christian colleges and pro-life advocates who infiltrate abortion mills
The bill Brown signed requires schools applying for exemptions from the state’s Higher Education Act and Title IX to post that information on campus and include it in communications with prospective and current students, faculty, and staff. Schools must also report those exemptions to the California Student Aid Commission, which will post a list of... Continue Reading
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities Adopts New Membership Policy
Plan grants pathway for return of three schools willing to hire staff in same-sex marriages
The new policy proposed by a membership task force includes six criteria the council will use to align institutions in one of three associational categories: governing membership, associate membership, or collaborative partnership. All three require CCCU executive and board endorsements for acceptance. Governing members, the only ones who can vote, must meet all six criteria:... Continue Reading
Core Foundational Practices of Discipleship
Maturity in Christ should be the aim in discipleship, not proselytes to a denomination or zealots for a cause.
Notice that Paul stresses that discipleship is done in the context of the church with the influence of many others. Thus, examples and commands abound in the New Testament of how the body of Christ ministers to one another and participates in the disciple making process. A grandmother and mother first trained Timothy in the... Continue Reading