"Watch your life and doctrine closely"
Human beings are people of extremes. The pages of history give testimony to our ability to diagnose a problem and then overcorrect to an opposite error. Children raised under the pressures of legalism often gravitate toward licentiousness. Reacting against an overemphasis in logic, some have gone to the opposite error of relative truth. The church…
Everyone seems so busy in our fast-paced society. There’s always more work to do or places to go. We fill our calendars with appointments and tasks while marveling at our administration skills. We complain about our lack of rest but we seem more afraid of down time, and the threat of burn-out always looms. God…
Sometimes a specific moment hits you hard. Maybe while playing with your kids and hearing them giggle and squeal with laughter you are immediately struck with a deep gratitude. Your whole life seems to flash before your eyes in an instant and you can’t imagine ending up in a better situation than here in this…
The hardest part of preaching is living. I can’t stand before God’s people and proclaim God’s Word without being painfully aware that I’m a wretched sinner. How can I teach others when I don’t have it figured out myself? Why should someone listen to my exhortation to Christlikeness when I fall so far from it?…
It was the strangest of times, it was the most frustrating of times. How else could one revise Dickens’ famous opening line to describe our current cultural era? Foundational ideas and understandings are changing at lightening pace. The majority opinion from twenty years ago regarding marriage is now viewed as oppressive and unwelcome in public…
I wipe the sweat from my forehead with my dirty hands as I look with a feeling of accomplishment. In the ground before me is a small square of tilled up dirt that, Lord willing, will soon flourish with green plants bearing delicious tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, and many other healthy vegetables for my…
We call the lion “The King of the Jungle” for a reason. Its speed, strength, and stalking abilities strike fear into the rest of the animal kingdom. However, many of its prey are larger or faster, forcing the lion to compensate for these disadvantages through strategy and patience. Generally, it’s the lionesses who hunt to…
By this time of the year, many well-meaning New Year’s resolutions to read through the Bible in a year have derailed. Most make it through the familiar stories in Genesis. The miracles and sheer power of God on display makes reading through Exodus a breeze. However, many would-be travelers have fallen off the reading wagon…
It’s been nearly a year since my last conversation with Granny, but her final words still haven’t left me. Last summer, after a long battle with her sickness, her health began rapidly declining. What I least wanted to happen was near, so I dialed the phone knowing it would be our last conversation. As we…
If faith is the conviction of something we can’t see (Hebrews 11), doubt seems contrary to faith. Yet, doubt is something most believers can relate to. Not necessarily doubting the existence of God, though for some this might be the case, but doubting whether or not God sees us, cares about us, or continues to…