Nancy and I are coming to Virginia about a month from now, and looking forward to it. You can check out the conference info here.
A Work in Process
“The desire which we as Christians must battle is not just a ‘plain vanilla,’ morally neutral, biological desire for sex. We are fallen creatures, and even as Christians our redemption is not yet completed. We must still deal with the fact that we will confront desires, coming from within ourselves, which are attractive to us …
But It Doesn’t Help If a Scribe Without Authority Buys a Pair of Oakleys
“What the contemporaneists and emergents have not yet considered, however, is the possibility that such moribund churches are so not because they are doing the wrong things, but because they are doing them incompetently” (Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, p. 32).
Woe to the Pastors
In the beginning are the words. Behind and underneath every civilization are the foundational words. Those words can be false and idolatrous, but when they are believed, they still serve in a foundational way. When they are not believed, that culture has entered a sacrificial crisis. Smoke still ascends from their temples, but no one …
Naming the Problem Rightly
“The problem is not outside ourselves in the x-rated videos, or in the skin magazines, or with the porn on the net, or with Suzy Q sunbathing next door. The problem is within — even within believers. This is simply another way of saying that the problem with pornography is not the pornography” (Fidelity, p. …
It Gets Long After You Lost ‘Em
“I realized then that sermon length is not measured in minutes; it is measured in minutes-beyond-interest” (Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, p. 31).
Kicking One of the Sacred Geese
It should not be surprising that after I have urged the establishment of a mere Christendom for some time, that questions about the First Amendment might arise. It would appear that I am trespassing on the sacred precincts. It would seem that I am strolling across the manicured lawns of the Temple grounds, in order …
Cheerful Hearts and Good Words
INTRODUCTION: We need to begin with the obvious, which is that Scripture teaches that our words affect how we are doing, not to mention t hose around us. But this “obvious” truth can, if unattended, deteriorate into the vagaries of generic uplift. When we speak the good word, it must be a word that is …
Boosters With Stones
The Lord Jesus expresses disbelief that any prophet could die outside Jerusalem (Luke 13:33). In saying this, He speaks from the vantage point of the prophets, and not from the vantage of the Sanhedrin Boosters. It is not Nineveh that stones the prophets, but Jerusalem. It is not Babylon that rejects them, but Jerusalem. It …
Mark and Carolyn
In the institution of marriage, God has created a wonderful balance in the formation of the human race as male and female. This balance is glorious, and we are most grateful for it. It is clear that from the beginning man was meant to go with woman, and that woman was meant to go with …