We too often have a simplistic understanding of sin and judgment. This understanding is true as far as it goes, and is consistent with the teaching of Scripture that a man reaps what he sows. This is obviously true, but Scripture also encourages us to think past this point. It is also true that a …
Sanctified Apathy
The word apathy has all kinds of negative connotations, and rightly so. But I would like to commend the word for at least one positive application if for no other reason than to make us think about how we interact with the culture around us. The word means to “not care,” but it also carries …
Wise Turks and Foolish Christians
Charles Colson has done a lot of good stuff, and God bless him as he continues. But among his many good works, he has recently contributed to one the central muddles of our times. He did that here. In this Breakpoint commentary, he was responding to secular critics who are hyperventilating over the rising American …
Impatient and Restless
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Our Father and great God, we assemble before You as You have summoned us to do. We gather in the name of Jesus, in accordance with Your Word. We are brought together in the power of Your Spirit, poured out so liberally …
The Shrine of Endless Adolesence
More than once, a reluctant young boy at the dinner table has been exhorted to eat his lima beans, or his spinach, so that “he can grow up big like his daddy.” Growth is one of the goals that eating serves. There are many other blessings associated with eating and drinking, but growth is certainly …
Grow Up
You have heard from us that God is triune, and, by God’s grace, you will hear it many more times. Whenever this happens, there is a danger of whatever it is being emphasized becoming an “in-group buzzword,” or some “denominational distinctive.” The fact that the teaching is biblical in many cases does not even slow …
Peter’s Boast
Once a correspondent asked C.S. Lewis why he was not a Roman Catholic. Because he did not want to sin against charity, he declined to answer in any detail, but there was an aspect of his response that would be surprising to many of us. “By the time I had really explained my objection to …
Perfectly Legal
Scripture teaches us that unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But this language suggests that the operation is not effortless. In order to sin, and in order to persist in it, we have to fight against something that is true about ourselves. We are created in the image of God, and despite the fall into …
Tintagel
Just a couple of quick pictures from the UK. As I have mentioned before, my oldest daughter and family have been at Oxford for the year while Ben has been studying there. And while Ben was with the NSA college tour, the rest of the troops recently went to Tintagel, where Geoffery of Monmouth placed …
Let Us Make a Name
“And it is this solidarity in a name, this unity in separation from God, which was to keep men from ever again being separated on earth. And the sign and symbol of this enterprise is the city they wanted to build together” (Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 16).