“There is no such entity as the Judeo/Christian religion. As religions go, there is no way to combine the view that Jesus is the Christ with the idea that He was a fraud, or the claim that He rose from the dead with the counterclaim that He did nothing of the kind, or the idea that the New Testament correctly interprets the Old with the view that it is the Talmud that actually does. So as religions, they do not harmonize at the most basic level.”
Every Gun
“One of the basic rules of firearm safety is that you should treat all guns as if they were always loaded. We are all sexual beings . . . how should younger women be treated? Paul says they should be treated as sisters, with all purity, with all holiness, with all comeliness . . . We call one another brothers and sisters in the Lord. So treat Your fellow church members that way, Paul says. This is a most necessary admonition because, again, every gun is always loaded.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 97-98
Respect Grows
“You cannot teach children to have respect for other cultures by inculcating in them a contempt for their own. A son who honors his own mother deeply is going to understand why another honorable son wants to honor his mother. That makes good sense to him.”
Happening Almost Never
“Answered prayer should not be like a blue comet.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 93
Not the Same Thing at All
“A Christian nation should never be mistaken as being the same thing as a chosen nation. There is no exceptionalism in it.”
And at a Livable Temp
“Fathers, your highest parental priority is to manage and maintain a climate of true fellowship in your home. You’re in charge of the thermostat. Too often, dads are just the thermometer, thinking to themselves, ‘It sure is hot in here.’ But fathers are called to control the temperature of their household.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 88-89
“Staggering” Doesn’t Begin to Describe It
“When Jesus assumed human nature, He did so first as a single cell. The eternal Word of the eternal Father, the who spoke the heavens and earth into existence, took on a body that was the size of the period at the end of this sentence.”
Photo Negative
“Too many Christian parents, because they’ve got their shoes laced way too tight and because they want to be good, conservative, Bible-believing, Reformed types, give their kids a garden of no with the occasional, intermittent, and very reluctant ‘Yeah, okay, I guess so this time. Don’t let it go to your head.’ That is not how God is. And since we are supposed to imitate our Father in heaven, we are supposed to be openhanded.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 87
High Defiance
“Though we call it a silent night, this suckling child was actually the deafening shout of God’s defiance. The principalities and powers, the thrones and dominations, were all going to come to nothing.”
Far Better
“But the secret of the gospel is that grace works better than works do . . . Works are frustrating and impotent. Works collapse under any weight you try to put on them. That’s the issue. Works don’t work. But grace liberates. Grace sets you free to work.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 85