Principles for Evangelism The Gospel according to Luke describes what “Jesus began to do and teach” leading up to his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Acts, on the other hand, tells the continuing story of Jesus’s work through the Spirit-empowered church. As...
How do you define “church”? What does being a member of the church mean to you? “Attending meetings, giving my offerings/tithes, casting my vote…” might be a typical answer. But actually, church membership embodies so much more than that. Church is about...
The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven is one of the most important events recorded in the New Testament. But though it occupies an important place in Scripture, it doesn’t get a lot of attention today, even among Christians. My guess is that you probably haven’t...
The most graphic image that Scripture uses for the killing of sin is crucifixion. The cross has rightly stood at the center of Christian theology throughout church history. Crucifixion was so painful that a word was invented to describe it: excruciating, which...
How do you handle temptation? I’m not talking about the fleeting, seemingly benign thought of sin that may hold initial allure, but is easily dismissed (though we should be on guard against these kinds of thoughts, too). No, I’m talking about that moment when you’ve...
Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4), and the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by...
“Redemption” is a rich word and perhaps somewhat unique among the great gospel words in our theological vocabulary, in that it’s a word that easily resonates with unbelievers. Some of our favorite stories, songs, and films are built around the...
In the double interests of going deeper in some of my favorite theologians and trying to strengthen my own prayer life, I've recently been reading John Owen’s work titled, The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer. This 116 page treatise is actually the...
Feedback has been called “the breakfast of champions.” Unfortunately, most of us have a hard time eating it. So often we misinterpret this feedback or constructive criticism as a personal attack, and in pride and anger, we counterattack in self-defense. What we could...
We recently started doing family devotions again. Mark Twain once quipped that to give up smoking was the easiest thing in the world-he knew because he had done it thousands of times. We all know that bad habits are hard to break, and good habits are hard to make. At...
"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (Hebrews...
Most of us don’t like waiting. We are annoyed with lengthy checkout lines at the store, frustrated by long red lights, and (if you live in northern Indiana like me) depressed with the lingering of winter temperatures in the middle of April. But we especially don’t...
John Owen (1616–1683) has a reputation for being hard on sin — and even harder to read. Nineteenth-century Scottish professor John Duncan is famous for assigning Owen to his students with the warning, “Prepare for the knife!” And theologian A.W. Pink said he found...
Pediatricians diagnose some children with FTT (failure to thrive). The causes of FTT are many and varied, including genetics, sickness, and poor nutrition. But the diagnosis itself is given in cases of arrested development — when a child’s growth measurements fall...
Christianity is impossible without humility. John MacArthur has said that humility is “the foundation of all graces” and “the very center of the Christian life.” Calvin called humility “the sovereign virtue - the mother and root of all virtue,” and Jonathan Edwards...