“For anyone who is about to enter upon this walk of life needs to explore it all thoroughly beforehand and only then to undertake this ministry. And why? Because if he studies the difficulties beforehand he will at any rate have the advantage of not being taken by...

Note: The language of "the soul in paraphrase" comes from the Poet George Herbert (1593–1633). He used it as a way to shed light on all the complex feelings and emotions that overwhelm a person who pours out his heart to God....

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it (Numbers 12:1–2)....

“But for the searching and right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp, so far as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word. One cannot possibly understand the...

One of my favorite blogs to post each year is my "Top Ten." Well, here are my top ten books, with a few extras thrown in for fun. Enjoy . . . and happy reading! Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. Hankins spends the bulk of the...

“Pain or trials are God-ordained ways to expose self-deception. They are an integral part of the Christian life and the means by which self-deception is thwarted and self-knowledge gained. Trials force us to face reality without avoiding it through diversion” ~ Joseph...

No One’s Good At Everything My oldest son Anthony enjoyed wrestling . . . until he lost. The fact that I was the one teaching him—someone who went 3 and 2 in high school, with 2 of my victories coming by way of forfeit from my opponents—probably didn’t help....

“Assumptions about the way God relates to the world lie behind every doctrine in systematic theology. The decision one makes as to how to conceive this relation is arguably the single most important factor in shaping one’s theology” ~ Kevin J. Vanhoozer[1] “Our Lord...

This is a letter I wrote to an aspiring pastor in seminary. Dear seminarian, I’m ashamed to admit that I was bored to tears during my “Interpersonal Communications” class in seminary. The only thing worse than the boredom was the pain in my jaw from my excessive...

Readers of major newspapers have been barraged recently by numerous authors rightly calling on politicians to tone down their political discourse. Of course, all of us--not just politicians--need to practice greater restraint in this area. (As I’ve written before,...