How should you respond to the people who show up at your door on Saturday morning, wanting you to take their literature from the Watchtower Society, or claiming to be Christians from the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints (if they actually come out and tell you)? What about the guy on television who…
Ever since the earliest days of the church, she has faced the threat of false teachers who love to see God’s people deviate into error. The short, one-chapter book of Jude addresses this problem in the first century, and there are abiding principles we need to grasp and practice in the twenty-first century. Contemporary American…
When it comes to God’s Word, how would you describe your “passion level”? Just how interested are you in getting anything from it? There are some professing Christians who, if they were honest, would have to confess they really don’t have any desire to know God’s Word any better than their current shallow understanding. Others…
Peter’s first general epistle is written to Christians who are going through trying times, largely at the hands of others who are hostile to their Christian perspective and manner of life. When someone gives us a hard time, it’s easy to become consumed with desires for revenge or for their physical harm. And then it’s…
Are God, the church building, the Bible, a piece of cross-shaped jewelry Christian “good-luck charms”? Preposterous, you say? Think about it, especially in light of the attitude displayed by Micah (not the prophet!) in Judges 17. These are crazy days in Israel’s history—everyone doing what’s right in his own eyes. The spirit of idolatry has…
When reading the parable of the sower in Luke 8, it’s natural to try to figure out which of the “soils” is truly born again. But actually, that misses the point. Surely we can say that the last type of soil represents a genuine believer’s heart because there’s lasting fruit. But again, the main point…
The national mood the last couple of weeks has involved a mixture of fear, anger, and not a little bit of anxiety. Pretty somber days. I saw it quite evident recently when I turned on Fox News a little before 9. Sean Hannity was in the closing moments of his hour covering the rioting and…
This has happened more times than I would care to remember. We’re at a restaurant, hungry, eager for a good meal. The menu displays photos of select items from the extensive array of options, and each looks delicious—well, most do, anyway. How many times have you ordered a pictured item? You can’t help it, right?…