Previous Posts

Prayer on the Third Day of the Week And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. – Genesis 1:11-13 When I gave my compost bin a spin today the door... Read this post

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When... Read this post

If by “revival” you mean MORE of the kind of Christianity and Church culture we see right now, a culture in Reformed circles that so disconnects profession of truth from the true possession of Christ that a man can offer a cogent confession of the Faith while shooting up a synagogue in a murderous hail of bullets; a culture that fears and loathes identifying its complicity in a racist past and labels those who care for the outcasts as cultural Marxists; a culture that prides itself on theological precision but is not sure how to talk about or embrace the... Read this post

At the heart of the Christian message are the explosive words of Jesus as he died on a Roman cross in the first century. “It is finished!” he exclaimed (John 19:30)—and at those words, the earth shook, time as we know it split in two, and the relationship between God and people changed forever. In essence, “It is finished” was Jesus’s own declaration that the debt his people owed for their treason against God had been completely satisfied by his perfect life and sacrificial death. Their debt was paid in full. In his love for us, he paid the penalty... Read this post

I’m not an especially good traveler, especially on long fights. One of the wilder experiences I’ve ever had was a flight from New York to Tel Aviv, on which numerous children were very active and very loud. As I tried to get some rest, I was annoyed by one little boy in particular who kept running up and down the aisle, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Abba! Abba!” I remember thinking that his parents ought to get him under control, that his sheer delight in seeking out their attention was driving everyone else a little crazy. Of course,... Read this post

Here are a few lines from various chapters in my new book ‘Indispensable’, available for pre-order from Amazon and scheduled for publication on March 29th. I hope you find these words helpful, and if so, that you’ll tell others about the book so they can benefit too. You may have a weak faith that you wish were stronger, but you have a strong Savior who could not be more powerful. If you are his, it is not because your trust never wavers but because his love never fails. Not everything that Scripture says about Jesus is meant to be easy,... Read this post

“Bring it on!” We probably say ‘Amen’ several times on a Sunday, mostly at the end of a prayer and occasionally in response to something said in a sermon (albeit quietly… we ARE Presbyterians after all!). We probably also deploy ‘Amen’ countless times the rest of the week. What do we mean we say this word? Why does it close all of Paul’s epistles and why do we close our prayers with this word? “Amen” is Near-Eastern and Hebrew in origin and migrated into the Aramaic language, the language Jesus spoke every day. It made its way into the Greek... Read this post

Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would’ve been an atheist if he had known what we know today. —Richard Dawkins, interview with The Guardian At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. —Paul the Apostle Everybody has an opinion on Jesus. He’s unavoidable. He’s so wise and good that even those who don’t confess the faith that he taught want him on their team. What do you make of Jesus? Jesus of Nazareth burst onto the scene around AD 30 in Roman Judea, a small nation dominated by a foreign power and its puppet king. The Jews of Judea were... Read this post

“And they said to me, ‘The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.’ As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open,... Read this post

Central to the discussion of cultural and pastoral issues concerning ministry in the current societal tumult is the matter of identity, specifically in reference to what constitutes identity and on what it is based. This touches on every aspect of human existence and is especially at the core of any discussions regarding human sexuality, even when it is not explicitly noted. ‘Individualism’ is a term first cited by DeToqueville in connection with Enlightenment assertions (broadly considered) about the nature of human personhood, a movement which marks the transition from what Charles Taylor has referred to as the ‘porous self’, in... Read this post