Ephesians 5:20 teaches us that an essential part of wisdom is "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." The grammar of this verse links it back to 5:18, which indicates that the gratitude Paul describes is a result of being filled with the Spirit. This makes perfect sense, of course, because only ...

In my sermon on Sunday, I disagreed with the popular idea that God is going to burn up this world, but I didn't have time to explain where that view comes from or why it's incorrect. To be fair, there is a biblical basis for that view in 2 Peter 3:7-13. On the surface, that passage really does seem to teach that this whole world--atomic "elements" ...

We find ourselves at the beginning of June, which, in recent years, means that we are about to be bombarded by all manner of sexual perversion along with even more social pressure seeking to normalize that sexual perversion. There has been a fringe "gay pride" movement since the onset of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, but it has slowly become ...

Here are some follow-up thoughts about humility and a particularly dangerous form of false humility that is wreaking havoc among Evangelical Christians. It often goes under the name of "servant leadership". We must be on guard against a sort of false humility that is actually self-centered and self-seeking. What I'm talking about is a spiritualized...

Have you ever wondered why, over the past fifty years, America has had so many professing Christians while our culture has been circling the drain with increasing velocity? How is it possible to have churches on every corner but for those churches to have so little impact in the public square? At the risk of oversimplification, I believe the c...

 What is the cross of Jesus all about? Depends on who you ask. Many evangelical churches in America these days speak of the cross of Jesus primarily, if not exclusively, in terms of His suffering, agony, and death. In popular piety the cross has been turned into a tool to make you feel guilty for how rotten and wretched you. It was your sins, ...

Here's a little thought experiment: could your version of the gospel get you thrown in jail, beaten, accused of treason, or killed? Could you start a riot by publicly proclaiming the gospel? Could any pastors today be accused of turning the world upside-down like Paul was in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9)? What's so scandalous about the ...