There is a scene in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Part 2, Chapter 22), where Tolstoy uses the innocent response of an eight-year old boy to the wickedness of the presence of Vronsky in his mother’s circle of friends. It is a brilliantly written scene, powerful in its picture and effective in its movement of the plot. … More Children as a Compass for Goodness
Sunday Afternoon Musings Knowing the true source of power in preaching is too often forgotten. Let’s pray for the pastors of America to always remember . . . “A certain preacher whose sermons converted many souls received a revelation from God that it was not his sermons or works by all means but the prayers … More Sunday Musings for a Dying Nation
Elections reveal the priorities of a people. People vote for what they want. Politicians make promises. People believe them or at least believe them more than they do the other guy and vote for what they want. The population has hopes and fears and the politicians play to both. Proverbs 23:1-3 1 When you sit … More Elections Reveal the Priorities of a People
Analogies are helpful and here is a good one from a godly leader who now lives with Jesus. Jerry Bridges was a long time staff member with the Navigators, a discipleship ministry that started in the military but has expanded in to worldwide discipling movement. Wise words from Jerry Bridges and his classic book The … More The Relationship Between Farming and Holiness
Today, I took a phone call from an African-American Pastor in the Chicago suburbs with grave concerns over the coming election. He had some serious questions. I love him. He is a friend. I have preached a number of times in his church. And we have been friends for almost 35 years. But I don’t … More American Christians, Listen Up
This post started when someone commented on an old blog post about a bibliography about church planting that I posted in 2010! (That is ancient in the blogosphere.) Anyway, when that bibliography was updated in 2021, I included some of the comments below. But in reading that 2021 post, I thought there was room for … More A Short Apologetic for Broader Reading Patterns
Christmas was on the horizon. For seven months, Bonhoeffer had been leading the soon to be outlawed preachers seminary at Finkenwalde. He was pioneering a seminary that in many ways was the pattern of the seminary I attended in California. A community of scholars living as closely together as they could, and studying together for … More Bonhoeffer on the Gospel at Christmas Time
Today I had an early morning appointment and on the drive to it I listened to a portion of John Piper’s short mini-biography of David Brainerd. I have been aware of Brainerd and of Jonathan Edwards Life of Brainerd almost since the time I became a believer in Christ. He has been a “hero from … More Embarrassed to Announce
I’ve written about this before here. There is an insidious and popular teaching that has infiltrated the church in our age. It fits the psychological moment of our age. It fits the counseling bent of our culture. it fits the well meaning desire of people seeking to comfort someone (or themselves) after they have acknowledged … More Stop Telling People to Forgive Themselves. (Part 2)
It’s been about 25 years since an eye problem I suffered through in my early thirties began to produce what was eventually diagnosed as “night blindness”. I first began to notice that I couldn’t see stars at night. Today, if my wife and I are out, she normally drives on the way home if the … More Night Blindness Parallell
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