As I have gotten older, I’ve learned to be suspicious of anything offering a fast, easy, and good result. Such promises frequently appear in advertisements and online click-bait articles: “I lost 50 lbs. on this diet plan in just six weeks!;” “Killer tips from young entrepreneur who made 500K in just three years;” or “My…
One of the most dangerous ideas to the soul is that a person can sin now and just repent later to avoid judgment. This thought fortifies many unbelievers in their refusal to submit to the gospel but also trips up genuine believers. We Christians can so easily think, “I know I shouldn’t say these hateful…
I am really grateful for my wife. I am grateful for her for many reasons, but one is that she is really good at noticing little beautiful things. We go on walks together, and on these walks I am constantly surprised at how many pretty blossoms, cute animals, and interesting architectural details she is able…
Thinking more on Pastor Babij’s Sunday sermon about the coming day of the Lord, I found myself pondering the apostle John’s intriguing statement about antichrist in 1 John 2:18, Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that…
When we look around at the world today, it would be easy for us to come to the conclusion that the eschatological end is very near. Western society has reached new levels of celebrating evil, persecution is rising in America and is already prevalent throughout the world, and the church has largely abandoned the true…
As I think more this week about the sermon and Ecclesiastes 5:13-20, I’m reminded of how we Christians must guard against a certain kind of material-spiritual philosophical dualism. One idea popular in the ancient Greco-Roman world was that the material world was inherently inferior or evil and that spiritual world was inherently superior or good.…
Life is full of data, whether historical facts, personal experiences, or scientific measurements. Data by itself, though, does not say anything; all data must be interpreted to have meaning or helpful application to life. As we all know, people frequently have differing interpretations of data. And why? Because people use differing starting points for their…
In light of the new baptisms and new memberships at our church, I have been thinking again about God’s design for the church according to Ephesians 4:7-16 and Romans 12:4-8. Fundamentally, the church is the spiritual body of Christ; Christ is the head and Christians are the various body parts. Though all within the body…
One important lesson I learned in seminary relates to how we must be careful not to overestimate our own spiritual ability. A professor and some students and I were talking about how a prominent Christian leader at that time had been vacillating on a hot-button issue in the church instead of taking a firm biblical…
Since we did not have a sermon this past Sunday, I thought I would share something today on the passage the elders recommended for family study: Matthew 13:1-23 and the Parable of the Sower. One issue that can confuse modern readers of this parable has to do with whether more than one of the soils…