Early in my Christian life, I heard the famous quote from the English pastor and theologian John Owen, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” While that quote may sound a little radical, for any person who truly knows himself, he understands that his sin can kill him. He feels in his bones the havoc that sin reeks on his joy, his walk with the Lord, his relationships and his witness. Dealing with our own personal sin also… Read more

For the better part of two decades, Christians have appealed to emotion and enthusiasm as the driving force behind our spiritual growth. I often think about my senior year of college in the late ‘90s, when one of our campus ministries adopted the slogan “Are you excited?” to motivate Christians throughout the year. There are many ways to motivate me to follow Jesus, but loudly asking me “Are you excited?” before I have finished breakfast is not one of them…. Read more

There aren’t enough songs for sad Christians. I realize most people like to pretend that “sad Christian” is a category that shouldn’t exist, but it does. Have you read the Psalms? Too many of our songs today sound overly triumphalist. We only experience “victory” now. We only see “freedom” and “joy” now. We do experience victory, joy, and freedom in this life, but it is in part and it is not the whole story. Joy in this life is mixed… Read more

We will never truly understand life until we understand that every person in the world wants to be happy. Blaise Pascal summarized this tendency well when he said, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they may employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this… Read more

If you grew up in the United States you have spent your entire life hearing that we are on a progressive march towards a society that is more caring, prosperous, intelligent, and healthy than the societies that preceded it. We mock ideas by appealing to what year it is and marveling that people still hold to what we see as outmoded notions in our wise, sophisticated, and tolerant culture. Any survey of life in our culture in the year 2018… Read more

Have you ever heard someone say something when you were younger and it didn’t make the sense at the time, but over time it made sense to you? I still remember the sunny Sunday afternoon when I was driving in my hometown and listening to John Piper’s biographical sketch of Charles Spurgeon. He focused on how Spurgeon preached through adversity and shared an illustration I shall never forget. He spoke of how the pressures of ministry can create a hall… Read more

A few months ago, I walked through the cemetery where my father is buried. It would be impossible to count the number of times I have walked or driven past that place in my lifetime. It sits next to my old high school. You could throw a rock to it from the house where my grandparents lived in until I was almost thirty. My mother still lives in the house we moved into before I could walk, it’s only half… Read more