This past weekend my sermon in Proverbs focused on what Solomon has to say about marriage. In talking to husbands and wives about marriage, I found myself spending some time in Proverbs 31. I walked into this passage of Scripture with a little bit of trepidation because over the years I have seen how many women find this passage to be overwhelming and intimidating. If you Google “I Hate the Proverbs 31 Woman,” you will find many posts by women... Read more
“The Biblical Necessity of Judging Others” Our culture loves to quote Matthew 7:1 as a way of silencing Christians for their critiques of wayward morality. Unfortunately, many Christians wrongly quote this verse to other believers who are called false doctrine to account or pointing out where people are not walking in step with what it means to follow Jesus. David Prince explains what this verse does mean and what it doesn’t mean. “The entire Sermon on the Mount requires moral... Read more
One night when I was in college, I preached in a town not far from my school and spent the night in a church-owned house. I rarely sleep well the first night I stay in a new place and this problem was only compounded by the fact that I was the only person staying in this large and unfamiliar house. Throughout the night I heard a noise that sounded like the front door opening and closing. Rather than getting up... Read more
I can’t remember the last time I heard someone tell Christians to, “preach the Gospel to yourself.” This phrase, which was everywhere four or five years ago, seems to be disappearing from the scene. This is unfortunate because Christians need to hear the Gospel every day and consistently remind themselves of it. The good news that Jesus died in our place and was raised from the dead to bring us back to God through faith alone in his name never... Read more
You can tell a lot about a culture by what they put in “scare quotes.” This year I have seen “conscience” and “religious liberty” more times than I can count. What’s interesting about these two particular phrases is that I’ve seen my more liberal friends using “religious liberty” and my conservative friends using “conscience.” In both cases, they have seen people marching outside of the mainstream and they use the scare quotes to mock the reasons they give for not... Read more
“A Few Tips for Raising Boys” I need all the help I can when it comes to raising my children, so I was thankful to see some solid advice from David Murray on raising sons. “Be patient. This is perhaps the greatest challenge to us today. We expect instant results from our teaching and our discipline, but usually the fruit takes many years to even show a little green shoot. In the meantime, impatience, anger, and bad temper can destroy... Read more
We live in times of unprecedented biblical illiteracy. In this post from earlier this year, Al Mohler works through concerning statistics about the state of biblical knowledge among American Christians. The conclusions he discusses remind us of an inescapable truth- Christians must read the Bible more than they do at the present time. It would be wise for every Christian to read the whole Bible at least once a year. There are exceptions to this suggestion, but they would be... Read more
Last week The Atlantic ran an interview with a woman who decided to walk away from her career in the early 1970’s and instead devote herself to being a stay-at-home mom. They asked her if she thought her children would take the same path she did and she talked about one of her sons who doesn’t want children. She explained that he has a job he loves and he believes that, “children are too much work.” This man is right;... Read more
I love studying and reading about history, but one unfortunate trend I have noticed is that the study of history is really just the study of human conflict. For all of history, people have been striving with each other for power, possessions, and revenge. Lest we think that the “common people” are different than our leaders, we should do a simple look back over the course of our lives and see the damaged and broken relationships we have left in... Read more
“The Church Needs the Bible” I’ll share a couple of posts on this issue today, but the church seems to be losing its grasp on the necessity of Scripture for its life and doctrine. Erik Raymond helpfully argues that the church needs the Bible to be the center of everything we do. “Christians who are being shaped by what the Bible says about the church will demand that the Word be central to everything that is done. There must be preaching... Read more
One Degree to Another
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