On a Thursday morning, twenty-one years ago last week, I woke up thinking I was a Christian but dealing with the growing realization that there was little fruit of conversion in my life. Later that afternoon, sitting under the preaching of God’s word, I came to the realization that I didn’t know Jesus and called out for him to save me. Then, the light came on. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. A flood of joy... Read more
Many of life’s most important lessons cannot be learned in a classroom. This is especially true of life in the ministry. While Seminary can give you tools for wrestling with the meaning of the biblical text, there’s little it can do to prepare you for the rigors of everyday life in the local church. In 15 Things Seminary Couldn’t Teach Me, fifteen pastors share lessons they learned in the trenches. This little volume, edited by Collin Hansen and Jeff Robinson, contains... Read more
At the beginning of 2018, I had never heard of Jordan Peterson, but that changed drastically over the last few months. Like many, he first came to my notice because of his interview with Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman. She began the interview by asking Peterson why he tells men they need to grow up. As he started explaining why it was good for all of society to have strong, competent men, she started peppering him with adversarial questions.... Read more
Last week, many applauded a father whose son had been banned from the bus for bullying other children. The father forced his son run to school in the rain while he drove behind him. Then, he posted about his creative discipline on Facebook. The father received praise for his return to “common sense” parenting and for disciplining his son instead of making excuses for him. Indeed, there are reasons we should applaud this father. He accepted responsibility for his son’s... Read more
For the last three years, I have been slowly making my way through a biography of each American President. While I have not completed the journey, (I am 2/3 of the way through,) some important lessons have emerged from my reading. There are many lessons to learn from the courageous acts of the men who have served as President of the United States and also many to be learned from their flaws and shortcomings. There are many little nuggets I... Read more
Many times, Christians use unfortunate language when talking about our jobs. For some reason, we have often called work that is not for a church “secular work;” in much the same way that we call music not done by “Christian” artists, “secular music.” When we call work “secular work,” we imply that it is somehow inherently unspiritual. However, when we read our Bibles, we see that God created work before man fell into sin. Work existed before the ministry existed.... Read more
One of the questions I frequently hear asked of those who read a lot is how they “find time” to read. We’ll deal with the fallacy of “finding time” soon, but making the time to read is not as difficult as you would think. It is simply a question of making reading a priority and taking advantage of natural breaks in your schedule. Here are five tactics that you can use to make more time to read. Prioritize Your Reading... Read more
We live in a time when most of us are disconnected from the communities in which we live. We don’t know our neighbors, rarely serve in our city, and the cast majority of the connections that we have there are digital. This disintegrating of community leaves people lonely and alienated, leads us to treat our neighbors with suspicion, and means that fewer people are hearing about Jesus. For followers of Jesus, remaining isolated from the communities in which we live... Read more
Christians often struggle to understand how to read Proverbs in light of the whole Bible and in light of the Gospel. Tim and Kathy Keller provide a real service to the church in their new devotional book God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life. This book contains a devotion from Proverbs for each day of the year and helps us grasp how to read individual proverbs in light of the whole book. (There are some devotions from Job and Ecclesiastes.) Also, they... Read more
Every parent knows the experience. You’re tired and your children ignore your every word. You told them over and over, but they persevere in their obstinacy. Then you do what seems like the only option– you lose your temper. You lose control and give full vent to everything you have been thinking. A lot of times, this makes them get back in line, so it feels like you have accomplished your mission. They got the message that you had enough... Read more
One Degree to Another
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In