Of the many fine young men I’ve gotten to know through the ministry of Pro Athletes Outreach (PAO), quarterback Nick Foles stands out as one of those most serious in his Christian faith. (See my past blog on Nick and Case Keenum, as well as some of Nick’s Eagles teammates who know and love Jesus.) Recently Nick’s new book Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure and Overcoming the Odds, was released. As of last Sunday it debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best... Read more
Some people have asked me if our resurrected bodies will shine. They cite two passages: “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43) and “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3, NASB). On the one hand, Jesus didn’t have a halo after His resurrection, and there’s no reason to... Read more
Seeing positive outcomes of some suffering should lead us to trust that God can bring good from all suffering. Consider three people who through suffering became extraordinary: Doctors once thought that Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man,” had elephantiasis, though now they believe he suffered from Proteus syndrome, which causes abnormal growth of bones, skin, and other systems. Joseph was born in England in 1862 and appeared normal until age three. By age eleven, his deformities had grown severe; at that time his mother... Read more
On my bike rides I’ve been listening to the wonderful audio version of a book that deeply affected me when I was a young teenage Christian in the 1970s. It’s J. I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God. (As a printed book or an audio to listen to as you drive or work out, this book is gold.) In an early chapter Packer says this: In A Preface to Christian Theology, John Mackay illustrated two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high... Read more
Here’s an amazing truth: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). God, the Creator of the universe and fountainhead of all marvels, cares for you? Think about that for a few million years. The Lord does not call us merely to release our anxiety to Him, but to willingly cast it upon Him—and not some of it, but all of it. God wants us to trust Him in both the big things and the little things. Worry... Read more
In The Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis portrays two children, a few adults, and a horse transported from Earth to an unknown place. It’s the darkness and silence that precedes the day of Narnia’s creation. They watch in wonder as this beautiful new world is masterfully shaped by the creator, Aslan the lion, who sings it into existence. God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? . . . On what were its footings set, or who laid its... Read more
My friend Barry Arnold pastors Cornerstone Church here in Gresham, Oregon. Several years ago he sent an email to his church regarding prayer. It’s worth quoting: I think our prayers are unbalanced—in the direction of just physical needs. We can and should pray for people with infirmities—but it might be wise to change the emphasis of our prayers from physical healing alone to God accomplishing His purposes in and through afflictions. Here’s a partial list of things the New Testament... Read more
In this two-minute video, teacher and author Jen Wilkin answers the question, “Which book do you wish every Christian would read, and why?” Watch her answer: I agree with Jen—Tozer’s book is an important one for Christians today to read. Why? Because he speaks of the attributes of God, including those we’re tempted to minimize. Our theologically-weak Christian culture desperately needs an infusion of Christ-centered doctrine that encourages us to go deep in knowing and loving God. Tozer writes things like this:... Read more
The 1998 movie What Dreams May Come portrays Heaven as beautiful but lonely, because a man’s wife isn’t there. Remarkably, someone else is entirely absent from the movie’s depiction of Heaven: God. That movie’s viewpoint mirrors numerous contemporary approaches to Heaven which either leave God out or put him in a secondary role. The Five People You Meet in Heaven, a best-selling novel by Mitch Albom, portrays a man who feels lonely and unimportant. He dies, goes to Heaven, and meets five people... Read more
Early women’s rights advocates were prolife, not proabortion. Susan B. Anthony was a radical feminist in her day. Her newspaper, The Revolution, made this claim: “When a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is a sign that, by education or circumstances, she has been greatly wronged.” Another leading feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, commented on abortion this way: “When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property... Read more
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