Dads provide heroism in a tangible way for their sons. But that is not all they offer their boys. The strong one. There is tremendous comfort for the boy who has a strong father. He knows that he is safe no matter what. He learns as he grows that this is not as true as he thought, but he still grasps an important truth: he has a protector. He thus learns security. He learns trust. He can sleep well at... Read more

I just started a series on what the natural family means to a boy. First, let’s look at what having a dad means to his son. There are four components that came to mind in thinking over how having a dad affects a son. Here’s the first. The hero. Having a father means a son has a ready-made hero. To a son, a dad is endlessly amazing. When young, the boy is ¼ his dad’s size. Dad can chop wood,... Read more

I recently concluded a series on edification which I hope you enjoyed. Before I jump into my next series of blogs, I want to quickly say that I appreciated the comments of Al and Meghan who followed the edification discussion closely. Al, my childhood pastor from Maine, noted that an eye to edification includes attention to how our choices affect others. I was writing from a slightly different perspective, but that’s an important point. Now on to the next series:... Read more

Okay, so most people who read this blog will never visit the seminary I attend, Southern Seminary. That’s admitted. It may surprise you, then, that I am posting yet another piece of content from the “History of the SBTS” website. This is the last piece I’ll post, but I do hope you’ll check out the site. Even if you never make it to Louisville, you’ll learn much about the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptists and the arresting history behind... Read more

Over the past fifteen months, I’ve had the privilege of working on an overview history of the seminary I attend, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, the seminary was founded in 1859. It’s one of the oldest seminaries in the world and has quite an interesting story behind it. Founded in doctrinal conservatism, the school sagged into liberalism in the twentieth century. The original vision of the school’s founders was only recently restored. In the 1980s and... Read more

Having covered extensively the effects of a “poison-pill” thinking on our own spirituality, I turn now to the way that this affects our daily lives. This blog brings us back to the question that started this whole deal: what is edifying? Here’s the wrap-up blog on this matter. Here are some principles to consider. 1) Be careful. If you know something makes you struggle, be careful about engaging it. I hesitate to say never engage it, because I believe in... Read more

Once in a while, you think to yourself, are the members of the Pure Planet really that good? You’re sure they are, but then you have an unpleasant encounter with them, and you get to wondering. The one who has set the record for most souls witnessed to treats your rudely. The girl who sings in the praise band breaks your heart—and it’s because you’re not cool enough for her. The pastor shows a sign—just a hint—of being upset over... Read more

I introduced the idea of “poison-pill” thinking yesterday and tried to show that such division of the world into two categories is naïve. Beyond this, though, this categorization is unhelpful and harmful. In the next two days, I’m going to hash out two negative effects of such thinking. This thinking leads many Christians to a false spirituality in which life is broken up into two spheres. The first sphere could be called “the pure planet.” In some weird sense, Christians... Read more

I think that when faced with the questionable movie, art show, or book, the first instinct of many Christians is simply to cast out the material or ignore it. I recall one respected Christian leader characterizing material that had a mixture of good and bad moral content as “half a poison pill.” The message was that if media contains anything bad, anything “poisonous,” it’s fully harmful. The syllogism (if A=B and B=C, then A=C) is simple and forceful. After all,... Read more

Yesterday, we began thinking through the question of Christian engagement of worldly ugliness through a principle an astute reader brought up: edification. This was of course touched on in last week’s discussion, but it was only one of a number of ideas we touched on. It definitely merits more discussion, especially when one considers the important role edification plays in New Testament Christianity. Put simply, one could say that this quality is to characterize every aspect of the faith-filled life.... Read more