Knowing the God of the Gospel

Whether we know it or not, our lives and communities are walking billboards for Christianity.  Recently I visited a Christian university for homecoming and one thing that stood out to me was the joy of the students.  Everyone greeted us with a sense of excitement.  Our visit was encouraging and uplifting because of the joy that surrounded us.  It got me to thinking, how is my joy quotient?  When people are around me, do they sense joy, or a lack of joy?   Joy is not something that needs to be painted on the face of the Christian, but instead is the natural result of correctly understanding the love of Christ for sinners. When the gospel is rightly understood, it should kindle a sense of Christ's beauty.   Tony Reinke in his book "John Newton and the Christian Life" reminds us that a life without joy in Christ is a life that lacks proper focus.  The Christian life is about vision, a proper vision of Christ.  Reinke writes, "when your...

As a pastor, one of my most difficult tasks in life is to eat what I cook.  It's easy to preach through the Old and New Testament Scriptures each week.  I love to study and communicate the truth of the Bible.  Actually applying the truth of the Bible to myself each week?  Well, as the Wizard of Oz said in the movie, "that's a horse of a different color!"  When Jesus taught his disciples about priorities and about what to prioritize in terms of obedience, Jesus set the priorities in the context of love.  Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Jesus merely pointed out the obvious.  Love shows itself in how we use our time, our money and our talents.  I prioritize time with my kids and wife if I truly love and value them.  I prioritize time for golf if it is a love that pushes other things to the side.  During the course of life, sometimes I have more money, sometimes less.  Other times I have more energy, som...

One of the attention grabbing headlines of the past several years was Playboy Magazine's announcement that they would no longer offer nude photographs in their magazine. One Twitter feed recently explained the reason why... "Breaking News: Playboy to stop publishing nude pictures, leaving men only 79,895,422 places to access photos of naked women." The internet is the new environment for the unspeakable. A Gallup poll released in June 2018 states that 43% of Americans believe pornography is morally acceptable. Polls show that young people believe that "failure to recycle" is a worse sin than pornography. We now live in an age of access, with the resulting devastating effects. Movie producer and director Harvey Weinstein spent a lifetime in the movie industry, often featuring gratuitous nudity in Oscar winning films such as "Shakespeare in Love". Sadly, the litany of alleged sexual assaults leveled against Weinstein are merely the by-product of ...

The average American spends seventeen times more time watching television than reading.  This includes magazines and newspapers.  This statistic reflected the huge cultural change that has happened in America over the past decades.  We are consumers of information through video and media, rather than in written form as never before. This reality affects not just how we learn, but how we communicate. T. David Gordon has written a book addressing the impact of video on our culture and how it has negatively affected preaching in America, and he recommends some important remedies. Dr. Gordon is a college professor and for 14 years served on the New Testament faculty at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  When Mr. Gordon was struck with cancer and given a short time to live, he sought to write a book that would embody what he felt most strongly about, biblical preaching.  In his book, Why Johnny Can't Preach, he laments the problem of bad preaching and talks abou...

Within the past year, the pastor of my church encouraged me to have a formal 'date night' with my wife each week.  This was a pipe dream for my wife and I for several years, and we never implemented this idea because of three young children below the age of 9.  Baby sitters are hard to find and expensive, kids require constant attention and soccer commitments.  It is hard to carve out time for a "date night" because of the ever pressing needs of our kids and money commitments. Yet his excellent suggestion directed us to have a "date night" at our dining room table at home.  Now each week, we put the kids in the basement with their favorite video and a bowl of popcorn, and my wife and I enjoy a candle lit dinner with a store bought dessert and peace and quiet together for a couple of hours.  In a planned and formal way, it is a practice that cultivates love and relationship in our marriage that we both look forward to and cherish.  You could say that this is...

John Newton was a great hymn writer of the 1700's world renowned for his authorship of "Amazing Grace", but many do not know that he was a wonderful letter writer. Although his sermons were not widely published, his letters to friends and congregants are full of pastoral wisdom and insight.  Tony Reinke recently published a compilation of Newton's writing that are pure gold. Newton writes, "Every step along the path of life is a battle for the Christian to keep two eyes on Christ"-the eyes of the heart. "If I may speak my own experience," he said, "I find that to keep my eye simply upon Christ, as my peace, and my life, is by far the hardest part of my calling." Newton lived out what the ancients called "the beautific vision".  Through the eyes of faith, keeping our vision of Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. Keeping our eyes upon Jesus with a constant awareness of his presence, is the great goal and challenge of th...

Recently I was listening to an interview with a pastor named Louie Giglio on the radio and in this interview Giglio was talking about people that had impacted his life growing  up.  Giglio grew up in the Atlanta area as a child and came in contact with a Christian leader in Atlanta that impacted his life in his teens and early 20's.  This man's influence was so profound in Giglio's life, that it changed the trajectory of his future life and ministry.  The man that Giglio was talking about was named Dan DeHaan.  As Giglio spoke in this interview, he talked about how there was something special about DeHaan.  When Giglio was around Dan DeHaan, Giglio sensed that he seemed to know God in a way that was different than Giglio and in such a deep way, that it made Giglio want to know God more and pursue God more urgently.  Dan DeHaan was a man that was much with God and people that were around him could sense it.  After listening to t...