David Powlison’s Answer to the Question “Why Me?”
David Powlison (1949–2019) reminds us that God does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into our suffering.
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Endure Suffering with Patience until Jesus Returns
It may be that many people approach the book of Revelation with the assumption that somehow, as they look at the book, it's going to give them a better sense of when Jesus is going to return.
9 Ways to Pass on Your Faith through Family Milestones
Your faith is your children’s best possible inheritance. Pass it on to them as often and thoroughly as you can.
Making Every Issue “Your Thing” Is Impossible
In this digital age we have access to millions of people's hopes, dreams, fears, pain, and suffering. Shouldn't we be doing something about all of these problems?
A Lack of Generosity Means a Lack of Contentment
If we really believe that the God who created the universe cares for us and is working in our lives, then that removes the fear that makes us hoard our money.
How Creativity Can Fuel Your Worship
If God created us in his likeness, wouldn’t he make us with creative minds and hands? What if engaging in creativity could draw us into deeper worship of our Creator God?
An Open Letter to the Christian Frontline Medical Worker
The work to which you’ve devoted your life can plunge you into your darkest hours, luring you into doubts about God’s love, perhaps even about his existence. Where is God in all this?
The Themes of Exile and Return Are Seen Throughout the Psalms
Given the theological severity of the historic exile, it is no surprise that emblems of exile and the hope for return would appear throughout the Bible.
When we come to Revelation 19, we finally begin to approach John’s vision of the very last things. Soon we will move to the very good ending of the story of Scripture—and of the whole world.
Unpacking “Look inside Yourself”
Knowing who you are and being true to yourself has never been more important. They are seen as signs of good mental health and well-being and the keys to authentic living and true happiness.
Nativity Scenes, T-Rexes, and the Gestalt Shift
One of the most powerful human experiences is when one construal is replaced with another, when a shift in the Gestalt happens and we come to see in a different way.
An Open Letter to the Church on the Issue of Infertility
Recognizing that many couples in your church community are infertile will invariably change the way you think about your community.
Rather than dispensing grace to us from on high, Jesus gets down with us, he puts his arm around us, he deals with us in the way that is just what we need.
Why You Must Leverage Your Self-Despair
There is a strange though consistent message throughout the Bible. We are told time and again that the way forward will feel like we’re going backward.
How to Fight Chronological Snobbery
C. S. Lewis saw and wrote about a suffocating enslavement to the beautiful myth of progress.
When Genuine Obedience Becomes Impossible, Hell Becomes Impossible as Well
There’s no way to understand the pastoral epistles unless you realize Paul has a category for Christians who are living a faithful, obedient life, and a category for those who are unrepentant, in whom there’s no progress.
Reading the Bible with Dead Guys: John Calvin on Isaiah 53:3-6
*Reading the Bible With Dead Guys is a weekly blog series giving you the chance to read God’s Word alongside some great theologians from church history.
Paul’s second letter to Timothy is a call to endurance amid opposition and suffering for the sake of the gospel.
Podcast: Diagnosing the Heart of Anger (Christopher Ash)
Christopher Ash discusses why anger is such a powerful, dangerous emotion for the Christian, walking through some of the key Bible passages that address the topic.
Falling Behind in Your Bible Reading Plan Isn’t Your Greatest Danger
Perhaps the biggest danger in reading and studying our Bibles is to miss the whole point, which is to miss encountering Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior of us all.
In the book of Jude, our heavenly Father threatens the church to keep her from being dragged away from his love.
The Problem with Child-Directed Parenting
Young children cannot “lead” parents to a Jesus they do not know, but parents can lead a child to a Jesus the parents know and love.
Joanne J. Jung, Richard Langer
These statements about leadership are endorsed by our culture, but may not be true. In fact, these statements may even be harmful to individuals and organizations and the missions they pursue.
What Does It Mean to Take the Lord’s Supper in “Remembrance” of Christ?
Many times today, Christians think that this remembrance is simply recalling past events, but this remembrance—at least from a biblical standpoint—means a lot more.
A Guide for Your Personal Worship Entering Advent
A liturgy of daily worship aims to help us worship God by meditating on the first coming of his Son while we wait for the second coming of his Son.
How Suffering Crushes Our Unrealistic Expectations
Our expectation is that tomorrow will be just the same as today was, but this world is not operating the way that God intended for it to operate.
Parents, Your Children Were Never Intended to Give You Identity
If you are not resting in your vertical identity, you will look horizontally, searching to find yourself and your reason for living in something in the creation
3 Important Truths Job’s Friends Neglected
In the context of the whole Bible, perhaps the deepest error and omission of Job’s friends is this: they have no place for innocent suffering.
With our course marked out for learning contentment, let’s think about how we might evaluate where we are in our own personal progress.
How Do We Define “Success” in Ministry?
We do the work of pastoral ministry so that our people might treasure Christ together. That’s the often unheralded yet beautiful definition of “success.”