The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way
If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh.
Articles on Sin
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The Importance of the Gathered Church
Love is messy. You know what else? The gospel is messy. It means loving sinners—people like you and me.
Zach Eswine shares his own story of loss and the stunning realization that true faithfulness is not synonymous with ministry success.
The Idolatry of Spiritual Laziness
We can (and should) command repentance from sin, but it is grace that enables repentance and belief that accompanies it.
The Greatest Danger That Any Human Being Faces
For sinners, God is the supreme terror, and when we rightly understand our situation, we are right to fear.
In the riveting stories of 1 and 2 Samuel we catch glimpses of who God is, what he does, what life is like with him and without him, and what life can become by his grace and in the power of his Spirit.
The Fruit of the First Sin Was Shame
We feel shame when some fault, imperfection, or vulnerability of ours conflicts with what we think we should be. Finding this shameful, we attempt to hide.
A faithful response to sin involves drawing near to God in faith through confession, repentance, and trusting the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
The First Step in Celebrating Divine Grace
It’s good to mourn, it’s healthy to be sad, and it’s appropriate to groan. Something is wrong with us, something is missing in our hearts and our understanding of life.
The Family Photo of God’s Family Is a Little Surprising
Imagine if we gathered together all of the believers throughout history and lined them up for a massive family photo. Whom would we see? What kinds of people would be there?
The Depressing Dead End of “Your Truth”
Your truth. Those two words are so entrenched in our lexicon today that we hardly recognize them for the incoherent nightmare that they are.
The Demise of the Deified Self
Truly, we are lost in a darkness of our own making, and we got here by dethroning God and enthroning ourselves. We’ve deified ourselves. And it’s led to our demise.
The Crushing Obligation to Keep Doing More and More
I understand there are lazy people out there who need to get radical for Jesus. I also know people like me, people who easily feel a sense of responsibility, people who easily feel bad for not doing more
Of course, every Christian faces difficulty—Jesus called us to a life of carrying our crosses as we follow him. However, the challenges of those in pastoral ministry are often more acute.
No human marriage, no matter how good, can bear the weight of our expectations.
The Believer’s Paradoxical Experience of Sin
Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley
Christians live in the painful paradox of salvation begun but not completed.
There is one kind of bad news that you and I often work to deny but that we desperately need to face. Facing this news is a matter of life and death, even though it is the worst news ever.
You need to understand that there are two parts of the Christmas story, and you need both parts to make proper sense out of the whole story.
The 10th Commandment: Don’t Even Think about It
If contentment has been a losing battle for you, if coveting comfort or cash or companions has been your common state, let the good news sink in: contentment is learned.
That Idol That You Love Doesn't Love You Back
Everyone has to live for something and if that something isn’t the one true God, it will be a false God–an idol.
Take a Bold Stance against the Commonality of Porn
What if not just one man but a whole generation of men takes a bold stand against the new slave trade of our time—pornography?
Stop the Spread of Infectious Anger
Christopher Ash, Steve Midgley
Anger is infectious. It is not a purely individual phenomenon; there is a corporate dimension. Here, we'll explore five biblical examples of infectious anger.
There are lots of people who are never really confronted by the wretchedness of their own hearts.
Squeezing Marriage into Our Kingdom of Self
Why do we have to marry flawed people? Wouldn’t it have been much easier if God had worked it out so that we would be fully sanctified, then married?
If we’re going to defeat the sin of discontentment, we need to be able to spot its lies.
Social Algorithms Are Today’s “Lady Folly”
Algorithms lure us into constant distraction by putting “suggestions” into our minds, waiting to pounce and consume our attention.
Should Drinking Alcohol Disqualify a Pastor from Ministry?
“Not a drunkard” means more than just “Knows how to toe the line and stay within the legal limits.” It implies a positive vision. It calls for men who are reliable, ever vigilant, “ready in season and out.”
‘Seinfeld’ Showed Me How We Got Here and Why I Don’t Care
The paradox of apathy is that we are captivated by the things we don’t really care about and are lukewarm to the things that, in our heart of hearts, mean the most to us.
Seeing God’s Gracious Hand in the Hurts Others Do to Us
We need to know what Scripture says in general about God’s relationship to evil. Scripture declares that the Judge of all the earth will always do what is right.
The doctrine of the atonement reassures us with what Christ has done in the past, the doctrine of his intercession reassures us with what he is doing in the present.