Three Steps to Studying the Bible
The goal in studying the Bible is to find out what the Bible meant, what it means, and how it applies to us.
Articles on The Christian Life
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Feeling Dissatisfied? Lean into It
We enjoy the moment more when we just accept that it won’t last, that we can’t possibly fully capture it, and that we may as well soak it up while we can.
Be Excellent as Christ Is Excellent
It is precisely because Christians have been called to or by God’s glory and excellence that they are to add excellence to their faith.
We Need Both Rules and Relationship with God
To obey the law is to look like Jesus Christ. While legalism builds self-righteousness, lawfulness builds righteousness.
Male and Female He Created Them
Everything else in creation reflects something of God’s glory in a general sense, but humanity alone is described as being created in God’s image.
What I Learned While Waiting for My Spouse
I spent many years of my life wanting to be married. Sometimes I didn't know if I’d ever get married.
What a Heated Disagreement between Two Puritans Can Teach Us Today
It takes the effort to understand and to empathize—in an age of polarization when empathy seems to be in short supply. It takes time and mutual generosity.
Fathers are called upon to choose not only between our children and our work, but between our convenience and the inconvenience of keeping a promise.
The Surprising Truth about Legalism
The root of legalism is almost as old as Eden, which explains why it is a primary, if not the ultimate, pastoral problem.
Help! It Feels Like God Is Far Away in My Suffering
Lament is the biblical language for people who feel like God is distant.
We’re literally surrounded by gracious reminders of the presence, power, authority, and character of God because he designed created things to function mnemonically.
What Freedom from Sin Looks Like in This Life
It’s natural to feel frustrated that you’re still staring down the same habits of sin in your life.
Mere Christianity as C. S. Lewis’s Personal Testimony
Believing in a moral God is still not the same as believing that God took on flesh and dwelt amongst us as Jesus.
9 Common Excuses for Not Memorizing Scripture (And How to Overcome Them)
The human heart is deceitful and twisted in so many ways (Jer. 17:9). We can make amazing excuses for not doing things that the Lord has commanded that would richly benefit us.
My Breakthrough in Scripture Memory
Maybe the breakthrough could come with some simple change in perspective. What if Scripture memory really was about today?
Why Ordinary Faithfulness Is Enough
Feeding your faithfulness is an unremarkable practice in real-time. It’s unglamorous by the world’s standards, yet it is precious as it contributes to a life of holding fast to Christ.
Wise Women Know How to Think, Feel, and Want (Part 1)
God created us as thinking and feeling creatures, and therefore both are part of being made in his image, therefore both thoughts and feelings are vital components of true faith.
We were made for closeness to others and to God through Christ, and yet it doesn’t always feel as though we can grasp God’s nearness to us.
Stay on Mission—Even in the Later Years
One joy of aging is a stillness of soul that helps us see the small moments as sacred moments when we can reflect God’s glory to someone else.
Podcast: Tips for Leading an Effective Bible Study (Lydia Brownback)
What does it look like to lead an effective Bible study? How can a leader keep the conversation on track and guide people to discover the treasures of God's Word?
The Promise Jesus Offers to Those Who Leave Everything Behind
Jesus is always honest, even blunt, about the cost of discipleship. He never buries suffering in the small print. He wants us to know that following him will be hard.
6 Ways to Live in Light of the Serpent-Slayer Story
Jesus is the serpent slayer. So how should a Christian live in light of that thrilling storyline?
A Devotional on Prayer by Jane Austen
Teach us to feel the importance of every day, and every hour as it passes, and earnestly strive to make a better use of what thy goodness may yet bestow on us, than we have done of the time past.
We Must Worship God on His Terms
True worship is not possible unless God himself enables it, because human beings are unable to truly worship him without his enabling.
4 Strategies to Help You Wait Better
I’m sure you’d like to move from anxiety to faith-filled, hopeful waiting. How do we make this practical? Let me give you a fourfold strategy from Psalm 25.
The doctrine of the necessity of Scripture reminds us of our predicament: the One we need to know most cannot be discovered on our own, and this same ineffable One has made himself known through his word.
6 Practical Steps to Help Grow Your Confidence in God’s Word
Sometimes we have our doubts about the stories we read in the word of God, about its moral convictions and the promises it makes.
How Does God's Love in Christ Relate to Islam?
How do we bear faithful witness to the love of God in Christ to our Muslim friends?
You Are Set Free from Self-Improvement
Many of us believe that Christian discipleship is synonymous with self-improvement. But true Christian discipleship is a call to die, not to improve.
For explaining the cross, the New Testament uses many images, many categories, many modes of thought blended together.