More and more, though, the state seeks to encapsulate Christianity in spaces invisible to the rest of society. Under the previous administration, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent up trial balloons along these lines, speaking of “freedom of worship” instead of “freedom of religion.” Christian observers caught their language and condemned... Continue Reading

So many things come and go in the life of a family. Sports. Clubs. Events. Trips. Vacations. The constant that can help keep your family focused, might just be a regular time in God’s Word where you all slow down, sit together, and spend time contemplating the very words of the Creator of all things.... Continue Reading

Both the Reformation and Puritanism sought to strip away human ideas accumulated in the church over centuries and restore the divine Word to its authoritative place, directing and energizing God’s people. Since the Bible is a missionary book written by the God who sent His Son into the world to save sinners, it provided the... Continue Reading

When trying to come to terms with loss, someone rushing the process along is never helpful. People need space to grieve and to process what they’re facing without feeling judged. Everyone grieves differently; even couples who have lost a child each experience unique grief. Proverbs 14:10 tells us that, “Each heart knows its own sadness.” So... Continue Reading

Whatever the case, recognize the season and that it is God’s appointed time for you.  Resolve to live within it and live it with purpose and peace.  And realize that just like America’s winter is Brazil’s summer so your seasons of life overlap with others but do not always correspond. One man’s spring blossoms during... Continue Reading

It may be true, there is no rest for the weary. For every moment is sacred. The impact today on a little child’s life tomorrow has no measuring tape long enough. In eternity’s light, it streams on and on, beyond what we can see, touching who we can’t know. May our razor thin space mark... Continue Reading

Atonement is not mere ritual, it is a reckoning with the world as it really is. Everyone offers a blood sacrifice for something: a creature’s blood for my food, a stranger’s blood for my survival, my own blood for the life of my child. Try to believe for one minute that this world is not... Continue Reading

The true theological grounds of the biblical gospel are narrow, but the God of the gospel is not politically confined, he is not wedded to our petty cultural norms – he is bigger than that, and our perspective on the latest hot button issue may not be as crucial as we have come to believe. Perhaps... Continue Reading

In particular, “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken” models for us how a mature Christian anticipates and appropriates suffering in this age. The hymn takes us on a journey from Jesus’s initial call, to the hard yet joyful road of the Christian life, to a taste of the blissful repose awaiting us just over the... Continue Reading

Does our frantic movement through places mean that we will miss the “thisness” of things and locations that only becomes available when we move into places and abide with creatures? Sabbath rest speaks specifically to this predicament because it calls us to say “No!” to the distraction and fragmentation. It calls us to streamline and simplify... Continue Reading