When I was younger, I didn’t believe in things like ghosts, psychics, and witchcraft. I believed ghosts and monsters were in the same category: figments of imagination and folklore meant to whip listeners into shape. Psychics and witches were more like charlatans—good fact-gatherers with a knack for turning a dollar. But that automatic assumption changed […]

I never met the man, but I wish I could have. He was my great-grandfather on my mother’s and grandmother’s side of the family. I am told that he died when my grandmother was a baby in the early 1920s. The rub is that no one knows where he was buried. More than likely, it […]

How important is holiness? Isn’t it good enough just to be a loving person? And what does it even mean to be holy? The word itself means “set apart.” So, some have answered the question of how to be holy by removing themselves as far as possible from the world. For example, they become monks […]

Gavin Ortlund in his outstanding new book What It Means to be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church points to three aspects of renewal. These three aspects comprise what he calls “mere Protestantism”: A renewal of the gospel, A renewal of Scripture as our final authority, and A renewal of the teachings of Scripture […]

I once heard Tim Keller say, “Wise leaders know that leaders are lonely, and they escape the trap of self-pity about it.” True, but Keller’s talk provided no answer to my immediate question, which was, “Yes. But how?!” I dare not trust myself to attempt to round off a Tim Keller sermon. But I will […]