Finding Your Way Again: Learning from King Josiah in the Bible
My wife and I were driving to a home we had never seen to help some friends who were preparing it for another family to move into. I typed the address into Google Maps, and we set off on the short trip. The voice told us to turn left, go straight, take another left, continue […]
The Purpose of Lent? An Invitation of Decrease and Increase
I never quite understood Ash Wednesday when I was younger. My home church never emphasized anything about Lent, or even Good Friday for that matter. In my experience growing up in church, winter was over, spring started springing, then it was time for Easter Sunday! That meant getting up before the crack of dawn, putting […]
God’s Judgment: A Summons to Repent
One of the most important questions you can ever wrestle with is this: Which judge of your life matters most to you? Lots of people will have this or that to say about how you live your life. Some will judge how you live positively, while others will judge you negatively. What you have to […]
Idolatry in the Bible (and in Our Own Hearts)
Satan is always scheming and making efforts to tempt us, to dishearten us, and to break us with many other things that can take away our focus from God. The Scripture says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NASB) and […]
Bringing Our Expectations in Line with God’s Truth
“But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.” (Luke 7:30, NIV) What expectations have we placed on God that may not be consistent with who he has shown himself to be and with how he has shown himself to work in […]
Why Does God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?
Summary: Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart in the book of Exodus? This article will explore how There is hope when we listen to God and unharden our hearts to his leading. When we keep hardening our hearts, it makes us increasingly unable to respond to God’s direction. Eventually, God will use the destruction of […]
Why I Chose to Preach on Sexuality and Gender, Part 1
It is no secret that one of the most explosive topics of our day is sexuality and gender. For many decades, there has been a concerted effort to change the narrative about the norms regarding sexuality and gender. Those efforts have been largely successful in silencing Christians, and especially preachers, from speaking with clarity on […]
Preach and Normalize Being a Disciple of Jesus
In a previous article on preaching and normalizing “King Jesus,” I argued that we want to avoid the false dichotomy of “King Jesus” vs. “Savior Jesus” by integrating and synthesizing the two. That is to say that Jesus can only be a savior because He is first the King. What I mean when I say […]
