It is more blessed to give than receive…

You have likely heard it at a birthday gathering or around the Christmas tree: “I can’t wait for you to open my gift for you — I just love giving presents!” The speaker might even invoke the saying of Christ, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And while that verse […]

Greet my friends

Romans 16 is a dreaded public Scripture reading for any young seminary student or pastoral intern. I know — I was asked to do that reading by my pastor as a first or second-year seminarian, and I poured over my Bible and Greek New Testament for much too long, attempting to sort out the correct […]

An encouraging word

“…that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.” (Rom. 15:32; NASB) As a boy, Larry Crabb stuttered. Now a speaker, writer, and counselor, Dr. Crabb recalls an incident in the church he attended as a young man. Young men in that church were […]

When in doubt…

I was probably about 10 years old. I’d gone to the store with my folks, and I wandered off to find something of interest to me. Following my norm at that time, I found the baseball cards and books. Not only did they have baseball cards, but they had a clear-pack strip that contained the […]

God has spoken

Reflecting on Psalm 108:7, Charles Spurgeon wrote the following: THERE is an old promise, concerning God’s people, which says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This text is one of the instances in which the Lord has dealt with his saints upon the lines of that […]

When we’re unhappy with the government

Several years ago I had a conversation with another believer after a Sunday worship service about a believer’s relationship to the government. We differed on when it was appropriate to disobey the government. He was refusing to pay taxes. I wrote a follow-up letter, which I reproduce below (with some modifications) as a reflection on […]

Thinking with sound judgment

A few years ago Money magazine reported that, “When researchers at Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern asked investors how their mutual funds performed last year compared with Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a third claimed their funds outperformed the market by at least 5 percent. One in six said their funds fared better by more than […]

All things are from Him…

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36; NASB) A few years ago, popular author John Gray (Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus) released a new book: How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have. His thesis? […]

Does God disappoint?

Is God disappointing? Does God disappoint people? Many (most?) would answer those questions, “yes.” In fact, many (Christian) books have been written on the topic, either affirming that supposition directly, or seeming to suggest it is acceptable to express disappointment with and be disappointed in God. In his book Disappointment with God, Philip Yancey quotes […]

The riches of God’s mercy

Is God unfair to condemn sinners to hell? Many people — even many members of many church denominations — will say, “Yes, that is unjust of God. How could God be less kind than me?…” Yet Paul answers very differently. In Romans 9, interacting with the question of theodicy — God’s righteousness is judging the […]

Preparing for worship

Writer Don Hustad wrote a number of years ago about a circus parade that was moving through the streets of Milan, Italy. Suddenly one of the elephants veered from the line and marched into a church. [In Milan, church doors are large, and in the summer are often left wide open.] This visitor wandered up […]

I heard the earth talk

“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Rom. 8:22-23; NASB) I heard […]

Bearing fruit

Several years ago, a friend gave my wife a plum tree for her birthday. I think I was as excited about the gift as my wife, as I had memories of my grandmother’s plum jam and anticipated spreading that succulent delight on fresh-baked bread. With eagerness I anticipated the first year’s crop. And there was […]

Good news

There’s good news. And then there is the best news. This is the best news about the good news (from Romans 6). How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (v. 2) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead […]

Jesus loves me

When the German theologian Karl Barth visited the Untied States many years ago, a student at a seminary supposedly asked him, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “The most important thing I have learned is this: ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the […]