Posts from January 2019

Cut flowers

Note: I wrote this article before the governor of New York signed a bill on Tuesday that legalized abortion up until birth in some cases. He also directed the One World Trade Center and other landmarks to be lit in pink to celebrate the passage of the “Reproductive Health Act.” How exactly the law will be interpreted and applied remains to be seen, but it seems like another step in the deeply discouraging direction of becoming a nation that delights…

One day soon

I’m looking forward to the resurrection, aren’t you? There’s a sense in which we’ve already been raised, of course. When we were brought up out of the baptismal waters, God raised us from our spiritual graves. We were dead, and now we’re alive. We were lost, and now we’re found. But the resurrection isn’t over yet. Sometimes I get sore muscles, and my head hurts (“in this tent we groan,” 2 Cor 5:2). I struggle with sin way more than…

Expectations

In Luke chapter 9, we read that Jesus sent His disciples into the towns and villages to teach the gospel and to heal.  Followers of Jesus should expect to be sent. We don’t become Christians to be served or catered to. So, in our youth ministry, we are hoping to help equip our children for their mission to reach out to the lost and dying world and show them Jesus. But when Jesus sent his disciples out to work, he…

Do you know him?

About 32% of the people in the world identify in some sense with Christianity, which is about 2.5 billion. I have no idea how many of those truly walk with Christ—God does, of course—but it seems that if there were 2.5 billion dedicated Christ-followers in the world, some of our problems wouldn’t exist. Right? Part of the answer is obvious—there’s a difference between what we call ourselves and what we actually are. There’s a difference between checking a box on…

Inviting

I’ve heard of people who have led thousands to Christ in their lives—through preaching to huge audiences or writing books or tracts that reach thousands. That’ll never happen for most of us. Paul established dozens of churches, and Peter preached to enormous crowds. Both of them wrote letters about Jesus that have been read by hundreds of millions. My circle of influence is considerably smaller than that. Once we’ve realized that, we’ve got two options. We can resent our situation,…