If we wanted to read a book about what Jesus did, we would have many options available to us. But if we wanted to read a book about who Jesus is, well, the options would be far fewer. Obviously the two studies are closely connected, for what Jesus did is inexorably tied to who he is. Yet the two studies are not identical, for his heart can’t be conflated with his actions. So who is Jesus? If we carefully separate …

Over the past few years I’ve had many opportunities to speak on the subject of technology—a natural consequence of having written a book called The Next Story: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World. I almost invariably end my speeches with a time of Q&A and one question I can always count on being asked is this: What’s next? I’ve spoken about the rise of digital technologies and the ways they’ve integrated themselves into almost every aspect of our lives, …

It’s not an easy thing to tell the history of a nation. And, in fact, there are many different ways to do so. At least when it comes to the history of Western nations, the past few years seem to have marked a great shift in this regard. When I was young, the history of these nations was usually told in the voice of triumph—what they had done well defined their story while what they had done poorly was mostly …

The Bible records many great prayers. Some of the most prominent come in the form of psalms and, of all these, David’s heartbroken, soul-sick prayer of Psalm 51 may be the most haunting. In a desperate bid to cover up a grievous sin, David has committed yet another grievous sin. He has been exposed as nothing less than a murderous adulterer. As he has grappled with his own sin and sinfulness, he has been cut to the quick. And in …

A wise friend once told me, “No one should write a book about marriage until they’ve been married for twenty years.” Then he reached his twentieth anniversary and amended his rule: “No one should write a book about marriage until they’ve been married for thirty years.” The point is, none of us ever master marriage, because marriage, like the people involved in it, is constantly changing. Yet even though we never master it, there is much we can learn from …

Satan is many things. But one fact the Bible makes perfectly clear is that he is a liar. Already by the third chapter of the Bible he has been deceitful (taking a physical form that is not his), he has been deceptive (getting people to question whether God is as good as they had thought), and he has told outright lies (full-out contradicting the words of God). And that’s just in the first three chapters! If Satan is such a …

A book about suffering is usually born from adversity in the life of the author, and that’s exactly the case with Tessa Thompson’s Laughing at the Days to Come: Facing Present Trials and Future Uncertainties with Gospel Hope. When she was in her mid-teens, she was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) and began to lose her hearing. Her father had been diagnosed a short time before, so she had been a first-hand witness to his struggles to adjust to …

There’s no doubt that the pastor’s calling is unique. It comes with unique blessings and unique challenges. Some of the greatest challenges are related to both preaching and to being a preacher—preaching as the actual task of preparing and delivering a sermon week by week, and being a preacher as the life and character that makes a man worthy of this task. These are the twin subjects of Rick Reed’s new book The Heart of the Preacher. Reed currently serves …