Some of the best things in life are also some of the most dangerous. They are both beneficial and dangerous because they are powerful, and any kind of power can be used to accomplish great good or great evil. Consider the many biblical warnings about the tongue and how it can be used to build…
Though the local church is a community of Christians and exists primarily for the benefit of Christians, it is also a community that gladly welcomes as guests those who are not yet believers. Many churches rightly put a lot of effort into inviting friends, neighbors, and family members to this place where they can hear…
While I was sitting at John MacArthur’s memorial service and hearing his friends tell of their love for him (and his for them), I began to ponder some of the unexpected blessings that have come with both having friends and being a friend. Here are just three that came to mind…
This is an opportunity that exists in any suffering: To answer the sneers of the world. So you can show the world around that no matter what God takes from you, you will continue to love him, you will continue to praise him, you will continue to cling to his promises. To show that as…
Psalm 92 commends those who do not merely go through the outward motions of religion, but who genuinely and from the heart love to praise and honor God. “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the…
I was just a young child when my parents told me I ought to begin daily devotions. I began the habit when I was perhaps eight or ten years old and have largely stuck with it for the past four decades. During that time, I have attempted a hundred different approaches, but it seems like…
Get ready to travel the globe and experience the beauty of Christian worship like never before. That’s what I hope and trust you’ll gain as you read my new book and watch my new documentary titled From the Rising of the Sun—a project I created in collaboration with my friend Tim Keesee. It is available…
Along the coast of New York is a little town called East Hampton. And I recently read that there is a cemetery in East Hampton where you can find 12 identical graves that have been laid side by side. There’s a story behind them, of course. All the way back in the 1800s, there was…
Part of what we must model to our children is the centrality of the local church in the life and faith of the Christian. We must model what it is to do good to others, to persevere in local church fellowship, to respect church leadership, to participate in the means of grace.
We know what Jesus said about our eternal destination: “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (or, in its older rendering, “in my Father’s house are many mansions”). We know that God has prepared a place for us to live with him forever—a place of safety, peace, and rest. But before we get to that…
A friend recently said something that disquieted me. He said that he assumes I make use of AI in creating the articles I post to this site or in selecting the articles I link to on other sites. I suppose it’s a fair assumption since so many people across so many fields are now relying…
Though every child at times wishes it were otherwise, we do not get to choose our brothers and sisters. Rather, through the miracle of conception, God chooses who will join our families.
It has been some time since I have shared a family update, and I acknowledge it is long overdue. So here is what’s new in my life, family, and ministry over the past few months.
Aileen and I recently opened an RESP for our grandson and made an initial little deposit. An RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan) is a kind of savings account that allows money to accumulate without taxes, provided it is someday used for education. Finn isn’t yet even a year old, so this may seem a little…
We may find it easy enough to love a building or an institution or a particular form of worship. But people? That can be a much greater challenge…
It is one of the strengths, or perhaps one of the weaknesses, of the human mind that it can have different “tracks” playing at the same time. Even as one series of words is emerging from a person’s mouth, an entirely different series of words may be flitting through his brain. He can have an…
Hospitality is a concrete expression of Christian love and family life. Giving oneself to the care of God’s people means sharing one’s life and home with others. An open home is a sign of an open heart and a loving, sacrificial, serving spirit.
When we come to Christ, we gain God as our Father and Christ as our King. But we do more than that. We also gain a family.
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A few years ago I had an audacious idea: To travel the world and worship with Christians from east to west and north to south. The idea became a proposal and the proposal became a journey. Before I knew it I was traveling to Tonga, Fiji, Australia and far beyond.