Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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It was in early 2020 that we first began to hear of this novel coronavirus that was sweeping through parts of China, then making the short hop to nearby Asian nations, then making the longer hop to not-so-nearby European nations. The reports out of China were alarming, the reports out of South Korea sobering, the reports out of Italy terrifying. Slowly and then all of a sudden it was in our countries, in our towns, at our doorsteps. We are …
Life is like a basement. It’s like a basement in that, despite our best efforts, we just can’t keep it from getting cluttered. Every few months, Aileen and I have to go downstairs and clear out our back room—that room where empty boxes accumulate as we decide if we will keep or ship back the products we’ve ordered, where broken stuff waits until the next bulk garbage day, where unwanted or unused things sit until they are given away or …
On Saturday I asked if you would consider sending along some encouragement. Specifically, I asked if you would respond to this: “God promises to work all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. This includes even, and perhaps especially, the difficult things. What are some of the surprising ways you have witnessed or experienced God’s goodness in this difficult time?” Hundreds of answers came pouring in from all over the world. …
Recent conversations with other Christians have shown that I’m not alone in carrying an unusual level of stress, fear, and anxiety. These are uncertain days and many of us are struggling through them in various ways. Some are feeling this struggle as a heavy emotional weight, some are feeling it as despondency or listlessness, some are feeling it physically as cold sweats or a tightening of the chest. And no wonder! We are quarantined within our homes, we are adapting …
Like so many other churches across the world, mine had to make a sudden and unexpected decision in the face of a pending lockdown: Do we broadcast our services or do we not? Under normal circumstances we would never even entertain the notion, but with a looming period of isolation that would last no less than weeks and that could well stretch into months, we were suddenly presented with the dilemma. We decided to “sort of” broadcast our services. Let …
I grew up hearing stories of the Second World War, especially from people who had faced the onslaught of the German bombing campaign. Those who lived through The Blitz in London would tell about the terrifying sound of the air raid sirens warning that bombers were on the way. They would tell also of the joy and relief of hearing the all-clear signal when the final plane had turned back and the final bomb had fallen. Following that all-clear, the …
One third of the world’s population is now in lockdown. Across the globe, people everywhere are staying at home with their families and trying to find a new normal behind closed doors (while trying not to drive each other crazy)! But what about those living alone? They are dealing with the lack of physical touch for weeks on end and have no one to keep them company in-person. If you or someone you know is living alone and is about …
Would it be an exaggeration to say that Sunday, March 22, 2020 was one of the most unusual Sundays in the history of Christianity? I don’t think it would be, because on this day the majority of Christians across the world were either not permitted to gather to worship or considered it inadvisable to do so. Where on a typical Sunday Christians rise in their homes and soon gather for corporate worship, on this Sunday Christians rose in their homes …
Last week I shared some tips on surviving lockdown from a believer in Italy. I’ve since heard from quite a number of other Christians there and wanted to share some of their tips and experiences. As so many of us across the world face the possibility of lockdowns, this information may help us be better prepared. I’ll begin with some general tips I compiled from common themes. The first and biggest is this: Don’t panic and don’t be anxious. The …
Christianity is a bloody faith. It is a bloody faith because it is the faith of sinful people and the Bible tells us that sin requires blood. For sin to be forgiven, for sinful people to be made right with God, there must be a payment of blood. That payment was made by Jesus Christ on a blood-soaked cross and through the centuries Christians have been praising God for providing the one thing they need most that they cannot do …