The Apple of My Eye

We have many ways to express our love for others. We have many words and phrases to express affection for those we hold dearest. Some of them are clear and obvious: I love you. I treasure you. You complete me. But other expressions are less obvious because they are idiomatic. One of these expressions that is unusual yet in common usage is “apple of my eye.” This is an expression that has deep roots in English because, like so many …

A La Carte (9/17)

Too Tough on the Guys Who Are Trying – I appreciate Josh Harris’ mea culpa here. “I got some great feedback from a young man in our church after two of my recent sermons from Matthew 5, both of which touched on aspects of marriage (the messages were “Jesus on Lust” and “Don’t Break Your Marriage or Your Word.”) In his mid-twenties, he kindly expressed appreciation for both messages and then went on to voice concern about how I challenged …

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A La Carte (7/19)

Time and an Eternal Perspective – Carolyn McCulley offers reflections on the way we use our time. “My ambitions about productivity have to be reshaped by the idea that I’m simply a steward. I am responsible for investing and multiplying what I receive from the Lord because I will give an account to Him one day for my activities. What isn’t from Him is a waste of time.” Wheaton’s Contraception Lawsuit – Christianity Today interviews Philip Ryken about suing the …

A La Carte (4/26)

Consistent Complementarianism – Merely being complementarian is not enough. Michael McKinley says “I see a lot of men who assert their headship in their home, but who do not take a consistent approach to the authorities set over them by God (or God himself).” A Beautiful, Dirty Mind – Someone sent me this article, which talks about the man who may be the most intelligent person on the planet. Yet he is consumed with lust and envy and jealousy. Luke …

One of God’s Purposes in Suffering

The more I grow in my knowledge of the Lord (by his grace) the more I see the utter centrality of the church, the local church, in his plan for his people. The more I learn of him, the more I see what a jewel the church is–what a blessing, what an honor it is to be part of something so amazing, so other-worldly. This is something that has been brought home to me in recent years primarily by the …

Speaking Love’s Languages

This is not a book review. I will be discussing a book—a rather popular book, at that—but I will not actually review it. Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages is a perpetual bestseller, one that is a near-constant presence on the New York Times list as well as the Christian lists. And, like so many bestselling Christian books, it is one in which I see some genuine strengths combined with some appalling weaknesses. It is a book that demands that we heed the old …

A Brief Theology of Desire

A couple of days ago I received an email from a young man who reads this site and he asked a rather simple question: How am I to react to sexual desire? As a teenager, unmarried and with marriage in the distant future rather than the near future, he wanted to know how God would have him understand sexual arousal. That took me a little bit of thought, but here is how I think a young man can understand sexual …

Prudes and Puritans

I have been reading Nancy Pearcey’s new book Saving Leonardo, something about which I’ll have a lot more to say next week. But for now I wanted to share with you a quote from one of the early chapters which deals with Sex, Lies and Secularism. Here she writes about liberal and Christian views of sex, showing how the Bible elevates sex to the position God wishes it to have while Liberalism lowers it to something so much less than …

A La Carte (8/10)

Taking Charge of Television Randy Alcorn: “With summer here, and kids out of school, many Christians, and especially those who are parents, might be wondering: How do I take charge of the television? The fact is, you and your children will inevitably adopt the morality of the programs, movies, books, magazines, music, Internet sites, and conversations you participate in. GIGO–garbage in, garbage out; godliness in, godliness out. The cognitive is basic to the behavioral–you become what you choose to feed …

A La Carte (6/25)

Wednesday June 25, 2008 12 Sins We Blame on Others Here is sound wisdom from Ben Reaoch, pastor of Three Rivers Grace Church in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. WORLD on The Shack WORLD has an article about The Shack. An interesting quote: “Young is no longer a member of a church, nor are his publishing partners, both former pastors. They are a part of a movement that rejects the institutional church, but Young says he doesn’t feel any need to try …