The Messy Matter of Motives

I find one of the trickiest matters of Christian living to be the matter of motives. I often find myself wondering why I do the things I do. Just as often, I find myself wondering why I do not do those things I refuse to do. Sometimes, even with a lot of focused thought, I can make little headway. I think the Apostle Paul would identify with me. In Romans 7, he wrote, “I do not understand my own actions. …

CrossReference Episode 10

You know by now that for the past 9 Wednesdays I have been showing a series of films that look at the Old Testament appearances of Christ as the Angel of the Lord. The films are produced by HeadHeartHand Media and each of them is free for you to view for one week. Today we come to the last of these 10 episodes. After the week is up you will need to purchase the series. Here’s how you can do …

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Men Don’t Follow Programs

Earlier this week I was skimming back through William Farley’s book Gospel-Powered Parenting by (which I reviewed here) and happened across his discussion of “Gospel Fathers.” In this section he discusses the importance of godly, masculine men within a church body. He starts out by quoting a selection of lines from Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow: You cannot have a thriving church without a core of men who are true followers of Christ. If men are …

Betraying God in Worship

Only on rare occasions can I bring myself to buy greeting cards. When it is Aileen’s birthday or when it is our anniversary, I either tell her how I feel (not something I’m particularly good at most of the time) or I buy a blank card and fill it with my own words. Or occasionally, to my shame, I forgo to card altogether. For some reason it just seems fake, disingenuous, to give her a card with a little poetic …