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  • When the Battlefield Goes Quiet

    When the Battlefield Goes Quiet

    There are a number of childhood vacations that stand out in my mind, but none quite as clearly as our family trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I may have been 10 or 12 at the time and was a young enthusiast of all things military. I knew little of the Civil War, but did know that…

  • A Heart That Is Free A Step That Is Light

    A Heart That Is Free, A Step That Is Light

    The great general had led his troops to a hard-fought but resounding triumph on the field of battle. With the enemy army now vanquished and scattered, he rallied his regiments to press on toward the capital where they would secure the final victory. And though the men marched briskly, he urged them to still greater…

  • The Great Challenge of Every Marriage

    The Great Challenge of Every Marriage

    We’ve all heard that marriage was designed to make us holy more than to make us happy. And though it’s a bit of a trite phrase that threatens to force a false dichotomy between holiness and happiness, there is a measure of truth to it. At its best, marriage does, indeed, help us grow in…

  • Set Loose in a Mud Pit

    Set Loose in a Mud Pit

    It would be a strange thing for a mother to set her daughter loose in a mud pit, but warn her that she must not let her clothes get dirty. It would be a strange thing for a father to instruct his son to ford a river, but warn him that he must not let…

  • Extending the Borders and Enlarging the Territory

    Extending the Borders and Enlarging the Territory

    The Israelites had sojourned in the wilderness until the last of an entire rebellious generation had died and been buried. They had walked to the banks of the Jordan and had seen its waters before them. They had crossed the river and entered the Promised Land. And now the true work and the true challenge…

  • We Cannot Be Faultless

    We Cannot Be Faultless (But May Still Be Blameless)

    A devotional writer from a bygone era believed it was crucial to carefully distinguish faultlessness from blamelessness, for while we cannot live faultlessly in this world, we may live blamelessly. Even the best deeds we do cannot be faultless when we ourselves are so very imperfect and when this world is so firmly arrayed against…

  • You Want to Be a Spiritual Hero

    You Want to Be a Spiritual Hero?

    There is a longing in all of us—or most of us at least—to rise above obscurity and to be known for our greatness. Even Christians can long to be among the great. This is the subject of this little excerpt from Matthew Redmond’s The God of the Mundane. There are two kinds of pastors, in…

  • Dusting When the Light Is Dim

    Dusting When the Light Is Dim

    Early on a Saturday morning a young girl is told by her mother to dust the house. She dutifully goes about her chore, dusting the tables, the shelves, the mantelpieces, and all the other surfaces. Later in the day her mother inspects the work and expresses some concern. “Look at all the dust,” she says,…

  • Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

    Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

    I have been reviewing books for a long time now—long enough that some books I reviewed shortly after their release are now being re-released in anniversary editions. Such is the case with Donald Whitney’s Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. First published in 2001, it has now been released in an updated edition for…

  • Fruitfulness and Usefulness

    Fruitfulness and Usefulness

    Sunflower fields trampled, pumpkin patches trod under, apple orchards pillaged and wrecked. It has become a phenomenon of the Instagram era that fields ripe for harvest are also fields perfect for selfies. When the flowers are at their brightest, the pumpkins at their biggest, the apples at their reddest, word gets out, and crowds descend.…

  • Post the Strongest Soldiers at the Weakest Gate

    Post the Strongest Soldiers at the Weakest Gate

    The bridge was drawn, the gates were barred, the watchmen were posted to the walls. From their vantage point they observed the enemy armies draw close, they watched as the officers divided their force into ranks and regiments. They heard the great shout and looked on in trepidation as the enemy units surged forward. And…

  • Whatever Is Not Christ

    Whatever Is Not Christ

    It is said of Michelangelo that when he was carving his best-known masterpiece he began with a block of marble and simply removed whatever was not David. This is the task of any sculptor—to begin with raw material and to work with it until nothing is left but the subject itself. Under the hand of…

  • Why Do We Add To Our Trouble

    Why Do We Add To Our Trouble?

    The road is narrow. The path is long. The way is rough. Yet God has called each one of us to run the race of the Christian life. Our every step in this great race is taken in the presence of deadly enemies, our every stride opposed by the world, the flesh, and the devil.…

  • Which Christian Best Portrays Christ

    Which Christian Best Portrays Christ?

    An elderly man, bedridden through a long and terminal illness, wished to see the Rocky Mountains before he died. Unable to travel, yet being a man of some means, he hired a number of skilled artists and dispatched them to the West. To each he gave orders to bring him a painting that would display…

  • Only the Christian Faith Begins At the Top

    Only the Christian Faith Begins At the Top

    Though few tools are simpler than a plumb line, few are more effective at their task. A plumb line is simply a pointed weight—a plumb bob, or plummet, if you prefer—that has been suspended from a cord. The bob dangles from the cord and, through the consistent downward pull of gravity, establishes a vertical reference.…

  • My Great Daily Challenge As a Christian

    My Great Daily Challenge As a Christian

    The great daily challenge I face in Christian living is not a challenge of knowledge—I know what I need to know in order to live in a way that pleases God. It is not a challenge of discernment—there is rarely any great difficulty in distinguishing truth from error and right from wrong. It is not…

  • Maintaining Confidence in the Process

    Maintaining Confidence in the Process

    We are people in a hurry. We live fast-paced lives in a fast-paced culture. We can never go quick enough to keep up, never do enough to complete every task, never accomplish enough to satisfy ourselves or others. But still we try, still we hurry on. Yet the Christian life has a way of challenging…

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    Four Categories to “Act the Miracle”

    So much of the Christian life comes down to the matter of identity. At heart, who are we? Who or what has the right to define us? What is our deepest identity? Identity is at the core of many issues, not the least of which is same-sex attraction. In her book Gay Girl, Good God,…

  • Young People: Set an Example

    Young Christian: Set an Example

    It has never been easy to be a Christian. It has never been easy to be a young Christian. How are young Christians to live differently in their speech and conduct? How can they strive to live godly lives? Here’s my attempt to answer those questions. Transcript The young adult years can be spent chasing…

  • The 10 Duties of Every Christian

    The 10 Duties of Every Christian

    The Christian life is one of obedience. It is what one author has brilliantly described as “a long obedience in the same direction.” Those who have turned to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith prove the authenticity of their conversion by their obedience. No sooner have they made their profession than they begin to willingly…