Bring a substitute teacher in any middle school class in the public schools is an adventure. The English class where I was recently subbing was scheduled to spend the last period of the day in the library researching, checking out books and reading. I was thrilled because the responsibility to wrestle with rebellious teenagers to maintain order in the classroom, during what is often the most difficult period of the day to do so, would pass from me to the librarian. I had had…

To many Christians, the concept of “discussing theology” creates an image of aged, crotchety academics arguing over arcane, irrelevant points of biblical doctrine that have no practical value whatsoever. The very word causes eyes to glaze over, brains to click off, and watches to be checked. This is a pity, because theology is nothing more than asking and then seeking answers from the Bible to the most important question we can ever ask: “What is God like?” Therefore, we are all theologians, because we…

Last week, we saw that God created us for a specific purpose. Was it to “have fellowship with Him” because He was lonely and wanted “someone to love who would love Him back,” like a widow or widower might purchase a pet dog to keep her/him company? Don’t you feel sorry for poor God? No, God created man with a three-fold, eternal purpose for living (working for Him to build His “family business”)—one overarching objective and two essential, supporting ones—in order for His eternal…

Is your “endgame” here on the earth to get saved from Hell yourself and then go to Heaven, taking as many people with you as possible in the process? That was my original view of Christianity growing up. In my church I learned that the highest calling in life was a vocation that allowed you to spend full time doing that—the “professional” ministry, i.e., being a pastor or a missionary. While I was in college, I experienced Jesus Christ for the first time, and,…

The beginning of a New Year is considered by most of us to be a perfect time to “make a fresh start;” “ begin again;” or “turn over a new leaf.” I am sure making those resolutions can be valuable and very profitable experiences, and there is nothing intrinsically unchristian about those ideas. However, some time ago I found myself growing increasingly uncomfortable with the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions. As I thought about it, I figured out why. Obviously, no one is…

Imagine yourself as a shepherd in the countryside around Bethlehem on the first Christmas night over 2000 years ago. An angel suddenly appears to you and your fellow shepherds, surrounded by “the glory of the Lord” and announces that the long-awaited savior of your people, the Jews, had come on that very day!  A multitude of angels then join the original one and began “praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’” (Luke 3:13, 14).…

Peter Ducy of Fox News was reporting from the “Roy Moore for Senate” election watch party the night of the recent senatorial election in Alabama. According to Ducy, as the returns were coming in and the projections began to predict a Moore defeat, the tension, worry and consternation began to grow among Moore’s associates. However, Moore remained calm himself and expressed something like this: “God is in charge; if we win that will be fine; if not, that will be fine as well. God’s…

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have undoubtedly been encouraged to grow in your faith by “studying the Bible,” “having a daily quiet time, “ or “memorizing the Word.” We are told the more diligent we are in following these Christian disciplines the more we will grow in our spiritual lives, i.e., the more successful we will become in obeying the commands in Scripture. I grew up with this well-known adage: “Either the Bible will keep you from…

As we have discussed what the Bible calls “walking by faith” or “living by faith”  over the past weeks, I have emphasized that these familiar, much-used phrases actually represent a little-experienced way to live. Deciding to be a Christian by believing that Jesus died for our sins does not mean that we are “walking by faith,” also called in the Bible, “walking in the Spirit” or “living in the Spirit.” Nor do these biblical terms refer to me, now that I am a Christian,…

“Have you retired from actively, aggressively serving God?” Hearing that question and sensing the challenge in it, I believe the person being asked, more often than not, is immediately overcome with 1.) energy-sapping fatigue, or 2.) crushing guilt for “putting his hand to the plow” and then “drawing back”, or 3.) maybe even anger, remembering again the hypocrisy, politics, empire building and greed he saw in the church. The purpose of a question like that is generally to get you to evaluate your life…