When I first came to Jesus, as a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, my primary concern was “What’s in this new relationship with God for me? What has happened to me? What are the implications in my life and my relationships with those around me? How do I continue in this new way of life?” So, initially, the gospel is always, just as it was with me, a “me-centered” gospel. And why not? There is potentially a lot in it for me—forgiveness of…
For the first time in our nation’s history, the independent, separate relationship between church and state in America is in question. Does the state have the power, constitutionally and biblically, to dictate the church’s conduct, even to the extent of shutting it down in cases of real or imagined crisis, as many blue states are doing now? The First Amendment to the Constitution is clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting (that includes “restricting”) the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”…
This is Martin Luther’s Preface to Galatians. God used these truths powerfully in the 16th century to reclaim the gospel which had been lost over the previous centuries. This message, outlined beautifully here, literally ignited the Reformation and summarizes what we discuss weekly on this blog. Preface to Galatians by Martin Luther (Abridgment & Paraphrase by Rev. Tim Keller) The most important thing in the world The one doctrine which…
In modern America, the concept of any fixed baseline of eternal truth, outside of yourself, is ridiculed. The postmodern idea of truth as “whatever is right for you” has carried the day. As Christians we know, at least theoretically, that the source of all truth is the fixed, eternal, word of God, but many Christians have been sucked into saying “Yeah, yeah, I know that, but it just makes sense that God smiles on true love, even between homosexuals, and they should be allowed…
We have seen that God’s plan for each of us is to be involved, in some way, in the civil government. It is essential, because it is one of the three institutions through which we will establish Jesus’ rule over the earth. We begin our involvement by voting—the entry level job. Over 3000 years ago, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, introduced to Moses the concept of civil governing by a carefully qualified, increasingly authoritative, plurality of leadership. Today, Jethro’s idea of governmental authority forms the basis…
For many Christians, a more basic question is, “Why vote in November?” Depending on the definition of the term, generally, only a bit over half of the evangelicals in America vote, and in 2016 it was about 60%. That means almost half of the Christians don’t vote at all. My perspective, very practically, is that God has given us in America the privilege and freedom of choosing our own leaders, and if we don’t use that gift faithfully, we will lose it. That is…
I got an email from a very good friend this past week who is a mature, insightful, very involved kingdom warrior. He asked me, “Do you think we are toast as a nation?” What do you think? Your answer to that same question will depend on your theology—what you think God is like. If you think like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you think life is purposeless. After his wife’s death, he said, ”Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, / That struts and frets his…
We saw last week that God has given every husband the authority to lead his family. He listens to all input from his wife and children (if his wife is smarter and more insightful than he is, he would be a fool not to listen to her), but, in the final analysis, he must decide if the input is followed or not. He must make the final decision. “What a great idea!’ We’ll do that!“ is not a lack of leadership, but often a…
Disagreement on the answer to this question brings inevitable conflict to every human association: our families, churches, businesses and nations. Every war ever fought has been over who will have authority over whom. It was the reason for the Fall, as Satan disagreed with God about who should be in charge of the world, and he persuaded Adam, through his wife Eve, to join with him in challenging God’s right to be God and to run His creation. That conflict is ongoing, and the…
I am sure there are many systematic, organized, books, courses, and classes available for those who want to learn to be leaders themselves, but what about the average working stiff? He has no leadership aspirations but only wants to support his family, be a productive member of society, and live a quiet, happy, peaceful life with his wife. However, even he cannot escape this leadership question that is the title of this blog posting. In America, he has the extremely rare, exhilarating freedom to…