[Originally published June 1, 2020] A long philosophical history has led our nation to attach theoretical moral rights, grounded in deity and nature’s laws, to actual statutes with the goal of securing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. How can it be that this most basic human right, a right to protect one’s own person, was violated before our eyes last week on a street in Minnea...  Read More

The Spirit-directed life flows from the choice to embrace it, then apply it. Henry Blackaby has said, “God speaks through a variety of means. In the present God primarily speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church.” We have all of these means at our disposal, so none of us should believe that living in the Spirit is out of reach. Paul reminds us today that ...  Read More

More than a few rags-to-riches graduation videos have made social media news this year. I enjoy viewing the stories of young men and women who have overcome great hardship to accomplish academic milestones. I guess we can say that Bathsheba’s boy was featured in the Israelite Gazette! His success is well-chronicled in Kings. His predecessor Saul had overseen a loose confederacy of tribes, and his ...  Read More

It was twenty years ago this spring that I set off for England. I had the glorious gift of spending almost a year away in study. I lived sixteen miles northwest of Oxford, in the Cotswolds, in a small hamlet called Field Assarts. Tucked along a bend in the road, my rural crossroads had a beautiful parish church and a clutch of lovely, honey-colored stone houses, surrounded by verdant green fields,...  Read More

What if Paul were to hold a conference at your church and ask you about its “organic growth?” Let me explain. There has been a proliferation of “how to” sources throughout my four decades of ministry commenting on everything from growing in numbers in one location to transitioning a church from one size and place to mega-status across multiple sites. The Ashlock question is blunt: Are we expecting...  Read More

The court of public opinion is quite fickle! We will take a bird’s eye view today of one particular segment of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion where moral flip-flopping is evident (See 27:24-25). We will see how swiftly down a slippery slope a people may slide when the moral hillside is blanketed with injustice (26:4, 59, 65; 27:12-14, & 18, “out of envy that they had delivered him up”). All involved...  Read More

We all could use a miracle about now! People have begun counting the number of days that they have been under stay-at-home orders, recounting former care-free days by posting numerous pictures on social media from high school graduations to family vacations, and wondering openly whether this current plague will ever end! Have you ever wished for some bright ray of sunlight in an otherwise cloudy p...  Read More

Mother Teresa once said, “. . .The sufferers from leprosy, the rejected, the alcoholic, who we serve, are beautiful people. Many of them have wonderful personalities. The experience which we have by serving them, we must pass on to people who have not had that wonderful experience.” “Phase II” in the fight against the novel coronavirus has been entered by many nations. This move beyond the terrify...  Read More

In the past two weeks, Christians have celebrated Christ's resurrection all across the world. Many of us celebrated Easter on 12 April of this year, and many others, mainly Orthodox Christians, observed Easter on 19 April. Why is this so? Western Christianity uses the Gregorian Calendar and celebrates Easter on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April, within about seven days after the astronomical ...  Read More

Mature Christians will know that temptations provide them with crucial preparation for service to the Lord. Have you ever viewed temptations in this way? Jesus encountered temptation right on the heels of his mountain-top experience of God’s affirmation at His baptism and sets a wonderful example for us to follow (3:16-17). We will often reach crossroads where we must decide whether to pursue God’...  Read More

Christians and non-Christians have faced disease and tragedy in similar ways across the ages. Their approaches to their circumstances, however, have often been markedly different. The historic Christian response has been founded upon Jesus's most important teachings: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength," and "Love your nei...  Read More

Charles was born in 1949 to an alcoholic and abusive father in Kathithyamaa Village in Kangundo, Machakos, Kenya. By the time he was five years old, he had been utterly abandoned by his parents. He became a street child. Begging for food and drink and building shelter with tin and cardboard, he survived. Adults along the way gave him access to the free primary school, but there was no home for him...  Read More