“I believe very strongly in the principle and practice of the purity of the visible church, but I have seen churches that have fought for purity and are merely hotbeds of ugliness. No longer is there any observable, loving, personal relationship, even in their own midst, let alone with other true Christians” (Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian). Talk about a disconnect between Jesus’ pra...  Read More

Charles Dickens once said, “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” The great author’s words ring true, and hold profound significance, but we must not miss the key doctrine that undergirds our salvation. The crucial principle to which I refer is the doctrine that we call “the Incarnation.” It boggles the mind to think tha...  Read More

“We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us than under the staff that comforts us” (Stephen Charnock*). This opening statement seems like a depressing and discouraging way to begin a devotional! Nevertheless, there is a vitally important lesson in Hebrews 12 to be learned today about God’s discipline and our endurance. Let’s open our hearts to receive the Lord’s encouragement for us ...  Read More

Déjà vu moments occur at times in our lives, but we do not usually have them when reading a daily devotional! We may feel like we have already been in a “love passage,” which we encountered in 12:9-13, but this one widens the focus beyond the church to include government and society at large (13:1-7). We have been together in these devotionals long enough for me to earn your trust, so I hope that ...  Read More

In times past, parents would send their children off into the world with an exhortation to make something of themselves. Did your parents exhort you in a somewhat similar fashion when you were launching into adulthood? I read somewhere of a parent saying something like, “God has given you two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.” Paul, a spiritual father to the many churches he p...  Read More

“It’s as plain as the nose on your face” means that something is obvious. Sometimes it is so apparent we may overlook it! Paul wraps up the letter to the Corinthians with a powerful benediction, providing us with obvious ways to revive a church in distress. His message is as plain as the nose on our face, but do we see it? Benedictions that inspire healthy church fellowship The context in 2 Corint...  Read More

Both this issue [of the Center's E-News] and the year 2024 mark the anniversaries of two important events in US history: the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act (1964). These monumental events, with their deep theological and civic-responsibility roots, radically changed American life for the better. This article highlights the p...  Read More

[Photo credit: "A Public Witness" -- Word & Way] This article was originally published in the Center's E-News on Oct. 31, 2024 I arrived prior to sun-up on Tuesday of this week at a designated early-voting site in my city. My hope, as I walked across the pitch-dark parking lot toward a light at the front door, was that all voters would be enlightened to the responsibilities of citizenship. Perhaps...  Read More

Let’s argue! One of Paul’s wonderful attributes, and there were many, was his use of argument. No, not the hair-pulling, veins-popping-out kind that we too often encounter in our current culture. I mean rhetoric! If you want to know where Paul is going with an idea, then all you must do is see from whence the idea was flowing. I follow the verbs. In our focal context, he reaches back to 1 Corinthi...  Read More

We are at war! No, a rogue nation has not crossed a “red line,” but we are engaged in daily conflict. As the comic strip Pogo once famously stated, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” I opened my social media threads this morning and was hit with a barrage of venomous rhetoric in what are often claimed to be trusted news sources. The psalmist reminds us that war does not take place solely on bat...  Read More

“The person who broke you can’t be the one who fixes you” is a popular meme. It holds some truth, but I wish it were as simple as that quote suggests. Sin cripples and leaves us in such disrepair that we have no hope of ever “fixing” ourselves. Gloriously, we meet Hope, who is Jesus Christ, and He changes our hearts forever. We are His from then on, regardless of who we once were. Our value is for...  Read More

Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you” (Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, 58). Job vents his frustration over the pain and suffering he is experiencing, his confusion about God’s place in all of it, and his anger at the meaningless words of his “comforters.” Sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees when we suffer because our pain ...  Read More