Every single day, Christians are confronted with a barrage of competing messages. One cannot drive down the nterstate without being assaulted with numerous billboard messages–-political, commercial and even sexual. Visual messaging is the manner in which society has chiefly chosen to...

In an increasingly politicized age, we have become used to political slogans designed to encapsulate the heart of a candidate’s message--everything from “Change We Can Believe In” (2008) to “Make America Great Again” (2016). In the high politicization of American...

Many have experienced the kind of hard providences that have brought them near to the end of their faith. Seemingly Earth-shattering events are common to all men, and are heightened in the life of the believer by the trials that we uniquely face ( e.g. persecution for the sake of the Gospel). The...

Perhaps now, more than ever, Christians need wisdom to process the multitude of temptations to sexual sin with which they are confronted. While it is true that sexual sin has always been a problem in the church, there should be little doubt that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the...

In 1 Thessalonians 2 Paul outlines the character and practices of a godly pastoral ministry. What he writes is a sobering reminder to all pastors, and to churches, of the standards and challenges of the pastoral ministry. His technique for outlining a faithful pastoral ministry is interesting. In...

Western society, as it slips inexorably into greater unbelief and alienation from God, has created new laws--both written and unwritten--concerning what is and what is not permissible to say in public. “Hate speech," as it is called, seems to be the only intolerable thing to the worldly...

What are the marks of a spiritually healthy believer? In 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 we find Paul’s thanksgiving to God for spiritually healthy Christians. He tells the Thessalonians--who were relatively new converts--a number of remarkable truths about themselves. I don't think that there is...

Regrettably, conflict is a reality in the church. Often that conflict is between a congregant and the pastor. After all, he is--in many ways--the focal point of the church’s public ministry. A good pastor is hard to find. A good congregant is equally hard to find. How then should you seek to...

In every genre of Scripture, whether it be narrative, Psalms, wisdom or the Gospels and Epistles, warnings against sexual sin are prominent. From Genesis to Revelation, every book of Scripture teaches that believers are to vigorously pursue sexual purity and forewarns against transgressing God...

One of the great difficulties we encounter when we seek to preach Christ from the Old Testament is the challenge of being able to rightly apply the text--both in its original context and then to our own. After all, a chasm of thousands of years exists between the life of the patriarchs and monarchs...

As I approach the fifth anniversary of my ordination to pastoral ministry, I confess that last five years have been a maelstrom of emotional highs and lows--as well as a school of previously unknown experiences. My own experiences and observations of pastoral situations have helped produce my baker...

Many of us have joyfully welcomed the renaissance of Christ-centered preaching that churches in North America have undergone in recent decades. For some it has been an old practice to saturate their ministry with the person and work of the Savior. For others it is a relatively new thing to...

In the first post in this series we examined four useful principles in studying the book of Psalms. They were as follows: 1. Is there a common theme between the Psalm you are reading and surrounding Psalms? 2. Is there a development of themes throughout these Psalms? 3. Can we find structural...

I was recently introduced to the phrase, "going-to-hell sin." This intrigued me because, from my own studies of Scripture when I was a young Christian, I always thought it was clear that all sins were "going-to-hell sins." But apparently not. Hollywood certainly has us thinking...

Having given brief consideration to the Israelites exodus from Egypt, we observed, in our first post , five elements to the idea of the “exodus” principle. First, we observed that Exodus takes place to and for God’s chosen people. Second, we observe a physical departure from the...

This is the second part in a series of posts on the Sermon on the Mount. You can read the first installment here . In the last post of this series we considered how King Jesus is at the centre of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon speaks not only of how Kingdom citizens are to behave, but more...