It’s been an intense month of growth and a full week of ministry. Last Sunday I taught Proverbs 8:12-21 in our adult Sunday School class. On Monday I preached in chapel on Romans 8:32. On Tuesday and Thursday I substituted in the “Problems and Procedures” counseling class teaching on how to counsel believers wrestling with same-sex attraction. … More This Week and Beyond
Satan is the great accuser of the saints. Jesus is the great defender of the saints. They are in heaven waging a relentless courtroom battle for our souls. On one side stands Satan as “the accuser of our brothers… who accuses them day and night before our God” (Revelation 12:10). On the other side stands … More Satan and Jesus in God’s Courtroom
Dr. Gregg Frazer, Professor of Political Studies at TMC, recently gave a chapel lecture on the Christian’s roles and responsibilities in political society. It was very balanced and helpful in my opinion, especially during a particularly intense election year, so I share it here with his permission. (1) Political involvement is perfectly proper. As an … More How to Live Biblically in Political Society
We live in the self-proclaimed Information Age. Give me an hour and a decent internet connection and I can be an expert on anything. If I don’t know it, I’ll Google it or Wikipedia it (two verbs that weren’t verbs just a few years ago). If I know it but can’t prove it, I’ll go … More Shallow Knowledge
A lot has been said about the emerging and emergent movements, contemporary calls for relevance, the debated value of cultural analysis, and the Pauline call to be “all things to all men” (1 Cor 9). These are the hot-button topics at the evangelical table (or behind the evangelical woodshed). They are important topics and these … More Who’s Emerging for the Widows? Thoughts on Missional Partiality
Scottish pioneer missionary John G. Paton reflecting on the influence of his father’s life of earnest, secret prayer: The “closet” was a very small apartment betwixt the other two [rooms of the house], having room only for a bed, a little table, and a chair, with a diminutive window shedding diminutive light on the scene. … More The Influence of a Father’s Prayer Life
The annual August Rush at The Master’s College continues this week as the incoming freshmen arrived on Saturday. My public responsibilities are lighter this week as others are spearheading our orientiation called WOW (Week of Welcome). So I have a bit of time to recap our leadership retreats this month. Resident Director Retreat — The Lord … More August Rush
As I’ve studied and preached on the radical words of Jesus in the Gospels, I’ve found myself unable to escape one striking observation: Jesus does not give disclaimers. We hear “Take up your cross daily,” “Hate your father and mother,” “Gouge out your eye and hack off your hand,” and “Eat my flesh and drink my … More Jesus and Disclaimers
Here’s a hodge-podge of thoughts on holiness and mission as a follow-up and expansion of the last post and a response to several of the comments. If I had time to organize these into a cohesive, flowing argument, I would try. But late-July is not the time for a TMC Student-Lifer to be writing treatises. I … More Holiness and Mission
The pendulum of evangelicalism is swinging again (not a news flash). It has been for some time now. Everyone is talking about the nature and degree of the church’s responsibility to engage with culture. Some of the buzzwords are “culture,” “relevance,” and “contextualization.” Some of the hot button verses are Acts 17 and 1 Corinthians 9. … More When the Pendulum Swings
This past year, four tremendous guys served with me in leading the OMC. Juan Moncayo, Nate Brooks, Cameron Knox, and Peter Bugbee. Fellow OMC’er Cole Jeffrey, who has the “It” factor in photography, took the picture (and many others).
After a full day on Saturday, Cindi and I awoke on Sunday with a full day planned. We headed out the door and drove two miles through downtown toward the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This park is crowned by the 63-story St. Louis Arch which stands on the western bank of the Mississippi as the welcoming gatekeeper … More St. Louis, Missouri (2)
After traveling together in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Uganda, and the States, Cindi and I have realized that our best vacations (the ones where we are most personally and maritally refreshed) are when we take short trips to new places and spend full days exploring. We find cheap hotels, patch together transportation, see the major sights and attractions, … More St. Louis, Missouri
We bought Judah his first bike several weeks ago. For the first week or two he tried and tried but couldn’t quite get the hang of the pedal cycle. He knew to push one pedal forward and down, but once he pushed it all the way to the bottom, he didn’t know how to turn the other pedal … More Judah and His New Bike
After 7.8 million views, I’m sure that many of you have seen this before. But for all you mom’s out there who haven’t yet, Anita Renfroe has summarized in three minutes what you’ve been trying to say every day for all these years. And for all of us who are old enough to appreciate all that our moms … More What Your Mom Was Trying to Tell You (in Three Minutes)
The apostle Peter was not shy theologically. In 1 Peter 1:3-5, writing to intensely suffering Christians, he paints an enviable picture of the invincibility of our inheritance in Christ. He describes our inheritance in a multitude of ways in these three verses, but there is one particular string that stands out for its staccato structure of phrases describing the … More Our Invincible Inheritance
