“The sins we do not forget, God does not remember.”
One effective way to avoid our own dark shadows is to hide behind the bright and obvious faults of someone else. The following transparent and honest illustration from Dan Allender in his article, Loving Our Enemies: A Look at Why We Wrongly Love Our Enemies (1995), reveals the ways and reasons we unite with one another…
Remember Riley Cooper? In 2013, Cooper, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, used a racial slur (yes, that racial slur) while claiming that he wanted to fight all of the Black people at a Kenny Chesney concert. Cooper is White. And the entire tirade was caught on video. Cooper apologized—immediately…
In 1738, literary giant Samuel Johnson wrote in his diary: “O Lord, enable me … to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth.” Nineteen years later, he wrote, “Almighty God, enable me to shake off sloth, and to redeem the time misspent in idleness and sin, by a diligent application of the days yet remaining.” Every few years…
Christmas is supposed to be “…the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” But for many of us, it’s the most painful. It’s that time of year when budgets break; when you’re reminded of how dysfunctional your family is; when you miss the people you love who have either died or left you. Maybe you’re still single, and Christmas is a…
Did you hear about the guy with the toothache on the Titanic? Or the couple who were bickering about their relationship in their cabin? Or the grieving widow and her children? Or the guy who was drunk and in despair about his addiction? Little did these people know, as they made their way across the Atlantic Ocean in 1912…
We all suffer. Pain is unavoidable. It’s not a question of “if” but “when.” It can take the form of a sudden catastrophe, such as the news of a brain tumor or an affair or the death of a child. Or it can be something more ordinary like a strained relationship that never seems to get easier, dragging on in a kind of dull ache…
Recently at Living Faith Church, Cape Coral, Florida, I had the chance to introduce Tullian as the speaker at a ‘Broken Christmas’ service. The following is the story with which I welcomed him. It comes from William Inge’s 1970 novel entitled, “My Son Is a Splendid Driver.” The narrator, a man in his mid-40s, is visiting…
Believe it or not, when people ask me which book of the Bible they should read first, I often answer, “Ecclesiastes.” It is unlike any other. Smack dab in the middle of the Old Testament sits a bombshell of diagnostic brilliance, capable of cutting through our avoidances and suppressions, and returning us to reality…
The church is not in the world to teach sinners how to straighten up and fly right. That’s the world’s business; and on the whole it does a fairly competent—even gleefully aggressive—job of it. The church is supposed to be in the forgiveness business. Its job in filling pulpits is to find derelict nobodies…
My wife and I recently got back from a trip to Pontiac, Michigan. I was invited to spend three days at Grace Center of Hope (formerly known as Pontiac Rescue Mission) and their associated church, Grace Gospel Fellowship. Pastor Kent Clark and his wife Pam have been there for over thirty years…
We are getting accustomed these days to turning on the news and seeing the sinful natures of celebrities and politicians exposed. Their power, wealth, and fame gives their sinful natures the opportunity to “go big” in all of their failures. But what is exposed in these celebrities and politicians…
I was sixteen when my parents kicked me out of the house. What started out as run-of-the-mill adolescent rebellion in my early teens had, over the course of a few short years, blossomed into a black hole of disrespect and self-centeredness that was consuming the entire family. I would lie when…
Growing up, I loved Christmas. It was, by far, my favorite time of year. I loved the presents and the music and the lights and the chaos and the traditions and the decorations and the shopping and the Christmas movies and the food. I loved it all. But more than anything, I loved being with my…
The primary purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and God’s hatred of it. The Law exposes our failure, and it diagnoses our disease. It reveals God’s perfect will and our inability to keep it. The Law is good, but it is ruthless. It demands everything but gives nothing. The Law cannot produce in us what…
Last weekend I had the privilege of spending a few days in Salt Lake City at the kind and gracious invitation of South Mountain Community Church. To celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, they asked me to come out and talk about grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone in light of…
Many of you already know this (though some of you may not), but I used to be a pastor. Some would even say a successful pastor. I was leading a large church that serves a college-prep school and a seminary, writing a book a year, traveling extensively all over the country to speak at conferences…
The great magician, Harry Houdini, was a famous escape artist. Known for his uncanny ability to free himself from: handcuffs, ropes, chains, straight jackets, locked trunks, and just about anything else. He often issued challenges for people to try to confine him, but he could always find a way…
If you’ve made a mess of your life (like I have), then you probably struggle with a lot of guilt, shame, and regret (like I do). And if you’re a parent (like I am) and the mess you’ve made has hurt your kids (like mine did), then the guilt, shame, and regret you probably feel is often paralyzing (like mine is)…
Want to do something that people really love? Commit an act of infamy. It doesn’t have to be a mind-boggling evil. Something run-of-the-mill will do. It just needs to be simple, scandalous, and public knowledge. Think Monica Lewinski. Why? Infamy allows us the opportunity to hone one of our favorite skills: to shrink a 343-page life story…
I’ve been mulling over 1 Timothy 1:15. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the chief of sinners.” If you are in the ministry and have watched colleague after colleague “bite the dust” for sins that may well have been of their own…
