What happens with Noah & Ham?
This one takes a look at the little vignette about Noah drinking and Ham, his son, ‘saw his father naked’. The big question is: what exactly happened?
Pastoral Time Guilt
I feel this one: ‘Every pastor knows the feeling. You leave the hospital wondering whether you should have stayed in your study. You leave your study wondering whether you should have visited another family. You finally sit down with your wife and children only to remember the unanswered emails, the counseling appointment you need to schedule, or the sermon that still feels unfinished. Ministry has a way of convincing us that wherever we are is exactly where we should not be. The result is a quiet burden many faithful pastors carry every day: time guilt.’
Sophie Cunningham is tearing down transgender lies, but only God’s people can offer up His Truth
Sophie Cunningham – WNBA player for Indiana Fever – has made a public stand on this issue. John Dykstra looks at why her stance is helpful, but also why it is not the whole answer.
Can Anyone Harden Their Heart Beyond God’s Reach?
Tim Challies answers this one.
Salvation History: The Bible’s Grand Story of Redemption
‘Most Christians who have grown up attending a gospel-preaching church can recount the famous stories from the Bible. They know about Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the animals on Noah’s ark, Moses parting the Red Sea, David defeating Goliath with his sling and a stone, Daniel surviving the lions’ den, not to mention Jesus’s miracles and, of course, his crucifixion and resurrection. However, it’s one thing to know the Bible’s stories, another to know the Bible’s story.’
How to Avoid Individualism When Listening to Sermons
‘No Christian is a church of one. So God has designed that his children gather each week as a family to hear our Father’s word about his Son through his Spirit. Our three-in-one God summons us as one body to listen together, talk together, and grow together. As healthy families take their meals at a common table, healthy churches enjoy the Scriptures together, nourished and fueled by the preached word that shapes us all for the shared life we were never meant to face alone.’
From the archive: A better theology of work
‘Adam was given, to all intents and purposes, a fairly secular job to do. Most of the dudes in the Bible had some sort of ordinary job to do and weren’t viewed as unspiritual for doing it. For a lot of them, it was just herding animals. But you’ve also got your Daniels and Nehemiahs who were employed by the state to do some sort of civil service job. When you get to the New Testament, quite a few dudes were running fairly ordinary jobs and nobody was suggesting they had chosen some sort of low road. And let’s not forget Jesus was working a normal job for most of his life too.’