Tackiness is not a sin
This one is excellent: ‘when I say that tackiness is not a sin, I am not excusing bad art or approving of shallowness or breaking with the most sober and significant parts of our faith. I am saying, simply, that tackiness is not a sin—because it’s not.’
No Holy Land: Does Israel Still Have a Biblical Claim on the Middle East?
You may or may not agree with Michael Horton’s view about whether there is a biblical claim for Israel to exist in the Middle East. He doesn’t make the case they have no right to be there, just a biblical case about whether the land promises hold today.
Five Words in a Known Tongue
‘D.A. Carson sat in my study as we awaited the time to go into the church sanctuary for the morning worship service where he would be preaching. “Do you have any illiterate people in your church?” he asked. I told him I knew of several and that my estimation was probably low. He nodded and that was the end of that part of our conversation. We went to the service, and he preached a sermon that a ten year old could understand. A man in our church, not illiterate, but not well educated, approached me and commented after the message, “That was sweet”. And it was. It is a rare gift for a man with the intellect of D.A. Carson to be able to preach in such a way that the uneducated can understand him and benefit from what they heard. There are a great many intellectuals who think they have the ability, but they don’t.’
How Much of My Suffering Should I Share with My People?
‘Garrett Kell offers nine questions to help pastors discern how much of their suffering to share with their church. Kell’s questions are based on biblical principles as well as his experience of walking through intense suffering in his own family. While every pastor and every church are different, pastors should consider how sharing might affect their wife, their children, and their church’s focus on Jesus Christ.’
Parents, What Drives You to Frustration Might Be What Changes the World
This one looks at how the Lord may just be using those things that frustrate us about our children.
Want to preach better? Learn to write better
‘Over the past year, I’ve received more positive feedback on my writing and, perhaps more significantly, on my preaching. That has made me wonder: what changed? I don’t think I suddenly became more theological. I don’t think I discovered some hidden preaching technique. I haven’t spent hours crafting clever sound bites or trying to manufacture memorable quotes. But I have changed the way I write.’
From the archive: If we don’t know each other, I’m just a random stranger you’ve called for life advice
‘If you don’t belong anywhere, you have not submitted yourself to any pastoral care and oversight. If you haven’t even submitted to the elders of the church you regularly attend, what is a pastor from another church that you’ve never so much as been to going to add? Just as my pastoral care to those who are not in membership of my church has necessary and particular limits, how much more will it be limited towards those I have never met and whose situations I do not know the first things about except what they tell me over a phone?’