This morning I came across some crazy ideas online. There was the guy arguing that Christians do not sin. Another said the Apostle Paul was a deceiver who ruined the faith. A preacher argued James (brother of Jesus and author of the Book of James) did not understand the gospel, and that his book containsContinue reading “Beware: False Teachers are Everywhere. Ezekiel 13:1-14.”
Tag Archives: 2 Timothy 2:15
THIS IS NOT MELATONIN. Ezekiel 44:5; 2 Timothy 2:15.
Sometimes Bible reading is like mood music in a department store—humming along quietly in the background, but no one’s really listening. You may call your devotional a “Quiet Time,” but your mind should NOT be quiet—it should be buzzing with thoughts about what you’re reading. Consider how we sell Bibles. Are they surrounded by teaContinue reading “THIS IS NOT MELATONIN. Ezekiel 44:5; 2 Timothy 2:15.”
STUDY THE WORD. 2 Timothy 2:15.
My Facebook profile pic this week is a quotation from a great preacher: “You can live on froth, bubbles, and little wisps of badly understood theology until the pressure is on. But when the pressure is on, you will want to know what kind of God you are serving” —A.W. Tozer. I posted this forContinue reading “STUDY THE WORD. 2 Timothy 2:15.”
Give the Word the Benefit of the Doubt. 2 Timothy 2:15.
God saved you, right? He made you, loves you, forgives you, died for you, correct? No one loves you the way He loves you. And what tool does He give you to get through the daily challenges of life? His Word. His written record of truth and answers and solutions. It’s all in there: theContinue reading “Give the Word the Benefit of the Doubt. 2 Timothy 2:15.”
ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN THE AMERICAN CHURCH. Hebrews 5:11-12
We evangelicals have been accused of being anti-intellectual—and it seems a fair assessment. Things that require concentration are often dismissed as “not of God.” We reject complexity and nuance. Some of us won’t read anything that requires us to turn off our music. Preachers have to hold our hands for challenging topics. I have heardContinue reading “ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN THE AMERICAN CHURCH. Hebrews 5:11-12”
HAVE YOU HEARD OF APOLOGETICS? 1 Peter 3:15.
It’s not apologizing. Apologetics is “defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation.” That is, apologetics is the practice of defending your faith with logic. Not everyone who is lost will need apologetics. But with some colleges pumping out skeptics every day, more and more nonbelievers are asking hard questions. The study of apologetics helps us answerContinue reading “HAVE YOU HEARD OF APOLOGETICS? 1 Peter 3:15.”
WISDOM. Hebrews 4:12-13.
The year 2020 was a year of searing pain. I talked to a friend at work during the summer of 2021 about the year of 2020, and about politics, riots, COVID, vaccines, and suffering. If you measured the greatest amount of pain distributed to the greatest number of people, the pain of 2020 must haveContinue reading “WISDOM. Hebrews 4:12-13.”
Today’s Math Problem. Matthew 1:1, 17.
The book of Matthew—and thus, the New Testament—begins with the remarkable genealogy of Jesus. Genealogies make tough reading, but put yourself in the writer’s position: Matthew wants to prove to his Hebrew people that Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah. Jesus’s ancestry is the logical place to start. “The historical record of Jesus Christ, the SonContinue reading “Today’s Math Problem. Matthew 1:1, 17.”
THE SCANDAL OF THE SERMON ILLUSTRATION. Ezekiel 1-4.
We have gotten carried away with sermon illustrations. One Sunday morning I turned on the television to discover that Woodlands, Texas, pastor Kerry Shook had had truckload after truckload of dirt hauled into his church and piled on the stage. Stage left bore a thirty-foot mound of dirt and stage right bore a thirty-foot moundContinue reading “THE SCANDAL OF THE SERMON ILLUSTRATION. Ezekiel 1-4.”
PROOF TEXTING. 2 Timothy 2:15; Jeremiah 28:15-17.
A Bible professor accused me of “proof texting” when I used a single verse to prove a point. Bible doctrine should be proven with many verses, across the entirety of scripture, from many writers, across the centuries, and from both the Old and New Testaments. Proof texting, by contrast, is when you argue a pointContinue reading “PROOF TEXTING. 2 Timothy 2:15; Jeremiah 28:15-17.”
Household Words: 