Author: S&P

In her book, “The Envy of Eve,” Author Melissa Kruger helps us understand how seemingly harmless desires and questions like this grow into the sin of covetousness. Envying the relationships, circumstances, possessions, and abilities of others chokes out the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, allowing discontentment to bloom. The key to overcoming is to get to the root of our problem: unbelief—...

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions on gay marriage: one dealing with California’s ban on gay marriage (a.k.a. Proposition 8) and the other with the federal Defense of Marriage Act (a.k.a. DOMA). In neither case did the Court do anything to slow down the advance of gay marriage in the United States. In the Prop 8 case, the majority decided that the plaintiffs did not have st...

Christians often measure the significance of a job by its perceived value from the eternal perspective. Will the work last; will it “really count” for eternity? The implication is that God approves of work for eternity, but places little value on work for the here and now. By this measure, the work of ministers and missionaries has eternal value because it deals with people’s spiritual, eternal ne...

One of our most exciting research projects at the Fuller Youth Institute is our College Transition Project, a culmination of 5 years of study of 500 youth group kids as they transition to college.  The goals of this research are to study youth group graduates as they leave youth ministry and to offer help to parents, leaders and churches in building a faith that lasts, or “Sticky Faith”. ...

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act serves as a boost to ongoing efforts to legalize same-sex marriage across the nation. Christians believe marriage is defined by God and recognized by government. But many today believe marriage is defined by government and must be recognized by all. For this reason, I’m not optimistic about the trends concerning marriage and f...

Rachel Held Evans concludes her blog post If my son or daughter were gay with this paragraph: If God blesses Dan and me with a child who is gay, I would want that child to know without a doubt that he or she is loved unconditionally. I would want her to know nothing could separate her from the love of God in Christ. I would want her to know that she isn’t broken, she isn’t an embarrassment, she is...

Whenever the 4th of July weekend rolls around, I’m reminded of times I’ve traveled in countries where freedom is severely curtailed.  Or they were freshly freed from the chains of injustice, and the joy of their release was palpable. I was in Johannesburg on the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid. I was in Korea when the border between North and South was electric with...

Christianity.com: What is the rapture and why do Christians seem to talk about that so much?-Russell Moore from christianitydotcom2 on GodTube. What is the Rapture? The Rapture is not a word that’s found in scripture. But it’s a Biblical idea and a Biblical concept, which is that at the end of the age, Jesus returns and calls His people to Him in the air. So as Paul talks about in 1 Th...

As you drive home from church on Sunday afternoon, how do you evaluate your sermon? Do you aim for less droopy eyes than last week? Do you base it on positive comments from your congregation as they shuffle out of the sanctuary? When God judges the ministry of those who teach his word, God will not ask around to see how much people enjoyed your preaching. He is going to use two measurements. Titus...

A cartoon shows a sign in front of a café: “Specializing in meals that leave you bloated and lethargic, followed by self-loathing.”  A man says to his wife, “I liked it better when they called it comfort food.” I know the feeling, friend. A while back, I was in another state speaking for two nights. The first morning after I had arrived, I had gotten up early and found a downtown diner t...

“I love my wife!” “I love hamburgers!” “I love my husband!” “I love the movie Nacho Libre!” Strange, how in our popular culture this word “love” can be used in such a trivial way, but then also be used to refer to the deepest of relationships. No wonder it’s so easy for us to miss the type of love God calls us to express toward, not just our favorite people, but toward all people. So radical is th...

A couple of years ago, my wife and I went to see the disturbingly interesting film Contagion, which has been described as a “medical thriller disaster” movie. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film is about the rapid spread of a virus that results in a pandemic, until a team of researchers are finally able to produce a vaccine. One of my friends who did his graduate work in infectious diseases sa...