I was raised American poor. I call it American poor because the brand of poverty I lived through pales in comparison to some of the 3rd world poverty I’ve seen firsthand in India, Colombia and El Salvador. But, by United States standards, my family was poor. Although we qualified for food stamps my mom refused to take advantage of them. She felt in some weird way that this would be admitting defeat and stealing from the government. Although she should have gotten alimony from at least one of the four marriages she had experienced in her relatively young life, she didn’t get any. Our family experience was filled with deadbeat dads (whom we never saw), hard work and pressing bills. To add insult to a high possibility of injury my mom, brother and I lived in one of the highest crime rate area...

There possibly isn’t a more complex yet important topic as race as it relates to the Word of God and the church. To understand our differences and why they are good, we must first understand our origin. Because of the sin of partiality and pride, it is problematic for some to truly believe the idea of racial equality. But this equality isn’t a man-made, modern, social justice theory. We aren’t arguing for something unjust. Rather, the equality of people originated from God. J. Daniel Hays wrote a compelling book, From Every People and Nation, addressing the biblical theology of race. In it he explores the origins of race and ethnicity, looking at current-day definitions, stereotypes, and poor biblical interpretation, reevaluating the concepts, and expounding Scripture. For him, and for us,...

What Culture Is Made Of The three “ingredients” of culture are truth, goodness, and beauty. Truth deals with facts, with the way things are. Goodness speaks to what is morally right, or the way things ought to be. Beauty relates to what is pleasing and to what can be imagined. It’s no surprise that Christians are lovers of truth and goodness. After all, Jesus himself said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). Meanwhile the Scriptures are filled with clear words from God about what is good that is to be emulated and upheld, as well as what is evil that is to be avoided and restrained. When it comes to beauty, however, the church has a bit of a rocky relationship. We seem unsure of its role and importance in the Christian life. We’re apathetic about beaut...

American culture is fascinated with celebrities. American evangelicalism, as a subset of American culture, is too. For some reason, there remains a persistent belief that the public testimony of a well known athlete or entertainer will be more effective than that of a regular Joe. I’ll concede that for the value of gaining attention, a high profile name works better than an unknown. People will watch, for example, Mark Driscoll interview Russell Wilson because he is a pro quarterback who won a Super Bowl. I get that. And whenever a clear word of testimony about Jesus Christ is given, I rejoice. What concerns me is the tendency to think that having someone like Russell Wilson give his testimony is more powerful than a regular Joe. The thought seems to be that since Russell Wilson, or some o...

When I first started hearing about the ministry of Steven Furtick, I thought someone was describing a character from Doug Wilson’s novel Evangellyfish. Here is the quintessential rock-star pastor replete with narcissistic reflection and a following that will jump when he snaps his fingers or when he bites his lip under the glow of stage lights (see here and here). It seems Furtick is not too unlike Wilson’s fictional character, Johnny Quinn: And at one point in the church’s history there might have been a handful of people disturbed by this kind of thing in the church, but they had all died and gone to heaven quite a number of years before. Frankly, none of these people cared about it now, apparently having better things to think about. But Johnny still agonized over su...

God is perfect; he lacks nothing. God is holy; he is set apart and wholly separate from sin. As with many of God’s attributes, he desires to communicate perfection and holiness to his creation. So he did. Lucifer, an angel of God’s, did not get enough of God’s perfection and holiness. He wanted it all. He rebelled against God and lost all of what God gave him. He became God’s nemesis – renamed Satan. Ever since, Satan wishes for holiness’s ruin. He elicited the fall of Adam and Eve, depriving them of holiness. He continues on his rampage against holiness. He wants our help; he wants co-conspirators. And humanity is altogether too quick to comply, but that’s our nature. God’s enemy employs five methods to ruin holiness: relativism, tolerance, contextualization, liberty and legalism. Relativ...

Apart from an active faith in God’s sovereignty and grace, it’s easy to throw up our hands and adopt a “What’s the use?” mentality. If it’s going to be so hard to make really significant improvements, what does it matter if things deteriorate a little further? This sort of faithless attitude could apply to the “house” that is our life, or the “house” that’s the regular environment in which we live and work. We could all come up with lots of good reasons to remain passive. The problems seem too numerous, and many seem too large. You see yourself as one little person, in one little place, at one little moment in time, and it just doesn’t seem logical that you could make any difference at all. To be specific, let me propose three arguments that we all tend to make at one time or another that ...

Few people have anything approaching an articulate philosophy—at least as epitomized by the great philosophers. Even fewer, I suspect, have a carefully constructed theology. But everyone has a worldview. Whenever any of us thinks about anything—from a casual thought (Where did I leave my watch?) to a profound question (Who am I?)—we are operating within such a framework. In fact, it is only the assumption of a worldview—however basic or simple—that allows us to think at all.  What, then, is this thing called a worldview that is so important to all of us? I’ve never even heard of one. How could I have one? That may well be the response of many people. One is reminded of M. Jourdain in Jean Baptiste Molière’s The Bourgeois Gentleman, who suddenly discovered he...

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) That’s Peter’s direct and simple instruction to a church of “pilgrims” or “sojourners” scattered throughout the world, suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” The Action Cast all your anxiety. Anxiety is not meant to be held onto. It’s not a treasure or a keep-sake. Anxiety is not a bosom friend or a comfort toy. Anxiety is an enemy. It’s an enemy to a sober mind. It’s an enemy to peace. It’s an enemy to faith. Anxiety chews at the roots of the plant of faith and life until, having eaten away the root system completely, it leaves us like stalks stuffed into fertile soil but with no way of gathering nourishment and nutrients. Dishonest Christians pretend the...

It should be the thing that greets your mind and fills your heart as you wake each morning. It should be your final thought as you settle in for a night of sleep. It should define how you face your day, and it should shape your self-reflections. It should be the thing that directs how you respond to others. It should be at the forefront of your thoughts in times of trouble or disappointment. It should alter how you think about finances, possessions, decisions, relationships, and everything else. It should be a central theme of your existence. It’s so huge, so gorgeous, and so glorious that once it gets hold of you, you’ll never be the same again. You don’t need to be an expert at riddles for this one. I‘m talking about grace. If you’re God’s child, grace is the stunning core reality ...

It’s Valentine’s season again. Strange, how in our popular culture the word “love” can be used in such a trivial way, but then also be used to refer to the deepest of relationships. “I love my wife!” “I love hamburgers!” “I love my husband!” “I love the movie Nacho Libre!” 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. Let’s face it. Real love is rare.  So radical is the love that God commands us to have for others, it includes loving our enemies and persecutors (Matthew 5: 43-48) and loving without expectation of receiving love in return (Luke 6: 27-36). But the most challenging call to love is the great commandment love God with all of our heart and love our ...

Mike understood bonds—government bonds, corporate bonds, municiples and the rest. The team that wrote the bond trading software, however, didn’t have a clue. It was Mike’s job to teach the coders about the bond business and he hated it. One day, just before a presentation, Mike said wearily, “Jim, I really don’t believe it’s God’s will for me to be teaching Bonds 101 to a bunch of coders.” Not really thinking, I responded, “It is today.” You could see the light bulb go on. “You’re right,” he exclaimed smiling, “Today this is God’s will.” Then he got up and, with a bounce in his step, headed into the conference room to teach. He also found another job as soon as he could, but he embraced God’s will for that day: teaching Bonds 101. I thought about Mike during my prayers Monday morning befor...