Why did Jonah run from God? Some would argue that we have no clear explanation, but I believe that Scripture interprets Scripture, and in chapter 4, we get a window onto Jonah’s heart: Jonah ran from God because Jonah didn’t share the heart of God. There are three areas of divergence between the heart that motivated God and the heart that motivated Jonah. 1. Grief God looked at Nineveh and was deeply broken. How could creation live in such opposition to the original plan? Sin robs people and families and cultures of what was meant to be beautiful. The Church of Jesus Christ should be the saddest community on earth. We should look at our neighbors and grieve over the people missing out on God’s best for their life. But like Jonah, we’re often too selfish to care. 2. Zeal Go...

A few years ago, I was reading Gretchen Rubin’s New York Times bestseller, The Happiness Project, where she narrates a year of trying to become a happier person through implementing the research findings of positive psychologists (“happy scientists” as they are sometimes called). As I read this fascinating and helpful book, I couldn’t help thinking, “Surely Christians can do better than this!” Although these science-based techniques can be helpful, surely Christian have truths that can produce far more joy. Having written Christians Get Depressed Too, I thought, why don’t I write the flip side, “Christians Can Be Happy Too!” (With the bonus that I might be better known as Mr. Happy rather than Mr. Depression!) The result is The Happy Christian which I based upon 10...

It’s difficult to do anything on social media without bumping into a “Which _____ are you?” quiz. “Which Disney princess are you?” “What state you actually belong in?” “What mental age are you?” “Which pet should you actually have?” “What period of history do you really belong in?” “What food matches your personality? And my personal favorite: “What arbitrary thing are you?” Similar “personality quizzes” have been around as long as pop-culture magazines, offering readers a brief distraction from the of dullness of daily life. They were formerly restricted to magazines and tabloids, but now they are all but omnipresent. Why is this? In our world of ever-increasing sources of entertainment, why have (poorly made) personality quizzes become so trendy? I think the meteoric rise in popularity o...

As a writer, admittedly, I’ve been somewhat distracted lately. I scroll through the feeds of my social media and it is filled with a plethora of “hot topics.” Every day, there is a new onslaught of blog posts, rants, and editorialized articles. It’s enough to make me want to write an open letter to all of the people that write open letters. Much has been written about the distraction that social media can cause in our lives, and I can feel the distraction in my heart and the pervasive lure to choose sides and start arguing on whichever controversial social topic is trending at the moment. Social media has instilled in so many Christians a false belief that we must form, share, declare and argue an opinion about everything– from leggings to secular fiction and just about everything in...

American culture fosters discontentment and all the miseries and heartaches that go along with it. Discontentment is coveting what we do not have, longing for it, believing that if we have it, then we will be satisfied. I’ve been reading Jeremiah Burroughs’ classic book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, and wanted to share a bit of it here. If you haven’t read this book, let me encourage you to get it and read it. To be content is to obey the 10th commandment, “You shall not covet” in the power of Christ and the gospel of grace. Here’s my summary of 20 ways that Burroughs describes contentment. “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil 4:11). 1. Contentment is a sweet, inward matter of the heart. Many people appear to be calm on the outside, but inwardly, they...

A pastor friend told me last week that he had church members enraged with him when he suggested from the pulpit that we ought to pray for the salvation of Islamic State terrorists. The people in his church told him that he ought to be calling for justice against them, given their brutal murder of Christians, not for mercy. I thought about my friend a few days ago when these murderous fiends beheaded 21 of our brothers and sisters in Christ because they refused to renounce the name of Jesus. I was not just angry; I was furious. Can such fury co-exist, though, with the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5-7)?  When we pray about such evil, how should we pray? The complexity of the Christian calling in the world was seen even in social media. One friend of mine posted that the slaughter of Christ...

I had an E.F. Hutton moment when I walked into a deli in New Orleans and ordered a roast beef sandwich on Friday during Lent. As soon as I realized what the stares were all about I quickly changed my order out of respect. At the same time, having lived in New Orleans for a number of years, I was asked more than once why I didn’t observe Lent. Depending upon who was doing the asking my typical reply might start with, “You mean aside from its pagan origin, its popish idolatry, and its cultural hypocrisy?” The quip about cultural hypocrisy was contextually related to Mardi Gras – you know, since we were in New Orleans and all – just saying. I’ve read the arguments from evangelicals as to why we should consider observing lent (despite the other stuff that goes with it). They say it’s good to g...

If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then why do we pray? What can we possibly tell God that He doesn’t already know? Jack Graham [embedded content] For more information about Jack Graham, visit: www.prestonwood.org or www.powerpoint.org For more answers to questions about Christianity, visit: www.christianity.com Originally published October 22, 2012.

Over at our sister site, Crosswalk.com, Fridays mean movies. Today, several new reviews appeared on the site, as they do every weekend, of films opening in theaters across the country. It’s a rare occurrence that we don’t review a movie that gets a wide release – especially one everyone is talking about. But today you won’t find an official review of the Fifty Shades of Grey film on our website. Here’s why. 1. We don’t want to watch it (and you can read about it elsewhere) In order for us to run a review, a film must be watched by a Crosswalk reviewer or a member of our own editorial team. While we love watching movies and sharing our thoughts with you, this is not a movie we wanted to sit through (or even pay a professional movie-goer to sit through). Sometimes the MPAA warning tells...

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 ...