For years, when I thought about prayer, I mostly felt guilty for my lack of a robust prayer life. Reading stories of great saints praying for two hours a day or more left me with a gnawing sense of defeat. I would often resolve to pray more. But the resolves didn’t last. One day I realized that something had changed. While not exactly satisfied with my prayer life, I knew that I had one. I’m sure that I still don’t pray as much as I should. But I pray a lot more than I used to. And I’ve tried to think about why. What changed? On one level, of course, whatever prayer life I have is the fruit of God’s grace. He gets the credit. But God uses means. The Spirit’s work doesn’t bypass our thoughts, feelings, habits, and desires. No, he works in and through all these aspects of our personhood. Whe...

“Do you let your kids do Halloween?” My coworkers and I discussed this recently as we decompressed from our Monday morning meeting. It’s an interesting discussion to have with fellow believers because we’re so split on the issue. Although rarely does anyone declare you a gospel-compromising heretic if you allow your kids to go trick-or-treating, it’s not uncommon to get a sideways glance. So how are we to navigate Halloween? Should we cancel Halloween and avoid it entirely or embrace it unquestioningly? Or is there a way for us to engage it appropriately, in a way that honors Christ? Before you decide to cancel Halloween for your family, I believe there the final option is possible, provided we take the following things into consideration: 1. Don’t needl...

My daughter Madrid turned one a few weeks ago—an opportune milestone to reflect on what the Lord has taught me this past year. Many of these things I already knew, but I understand them better now having experienced one year of fatherhood. (And I’m nowhere close to comprehending them completely!) Here are the six things I understand better:  1) God’s love I have discovered more about God’s love this past year than I have since I first became a believer. I understand God’s fatherly care and joy for his children in a far richer way after having experienced fatherhood myself. It’s mind-blowing thinking about how much I love my daughter, and realizing that God’s love for his children is infinitely deeper and purer! He delights in providing for his children’s needs, forgiving them, teachin...

Did you hear the latest research about the attitudes of Millennials? Me neither. I’m being sarcastic, but kind of serious. It’s good to study the trends and behaviors of the next generation so we can adapt our ministry methods for gospel advance and the edification of those we are called to serve. Still, my experience tells me that that the kind of ministry that best builds up the body of Christ is one filled with incarnational, intergenerational, gift-giving relationships. I recently said goodbye to one of my dearest friends, who taught me more about ministry than anyone else I knew. He recently succumbed to cancer in his early eighties. Until this quick-moving disease ushered Him home, Bill was a font of wisdom about how to do ministry. It was timeless wisdom good for dealing with every ...

Probably every American school child old enough to study history has heard the little rhyme, “In October, 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, and the story has often been told of Columbus’ dream of finding the East or Asia by sailing west. Columbus is often held up as an example of someone who set goals for himself and would not give up when obstacles to achieving those goals came his way — he waited at the Spanish court six years before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to sponsor his voyage. He persuaded his men to continue their westward voyage even when they threatened mutiny because they had not yet reached the expected islands of the Orient. Certainly Columbus is a model of determination and courage. Yet, the man was much more complex than the storie...

[Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up to the author’s previous article at Christianity.com entitled: “Is Your Church Worship More Pagan than Christian?“] “To be human is to worship.” Those are the opening words of Daniel Block’s excellent new book on worship, For the Glory of God. Men and women are inveterate worshippers. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1. Even those who reject the plain knowledge of God which can be perceived within the created order do not cease worshiping. Rather they simply begin worshipping created things instead of the Creator (Rom 1:18ff). Given that we all worship and that our hearts tend to be deceptive, it is vital that our worship be shaped by what God has made clear in His Word rather than by personal opinions, past experiences, or intuiti...

We live in an age hostile to correction. “No” has become a four-letter word in the modern vernacular. Our non-Christian friends don’t want to be told their unbelief warrants God’s judgment. That’s to be expected. But often our Christian friends don’t want to be corrected, either. And that’s sad, because a rebuke can be good for the soul. “The wise of heart,” says Solomon, “will receive correction” (Prov 10:8). So how do you know when to correct a brother or sister in Christ? “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Prov. 15:23). How do we know when to give that word? Thankfully, Scripture provides a trustworthy answer. It tells us when to correct and when to overlook. When to Correct Correct when the salvation of a brother or sister is in question. ...

There are few things more exciting to witness than a new Christian who is enthusiastic about their faith. They suck in Bible teaching like a Shop Vac. But a problem often arises during this early season of their spiritual journey. When your initial spiritual growth spurt coincides with learning a lot about the Bible and the Christian faith, it’s easy to equate spiritual growth primarily with knowledge growth. Measuring spiritual maturity merely by what you know can have disastrous results. Someone thinks she lives a great Christian life because she’s in three Bible studies, but she isn’t sharing the gospel with unbelievers. A leader at the church is regarded as the resident theology expert, but has anger issues at home. Small groups dig deep into God’s word, but don’t dig deep into each ot...

“I’m praying for you.” “I’ll pray for that.” “My prayers are with you.” Christians throw statements like this out all the time, don’t they? The most cynical among us might wonder, “Is he really praying for me?” And yet, whatever the quality of someone’s follow-through, he tells us he’s praying because he believes prayer matters. It’s effective. J.I. Packer got it precisely right, “If you are a Christian, you pray; and the recognition of God’s sovereignty is the basis of your prayers.”[1] Convinced that God is powerful and in control, believers go to him in prayer, entrusting the nuts and bolts of their daily lives into his omnipotent hands. But do we talk about prayer more than we actually pray? That’s the chink in the armor of our sanctification that I’d like you to think about for a mome...

Everyone Is Awesome? According to several national surveys, Millennials[1] are more than twice as likely as previous generations to rate themselves as “gifted,” “special,” “talented,” and “likely to change the world”—despite the reality that Millennials score the same (and sometimes worse) than previous generations in several areas, even after accounting for testing differences and other known biases. Much has been made of these surveys. Perhaps this is just what youthful arrogance looks like in every generation. Or perhaps Millennials really are overly self-confident. Who knows? What I do know is this: you’re not awesome, but Jesus is. That’s the message that everyone, whether eighteen or eighty-five, desperately needs to believe and remember and feel in the depths of their soul. It’s so ...

Christian history. Some of you already may be tempted to stop reading. History, after all, is a subject that can often feel distant, boring, irrelevant. But I’m convinced you should care about the history of the church. In fact, I believe it’s essential. And for your good. Christianity is a history-anchored faith. We don’t teach a set of abstract principles or philosophical ideas; we teach the truth of a historical event. As Francis Schaeffer liked to say, if you were there 2,000 years ago you could have run your hand down the cross and gotten a splinter. How silly would it be for us to conclude, “Well, I believe Jesus lived and died and rose in historical time, and that without those historical events I’d be lost forever, but I don’t really care about history.” Further, if you’re a Christ...

Teach theology long enough and you’ll face countless forms of the same basic question: What does this have to do with real life? Will it affect the way we do ministry, how we share the gospel, or what we do every day? How is it relevant to the problems and challenges the average person faces? You know, is it practical? And the deep suspicion lying behind such questions is that most theology is rather impractical. Theologians spend all their time wrestling with things like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and whether we should say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son or from the Father alone. Unless we can explain why these things matter for the everyday lives of regular people, we should stop wasting our time and get on with more important issues. I’ll admit t...