Love Is Not Blank Check Affirmation “Will you support me in this decision?” my friend asked me. But I couldn’t support his decision. It wasn’t a problem of not wanting what’s best for him. In fact, it was because I wanted what’s best for him that I wasn’t able to go along with him. The decision would have only brought more problems, and my love for him didn’t want him to suffer needlessly. Yet my reasons for disagreeing hardly mattered to him. What really mattered, it seemed, was that I as his friend would not “affirm him” and the course he was determined to follow. Though I explained why I couldn’t support him in his unwise decision, he was still deeply hurt. My friend is far from alone in this regard. As a case in point, social media platforms are littered with quotes that express simila...

My late father was a stay-at-home dad. He was a man’s man, a strong individual right out of a 1960’s Marlboro advertisement. Yet he was broken by extreme physical suffering and the sun never set on the pain of his pieced-together spine and extremities. It was normal to me that my father was always in the home. However, he was not there by choice. When I hear of fathers opting out of employment to be at home full-time, I think of my dad who would have loved to have done the opposite. What is a stay-at-home dad? By one study from the Pew Research Center, the number of stay-at-home dads has doubled over the last quarter century. Any discussion of the phenomenon must take into account the variety of this broad category. Stay-at-home dads are not a uniform monolith. The reasons dads are at home...

While talking with my pastor recently, we discussed my increasing burden/passion for pastoral ministry. As we talked, he looked at me and said: “You need to bloom where you are currently planted.” I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear this. I’ve been looking toward ministry for so long that I’d missed something incredibly important: God wants to use me where I’m currently planted to produce patience, thankfulness and joy—fruits of the gospel in me. Patience. Paul describes a heart liberated by grace as, among other things, patient (Gal. 5:22). Patience means trusting in the sovereign care of God. It means waiting on the Lord’s timing, trusting that His plans are better than yours. One of the hardest things about patience, however, is actually exercising it. Maybe you rolled your eyes ...

Someone once quipped that an ambassador is a politician who was not elected to office but was given an office on the condition that he leaves the country![i] When we hear the word ambassador today, we naturally think of an American ambassador to another country. In ancient Rome, an ambassador was a representative of Rome to imperial provinces, sent with a message that declared the terms of peace with the Empire. While modern people may recoil at the imperialistic imagery, the metaphor of ambassador is a helpful picture of the Christian’s role in evangelism. Paul’s description of himself as Christ’s ambassador in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and its surrounding context, teaches us at least three things about evangelism. Our Assignment The basic assignment of an ambassador is to represent the one who ...

Male violence against women is a real problem in our culture, one the church must address. Our responsibility here is not simply at the level of social justice but at the level of ecclesical justice as well. We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored, and protected by men. This means we teach men to reject American playboy consumerism in light of a Judgment Seat at which they will give account for their care for their families. It means we explicitly tell the women in our congregations, “A man who hits you has surrendered his headship, and that is the business both of the civil state in enacting public justice and of this church in enacting church discipline.” Church discipline against wife-beaters ...

When theology is mentioned in a circle of women I have often found the response to be less than enthusiastic.  Mention books on homemaking, marriage or parenting, on the other hand, and everyone seems interested. Why is that? I have heard comments like, “I’m just not smart enough”, “I will leave the study of theology to the men”, or  “I don’t need theology I just need to read my Bible.”           But the truth is no one is “smart enough” to know God on their own. It is only because God has revealed himself to sinners that we can know him at all. And leaving the study of theology to the men is like saying no to a beautiful dinner prepared by a master chef, only allowing some of the guests to eat.  And reading the Bible is itse...

Superficial relationships in the church are a tragedy. The church is the last place humanity should be allowed to anonymously pass by each other. As Christians we live in the eyes-wide-open panorama of the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1:18). No longer stumbling about in the pervasive darkness blind to the sin that plagues our existence. We now walk in the light (Eph. 5:7-8). We see each other clearly with all our common ailments. From our common confession springs sympathy and compassion. Rather than reject each other, we welcome each other into a common life of brokenness, grace, forgiveness and transformation. No one passes by unknown or unaccepted. There is no longer a need to hide our brokenness. There is nothing left for us to hide (for all is known) and no reason to hide it (for all is fo...

Of all the chapters of the Qur’an that we memorized as Muslim children, there was one we recited more frequently than any other. It wasn’t long, only 4 verses, but Muhammad taught that it encapsulated a third of the Quran’s teaching, making it the weightiest chapter of the scripture and a core doctrine of the Islamic faith. It is Surat-al-Ikhlaas, chapter 112, and its second verse contains the message: “God is not a Father, and He is not a Son.” So above all doctrine in my Muslim life, the one teaching that was drilled into my head most often was ‘Tawhid’, that God is absolutely one and cannot be Father or Son. By the time I was a teen, my reaction to the Trinity was kneejerk: I saw it as nonsensical, polytheistic blasphemy. Part of the problem was that no one clarified to me how the Trini...

Was this August the worst month ever? A brutal beheading of an American New airstrikes in Iraq The first Islamic terrorist state is formed Thousands dead in the most recent Israel/Palestinian conflict Hundreds dead from Ebola Robin Williams suicide Rioting, looting, and more division than ever following Michael Brown’s shooting We could go on…and on. Little wonder that Fastcompany.com asked Was This August The Worst Month Ever? So, was it? Social media analysis firm General Sentiment said its data agreed, with this August generating the most negative social media sentiment for about three years. But another set of analysts found that “though we might be feeling less happy about the news this August and expressing more thoughts negatively in general, it seems like w...

A few months ago I was privileged to chaperone my 4 year-old-son’s pre-school field trip to the zoo. In my experience, most trips to the zoo are spent walking for what feels like miles and just to peer in on nearly non-existent, or sleeping animals. This trip was different. The first place we visited was the big cats area. As we walked into the exhibit, I expected to maybe see the mane of a sleeping lion off in the distance. What we found instead, was a monster of a male lion pacing back and fourth in front of the glass, mane blowing in the wind looking like Mufasa in all his glory. Even knowing it was impossible for this enormous animal to breach the glass, I shuddered at the sight of his size and capability. On the heels of this humbling experience I started thinking about the size and s...

James Turnbull in G. K. Chesterton’s 1909 novel The Ball and the Cross had been attacking Christianity for years in his magazine, The Atheist. The “fiery little Scotchman, with fiery, red hair and beard” worked hard at it, but no one paid any attention to him or his tireless assaults on the Bible and the Faith hung prominently in the plate glass windows of his office for all to read. “He had said the worst thing that could be said,” writes Chesterton, “and it seemed accepted and ignored like the ordinary second best of the politicians. Every day his blasphemies looked more glaring, and every day the dust lay thicker upon them.” “Year after year went by,” we read, “and at last a man came by who treated Mr. Turnbull’s secularist shop with a real respect and seriousness. He was a young man in...

Isaiah 40:31 says: “But they who wait for the Lord renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” This is one of the most celebrated and shared verses of the Bible. I’m sure you’ve seen it on greeting cards, framed pictures, and tees garnered with a picture of a soaring eagle. If you’re like me you’ve had different responses at different times to these products. At one point you wrapped your hands on them anytime you found them. You got a euphoric inspiration from them. Then at other times these products exhausted you. You shunned them as superstitious, sentimental, or just flat out silly. Though we oscillate between euphorically or exhaustingly responding to “soaring eagle” merchandise, this is not how we ...