Fisher of Men

“Are you sure about that?” This was the remark a very conservative professor made to me, over lunch, during my freshman year of college. He was responding to a flippant and hyper-spiritualized comment I made, something I was want to do in those heady days when I knew everything there was to know about the Bible and about the world. These were the days before I got married, before I had children, before I pastored. In other words, I thought I knew everything, but I really knew nothing. The comment I made was about the death of a comedian. I said something callous like, “Can you imagine a life spent making people laugh? What a waste!” Yeah, I really said that. Thankfully my conservative professor at my conservative Bible college offered this subtle, but pointed rebuke. I thought about this c...

The recent scandal over Thai surrogate baby Gammy involves just about every ethical question when it comes to children—surrogacy, abortion, selective termination of children with Down syndrome, and child abuse. No wonder the story has drawn an international audience, and Christians should not miss the opportunity to speak in defense of vulnerable and helpless children. The story first hit the news over a week ago when the Thai surrogate mother, Pattaramon, claimed that the biological parents, the Farnells, had left Gammy behind because he had Down syndrome but took his twin sister back to Australia. Since surrogacy was illegal in Australia, the Farnells resorted to Thailand and had paid Pattaramon about $15,000 to be the surrogate mother. Friends and family responded on behalf of the Farne...

It’s that time of year again.  Yellow buses practice their circuitous routes, stores brim with school supplies, and teachers adorn their rooms with inviting bulletin boards and welcoming smiles.  Back to school is officially upon us. I ended the summer reading through the Psalms and Proverbs.  As I drank in the wisdom of these two books, certain passages in particular have encouraged and directed my hopes for my children as they head back to school.  These verses have shaped my prayers and given words to the longings of my heart. As my children spend less time in my presence, I am thankful that I can bring all my concerns and cares before the Lord in prayer. Lord, I pray that my children would understand their need for Jesus and rejoice in the good news of the Gospel. B...

I’m in the middle of a move and, well, it isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. Don’t get me wrong; I’m excited about where we’re moving to. Lord willing, in a couple weeks I’ll transplant my family to England so I can do graduate work at a university I’ve long dreamed of studying at. And it’s a stunning privilege to even have the choice to move somewhere, as opposed to being forced to move by oppression or deprivation. Still, for the moment, we’re stuck in between. We left our home in Louisville a couple weeks ago, and we’re staying with family for another couple weeks before setting out. At this stage, then, the move has been all undoing, all negation. We removed our home from the apartment it occupied, leaving only the faintest traces of a life. In the manner of a cleaning, we worked our wa...

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26) What It Means to “Have Dominion” Over Creation One reason Christians have been particularly weak in dealing with ecological issues and the deterioration of the natural environment is a misunderstanding of what it means to “have dominion” over creation. Dominion does not mean destruction, but responsibility. It is important to avoid flawed convictions about the right and power of humankind in relation to the rest of the natural world. Francis Schaeffer elaborates: Fallen man has dominion over nature, but he uses it wrongly. The ...

The “celebrity pastor” is now a thing. Maybe it’s always been a thing (1 Cor. 1:10-17), but over the past few years it has become a source of concern and consternation for many. On the one hand I do see a problem, and on the other hand I can’t help but feel that some speak against popular preachers out of a sense of jealousy. I do not think that a pastor whose “platform” is large, influence is broad, and following is numerous is a celebrity pastor. At least, not in a bad way. The real problem is leadership that loses sight of the glory of Christ and focuses on the glory of man. Or, at least one man. But Celebrity Pastors do not simply build themselves. They are built with the help of fans. It’s not wrong or idolatrous to get a photo with a person y...

There’s a line in To Kill a Mocking Bird; “You can choose your friends, but you sho’ can’t choose your family.” The point being, we can’t run away from our responsibilities to our families. You can choose to stop being friends with someone. But you can’t choose to stop being related to someone. That observation is tremendously important when it comes to how Christians should think about the church. It’s important because the church is a family. That’s not just a sentimental way of describing how much you love your local church. It is a profound, radical truth that changes everything. When told that his mother and brothers were asking for him, Jesus responded by saying “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:50). In Matthew 17, Jesus ...

Image Credit: Patch Adams 8/12/2014, Time.com Recently a friend and I were talking about a third friend who is facing undiagnosed, yet very obvious, mental illness. Our mutual friend, “Bob” (real identity hidden), refuses to see a doctor. He thinks everyone in his world has a hidden agenda to harm him. In speaking to my friend, I said, “You know what Bob really needs? He needs a doctor like Patch Adams—one who can disarm him with laughter, win his trust, and then give him the treatment he needs.” Raising the name of fictitious doctor immediately pointed us to Robin Williams, the actor who brought his humorous ways to the screen role of a mental patient turned physician. Less than a week later, the world heard the tragic news of Williams’s death. We wonder to ourselves how someone who seeme...

It’s “shark week” on the Discovery Channel—TV’s annual celebration of man’s fascination with the ocean’s most feared and, perhaps, most misunderstood species. Since its inception in 1987, viewers have voraciously taken in hours of makos, hammerheads, and great whites weaving and darting through shadowy waters while an ominous score attends every menacing move. Courageous captains, camera operators, and divers lap up every life-threatening minute while viewers like me safely watch from afar. After watching shark week, you might tend to agree that the job of being a shark diver is one of the most terrifying and physically dangerous jobs in the world. Just last night, one diver in a segment (“Great White Serial Killer”) tried to describe what it was like to stand in a protective cage as it wa...

Are you ever overwhelmed by how difficult it is be to live a life that is pleasing to God? If the temptations of the world and the sin within our own hearts isn’t enough, Satan is also working overtime to see to our destruction, downfall, or weakening. He has no compassion, he doesn’t care how hard life is for you or all the things you have gone through. He rejoices in our difficulties and only wants to add to them. Satan is cunning and crafty. He is also more powerful than we give him credit for and therefore a being to be guarded against and fought against. He has the experience of all kinds of evil on his side as well as the fact that he never grows tired and never gives up spewing his hatred for Christ and his bride. He hates them because . . . they have escaped out of his hand, they o...

My pastor liked to crack jokes about being a “professional good guy.” Others—including his kids—remarked how he got paid to live right and make good decisions. The implied argument, of course, was that his words were less relevant to the everyday man. Indeed, in seminary, I learned of a professor who refused ordination for fear that people would stop listening to him. Below are five ridiculously brief biographies of “common” folk who never received a dime as professional good people. Perpetua (ad 180–202) Early Christians were no strangers to persecution—even to the point of death. The account of Vibia Perpetua’s martyrdom remains one of history’s most powerful. Augustine of Hippo found Perpetua’s story so influential, he delivered numerous sermons about her. Perpetua was a noblewoman, mot...

How can Christians experience the peace of God? This question was posed to me by a friend once. I explained to him that I usually have to start by preaching to myself, especially on days when my dad’s dementia affects me the most. Here’s what I preach to my own heart: Romans 5:1 states that the Christian has peace with God through our Lord Jesus. It is Christ alone who enables the Christian to have a new identity in Him— this the very basis for implementing the peace of God. Grounding his statement in Romans 5:1 with the word “therefore” the Apostle Paul connects what he has previously spoken in Romans 1-4 to what he will say in Romans 5:1-11. In Romans 5:1 he lays out what Christ did in His death, burial and resurrection resulting in the sinner—formerly at enmity with God—being give...