Fisher of Men

As a pastor I have the opportunity to see many people work through the pain, frustration, sorrow, and fear that comes with affliction. Some suffer from their own folly, some endure the hardship of disease, and others are hurt by the evil actions of wicked men. And in it all we are looking for some kind of answer, direction, or purpose. As I have been preaching through Habakkuk at redeemer we have been confronted with the same truth the prophet was hit with: our God is truly and completely sovereign, even over the sinful actions of wicked men. God tells the prophet that he is raising up, empowering, a wicked nation to do what they do best: conquer. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,  who march through the breadth of the earth, t...

“The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 5:20. How many Christians (never mind people who are not yet Christians) do you suppose misunderstand grace?  Surely there are tons. One problem, as I’ve heard it put, is that law is our native language.  We speak law fluently.  There exists a native tendency toward self-righteousness, toward punitive justice, toward dead external works.  Though the law should condemn us-and condemn us good!-we unwittingly believe ourselves able to rise up to the demands of the law.  Of course, we wo...

All these years later, and we can all probably still remember exactly where we were when we heard the tragic news of the terrorist attack of 9/11. Ironically, I sat in a speech class at Samford University. One minute we were discussing the components of an effective speech, the next minute we all found ourselves speechless. Sept. 11, 2001 will live in infamy; but many other days will keep it company. Infamy is, of course, the same word Franklin D. Roosevelt used in his presidential address to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7, he said, would live in infamy. I’m adding Sept. 11, 2001, to the list; and my assumption is that if we live long enough, we will see many other days make this list, as well. Sept. 11 was not the first tragic day in ...

As a seminary grad, I thought I was ready to have a job and do my part in taking Christ to the world through the local church. Six months passed and the only job offer I had was to work for four months as a secretary for a crusade in my city. I remember well the Lord whispering to me, “Do you have any other offers?” I reluctantly accepted the job and began to pour myself into the needed preparations. I knew I needed to be faithful with the small task I had been given. Looking back, I thank God for Jay Strack and Mike Ruth who saw my heart. They tolerated my non-clerical skills and took every opportunity to include and encourage me. It was during a women’s coffee for the crusade that my pastor’s wife, Uldine Bisagno, decided I could be of useful service coordinating the new ministry to wome...

It took me a moment to realize that he was a pastor and not a coach for a sports team or some sort of motivational speaker/CEO type. I met Bill at a conference for pastors. He explained that he was a coach for his clients, seeking to guide them through their story. I probably had the confused dog look on my face, like when you ask your dog a question and he just cocks his head and advances a blank stare. I thought we were at a pastor’s conference and now this guy with a client base is waxing on about directing people in some vague story. I finally figured out that “coach” was his way of saying pastor and that the “story” he was directing was somehow a metaphor for life. Confusing? What about his “clients”? Those, he explained, are the members of the congregation. Some pastors unwittingly e...

Some of what we do with Scripture is comical. We have this inevitable way of overlooking the biblical context and reading our own spins into passages. Some of our most treasured principles don’t even come close to the point being offered by the biblical author. Many Bible-believing Christians would be shocked to know that some of our more treasured cliché’s are the result of shoddy hermeneutics and not the Holy Spirit. Certain convictions now engrained in our evangelical psyche have nothing at all to do with the passages that we blame them on. As a result, we go around proclaiming as biblical (or Christian) a lot of stuff that God never said. All this is perpetuated and approved by popular American Christianity. Catchy over-spiritualized/over-principlized sound bites are catnip for suburba...

[embedded content] Was Jesus Ever Married? Transcribed from the video above, Bryan Chapell discusses whether Jesus was ever married: There is no evidence that Jesus was married in the books that give us the history of his life. So anything that would suggest that Jesus was married is pure conjecture, and we would say usually being articulated by people who have some agenda to undo the biblical record and add something to it. So anybody who’s saying that Jesus was married is just making that up. There is no record of that in any historical account or any biblical account. Now we want to be careful we don’t go too far to say that because Jesus was not married, marriage or sexuality are automatically evil in some way. Jesus disciples did marry. Jesus was at a stage of life where h...

  When you meet someone for the first time, you form some opinion of them. You can’t help it. How they look, what they say, when they laugh, it all shapes your inner picture of them. The same is true in stories. The first time an author introduces a new character, pay attention. They’ll often give you little clues about that character’s personality and how they fit into the story. And sometimes, they just skip the clues and come right out and tell you something important. “Let us create man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). There it is. The very first thing the Bible tells us about the human person. That’s our first impression. But what does it mean? What is an “image”? How can an invisible God have an image anyway? And why don’t the other creatures get to be images? I...

Everyday, references about God make their way into our social feeds and social circles: Say a pray for me! Keep the faith! God’s got this! Some are expressed with sincere hearts, but all too often, such sentiments are more reflective of a person’s culture or upbringing—and less of a true belief in God. But what is true belief in God? Surely it stretches beyond admitting he exists, beyond acknowledging he’s the creator and orchestrator of the universe. Even Satan and his demons believe these things: “Even the demons believe—and shudder” (James 2:19). But in no way do they trust God. In fact, Satan wants for himself the glory and honor due only to God. Trust in God More than believing in the existence of God, we must trust in Him for salvation, and that means coming to him through faith in J...

I love the Harry Potter stories. My first trip through them was an audio excursion guided by the talented Jim Dale. Enthusiasm for the books swept me right into reading them aloud to my children, and we’re almost finished with the series. I am thrilled that J. K. Rowling’s next book, The Casual Vacancy, is appearing any moment now. I can’t wait to read it. Sorry for my effusive delight over these books—what I’m trying to do is tell you about one of the characters in the Harry Potter stories, Remus Lupin. There’s a play on his name, as lupus is the Latin word for “wolf,” and Lupin is a werewolf. Werewolves are not exactly pleasant, and the surprising thing is that Lupin is one of the good guys. This is one of the ways that Rowling has given us stories that are true to life. In the Potter st...

I recently had to call the exterminator. My father-in-law was visiting and thought he spotted termites. I tried not to panic, hoped insurance would cover the costs, and had someone come inspect the house. Thankfully, no termites. That was the good news. The bad news is that we do have carpenter ants. And, based on this fella’s look in our crawl space, a few mice to boot. When I got home that day, Holly (my wife) was ready to sell the house. She doesn’t do mice. So, now I’m on a quarterly pest control plan and am a few hundred dollars poorer. Dealing with pests is annoying. I don’t have time for this kind of stuff. Why did God make ants and mice anyway? But not dealing with pests is dangerous. Carpenter ants (along with termites) eat wood and can cause serious struct...