The medieval church struggled to approach the Lord with confidence through the sacraments. When teaching my seminary class about this, the professor asked, “How can we live the Christian life without getting ulcers?” This is a good question. Maybe you…
One of the most acute and enduring struggles that I have experienced in my own life has been the struggle to be content with myself. The real problem, as I have discovered, is that deep down I don’t want to…
In many evangelical circles, it is still assumed that conservative theology means conservative politics. And to be fair, the same could be said of the “Evangelical left” and liberal politics. But when politics and theology are seen as synonymous, it…
I feel like I woke up in a burning building late last week. If the United States is not on the brink of political revolution, it is certainly already in the thick of an ideological one. And one of the…
Studying our little newborn has caused us not only to say, “Aww!” but “Wow!” It is amazing that our son arrived all ready to go. He had perfect little fingers that had begun to grasp his umbilical cord even before…
It’s six o’clock Wednesday evening. Your church’s mid-week Bible study starts in one hour, but you don’t feel like going. The trouble is, you can’t think of a fresh excuse and you don’t dare to say what you, (and several…
Note: This article is adapted from Eating and Drinking with God. The Lord’s Supper is the sacred occasion for eating and drinking with God. The sacrament is food and drink for our souls, real communion with our risen Savior. Yet even…
It hardly needs to be said: 2020 rode like a rollercoaster for most of us, and so far 2021 is looking more or less the same. And yet through it all, our Lord has remained faithful. As Simonetta reminded us (via…
One pandemic leads to another. Because our lives are never compartmentalized, we can expect that the effects of a global epidemic will not be limited to the metrics of active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. We know that natural disasters, such…
“Now greet the swiftly changing year with joy and penitence sincere; rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.”[1] This is how 17th-century Polish hymn-writer Jiří Třanovský (1592-1637, also known as Tranoscius) encouraged Christians to greet the year. Easy for…
