Devotional Thoughts

The modern church doesn’t lament well. The churches in which I grew up tended to omit “downer” Psalms in favor of those that we consider to be more “uplifting.” If we’re honest, we’re almost embarrassed by the negativity of Psalms of lament, Psalms of imprecation, and books like Ecclesiastes and Lamentations. You might think that’s just […]

One of Luther’s central insights at the Reformation was the nature and importance of faith. For him, faith is famously that which justifies, which makes us right with God. This is not because of any intrinsic virtue faith itself possesses. Rather, it is because faith unites us to Christ such that we receive His righteousness […]

Some men feel inadequate in their role as a father, so they withdraw and leave it to their wife to carry the load. Some men feel totally adequate in and of themselves to handle the upbringing of their children.“I got this,” they say to themselves before prayerlessly entering a room to shepherd their teen in […]

The four Gospels provide infinite opportunities for the Christian to marvel. The words of Christ are captivating. The miracles of Christ are awe-inspiring. And we could go on, endlessly: the purity of Christ, the compassion of Christ, the humility of Christ, and so forth. I’m struck on this Good Friday by the passivity of Christ. […]

Church life can be messy. Any time you put sinners together—even redeemed sinners—there’s bound to be some friction. Sadly, many churches feel more like a war zone than a refuge. Much of the problem stems from our unwillingness to exercise the undervalued virtue of deference, what Colossians 3:13 calls “bearing with one another.” Conservative Christians […]

The incarnation is an audacious doctrine. The belief that the Creator of the universe “became flesh” is astonishing. An immeasurable chasm is fixed between the infinite God and finite man—and it was crossed when Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem! Understandably, this doctrine has stirred imaginations. The immortal God Whom heaven cannot contain—now […]

John Huss is one of my heroes. He was a faithful preacher who lived in Bohemia—what we know as the Czech Republic. His hometown of Prague is a magnificent place. I treasure the time I spent wandering through the old town, finding the church where he preached, and gazing on his large statue in the […]

The nature and purpose of preaching is something which should concern all Christians. If we attend Protestant churches, then the sermon stands at the very center of our worship service. While everything that happens in the worship service is important, the sermon is of singular significance. It is thus vital that both preacher and people […]

At the end of October, Protestants around the world give thanks to God for the Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement which reclaimed the glorious doctrine of salvation by grace from the obscuring veils of Roman traditions. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther sounded the birth of the Reformation by posting his Ninety-Five Theses in protest of […]

The year was 1977. The man was Manolis Andronikos. He was a Greek archeologist, and he discovered a priceless treasure in the town of Vergina, in northern Greece. Andronikos and his team unearthed a burial ground of ancient Greek kings, including the famed Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father. The treasures were priceless, […]