Making Decisions and the Will of God (Part I)
A few years ago I asked a friend about his plans after graduating from seminary. He responded, “I’m still waiting on God to reveal His will in this area.” His response surprised me. My friend was ready to graduate with a master’s degree and had spent four years poring through books, papers, and syllabi. Yet by this time he was still unable to discern God’s will. My intent in using this particular experience is not to attack this...
First Aid for Emotional Hurts: An Interview with Eddie Moody
“People need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, He’s the open door,” sings Steve Green. Indeed, people need the Lord because they are broken. They need to be mended and comforted. This is the tone and approach Eddie Moody takes in the opening chapter of First Aid for Emotional Hurts: A Biblical Approach to Helping People through Difficult Times, revised and expanded (Nashville: Randall House, 2018). Believers are tasked with the...
Shepherding through Crisis
What do you say to those who are grieving through a crisis? I realize this question can come in different levels. This month marks five years in which I have served in my current ministry position. Each moment of grief in our church has looked different. However, the same basic words of comfort and hope found in the gospel are applicable in any situation. Make no mistake: there are hurting people in your church. People are tired of...
Understanding Amazing Grace
In Interstellar, one of Christopher Nolan’s best films, Earth has become uninhabitable so NASA secretly devises a space exploration plan to find hospitable planets. Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, is asked to lead the mission of finding a planet where the humans can be transported in order to survive. In the midst of this mission, Cooper has an interesting conversation with another fellow astronaut, Brand (played by Anne...
The Reformers View of Religious Liberty
It was time for the believers living in Rome to stop arguing. Some Jewish Christians were reluctant to give up some ceremonial aspects of their faith, but others were not so reluctant. One disagreement involved the food they ate. Paul spoke into this unstable dispute, “I know and am convinced in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean” (Rom. 14:14).[1] Paul was not...
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