Lately my kids love to hear stories of my childhood. It’s not as if I had some sort of epic Hollywood-script kind of childhood by any means, but because they are real stories with a main character they happen to know on a deeply personal level, they love them. They simply can’t get enough of…
Read more
On New Year’s Eve 1961, Dr. W. A. Criswell stood before his congregation at the First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas, and for nearly five hours preached an epic message tracing what he called “the scarlet thread of Scripture” through every book of the Bible. With captivating authority, Criswell revealed how the theme of Christ’s blood…
Read more
Years ago Matt Redman wrote a song called Mission’s Flame. In the song he offers an appeal to the people of God to move beyond mere words and to let worship fuel the flame for missions—to let worship propel God’s people forward into action. He says, Let worship be the fuel for mission’s flame
We’re…
Read more
“So, Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas …” (Mark 15:15) Wishing to satisfy the crowd. This statement is packed with meaning. In that crucial moment, the eternal destinies of every human being lay in the balance. Pilate, out of sheer political and personal interest, chose to cave to the persuasiveness of…
Read more
Recently I’ve been reading a christian classic called True Christianity by Johann Arndt. Arndt lived in 17th century Germany and wrote to the Lutheran church, calling people out of a dead orthodoxy into a vibrant and living faith. He observed the hypocrisy of his day and surfaced as a prophetic voice in the midst of this…
Read more