This week I have been sleeplessly enjoying Daddy-daughter time with Kaylah. It won’t be long before a well told story will engage her imagination, captivate her attention and shape her life. What begins in the toddler years doesn’t end. Stories are not just for children, but can continue to transform lives of all ages. Steve ...
The Bible story you are looking at was inspired by God. Not only did He inspire the content, but He also inspired the form. God felt that having that truth clothed in the genre of story was the best option. Now you have the opportunity to preach it. How can you preach that story with ...
Question: Pastor John, what do you do if you confront a chuch member with an offense and they do not respond. You then get another witness to confront them and they will not respond. Then the two of you go to the church eldership with the whole matter because the offender will not respond. Then ...
Few passages are more commonly misread, or simply avoided, than Hebrew 13:17: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. It shouldn’t surprise us that this passage often goes avoided. This is bound to happen in a culture where ...
A piece I wrote, “Sharing Our Solitude,” is one of January’s three main articles in The Examined Life. The issue is all about ‘enduring through suffering,’ and, among others, it includes an article on interacting with suffering in a classroom setting, an apology for watching sad films, and an artistic and symbolic exploration of the color ...
We tend to be trained, both by Sunday school instruction and by NIV section headings, to separate out each individual story and treat it as a stand alone. But the Bible always presents plots in the context of larger plots. I’ve been trying to get hold of a commentary series on the books of Samuel ...
Whether we are looking at a parable, an event in the life of Christ, an historical portrayal in the inspired account of a Patriarch or the early church, Bible stories are about people in plot. Plot – the skeleton of every story, both fictional and historic, is the plot. Every story has a plot, for ...
LBCF Chapter 31:1 The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which neither die nor sleep) having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and ...
We tend to tell Bible stories to children and teach theology to adults. Perhaps we err in both. All too often I come across childrens’ ministry that seems like random ancient tales with a moral. An interesting little tale from long ago and far away that is offered with a moral moral – do this, ...
With regard to saving faith, have you ever heard a preacher say “all you have to do is recognize your need” as if this were the easiest thing in the world? You might as well tell a sinner “all you have to do is perfectly obey the ten commandments.” The nature of proud fallen man ...