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The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing
Preparing for the Future in the Age of Facebook
Why This Pastors Conference Theme?
The death of my dad in March 2007 prompted the theme for this year's conference. After he died, and I began to think later that summer about who my biography would be about this year, it occured to me that I could do it on my dad.
I thought that I would tell the story of my father, and his ministry as an evangelist, and my relationship with him. And it hit me that maybe the whole conference should be built around fatherhood.
Then I remembered that Don Carson, a professor at Trinity, also lost his father recently. And I heard through the grapevine that he is writing a book about him (which should be ready for the conference) and I thought that he might come and be the keynote…
The Virgin Birth
This is part 4 of 4 on the Incarnation.
Jesus was born of a virgin. This is a unique glory. Of the billions of humans who have lived throughout history, only one person entered the world in this way. There is only one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), and there is only one human who was virgin born.1
Jesus’ distinctive birth isn’t a myth nor merely a random fact from the Gospels. It is a special honor conferred only on the Son of God. And it is full of significance for knowing the person of Jesus and the God who has revealed himself in him.
Supernatural, Not Mythical
Matthew and L…
A Kind of Christmas Tale
I wrote this story about four years ago to tell the children at Bethlehem's Christmas Eve service.
The Poor Man and His Cow
And the Rich Man and His Wall
Based (very loosely) on a story in T. H. White’s The Once and Future King.
Once upon a time there was a very wise old man named Job. In his old age God gave to him a daughter whom he named Jemima, which means little dove. He loved his little girl and she loved her daddy.
One day Job decided to go on journey and asked Jemima if she would like to go along. “Oh, yes,” Jemima said. “I would love to go along.”
But Job said, “It will be a journey that takes us several days. So we will be staying each night wherever people wil…
For Noël on Our 39th Anniversary
Noël and I mark our 39th wedding anniversary today. As you can see from the pictures, some things change. As you can see from the poem, some things don’t.
None But You
For Noël on our 39th Wedding Anniversary
Whose lips have mine with kisses met?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose kisses can I not forget?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose arms have wound me to her soul?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose wings enfold, caress, console?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose hands have touched my aching heart?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose touch is healing, counsel, art?
None but yours, no, none but yours.
Whose feet have found the…
One Reason to Give Is to Get
I’m a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas time gift giving. Sometimes I feel like if you’re going to spend $25 on me and I’m going to spend $25 on you, then let’s just do nothing and call it even, save the effort.
But when it comes to my wife, it’s a different story. I love buying presents for her, because I think I know exactly what’ll make her tear up with happiness on Christmas morning. Granted, she cries easily, but she’s going to love what I got her. So I spend my days leading up to Christmas making up silly songs about her present to torment her with the fact that I know what it is and she doesn’t. Maybe that’s mean, but I can hardly help it. I’m excited.
So what’s the…
Thank God for John Newton
Today is the 200th anniversary of John Newton’s death.
- John Newton wrote the hymn ‘Amazing Grace.” (The words, not the music.)
- He counseled William Wilberforce to stay in politics to fight the slave trade.
- He never gave up on the suicidal William Cowper who gave us “There Is A Fountain Filled with Blood” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” and “O For a Closer Walk with God.”
- He partnered with Cowper in writing a collection of Olney Hymns for their people. Cowper could not carry it through. Of the 300 hymns we have today 233 are from Newton.
- When Henry Martyn came to him for counsel before entering on his mission to Persia (a…
“From His Fullness We Have All Received Grace upon Grace”
Just before the first service at the north campus last Sunday, the little band of praying saints was hard at work fighting for the faith of our people and for the churches of the Twin Cities and for the nations as they prayed. At one point Jim Tomaszewski prayed the words of John 1:14-16:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
It was one of those epiphany moments for me...
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What Is the Hypostatic Union?
This is part 3 of 4 on the Incarnation
- Part 1: Advent and the Incarnation
- Part 2: Jesus Is Fully Human
The term hypostatic union is much easier than it sounds, but the concept is as profound as anything in theology.
The English adjective hypostatic comes from the Greek word hupostasis. The word only appears four times in the New Testament—maybe most memorably in Hebrews 1:3, where Jesus is said to be “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Here the author of Hebrews uses the word in reference to the oneness of God. Both the Father and the Son are of the same “nature.” Jesus is “the exact imprint of his nature.”
However, in early church discuss…
This Week's Advent Poem
In my final Advent Poem on Nicodemus, I concluded with lines about Christian courage in the face of the Colorado shootings:
So, Bethlehem, with candle three,
Are you afraid? Or are you free?
Do Christian-killers in the news
Make you a slave? Or do you choose
With Christ that they will make you brave?
What do you fear the most? The grave?
Did Jesus die and rise for this?
Or that the certain hope of bliss
Beyond the bullets and the blood
Would bless this planet with a flood
Of fearless sacrifice? What gun
Can cut us off from Jesus? None!
Nor tribulation or distress,
Nor danger, sword, or nakedness.
Though we were killed like…
Trust Promises, Not Providences
This morning my assistant, Bryan DeWire, found out his father, who 24 hours ago seemed in fine health, didn’t make it through emergency heart surgery. This afternoon, my wife called me in tears to update me on a very difficult day trying to raise and teach 5 young children. Very different, yet real and painful experiences of God’s providential reign in lives of Christians I love.
Also this morning I read this sentence in a pamphlet titled, “Honey Out of the Rock,” by Puritan Thomas Wilcox,
“Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by promises.”
Experiences are very powerful. They often feel more powerful than promises. So it's tempting to interpret prosperity and e…
