Last Sunday, for the first time in my life, I sang on request in a Sunday morning worship service. Another one of those milestones I said I could never do. The pastor saw me in the audience and said that he loved the song I sang to Talitha (that I mentioned in my article last week) and wondered what the tune was. Would I sing it?

Gulp.

I did. Admittedly, there were only 40 people in the congregation.

So according to the request, here’s my shot.

I wrote the words, and I sing them to the tune of "If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee" (listen).

Come rest your head and nestle gently,
And do not fear the dark of night.
Almighty God keeps watch intently,
An…

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Lots of people know that Wayne Grudem and I are the deepest of friends. We love to room together at conferences. We love to do things together with our wives. We were both in seminary together for a season. We have co-edited a book together. We taught together at Bethel College. And at this very moment I love him and would fly to his side in a crisis. But, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, why did you rewrite page 983?

Justin Taylor drew our attention to the fact that Wayne revised section F1 in his new edition of Systematic Theology (pp. 982-983). The section is titled, “Do Churches Need to Be Divided Over Baptism?”

In the first edition, Wayne answered that question no. In the new edition, he…

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One of my goals in our ministry to children at Bethlehem is to help parents teach them the truth and model the truth, so that when a family goes to the Science Museum in St. Paul and watches a dizzying documentary on Katrina in the Omni Theater (like we did a few weeks ago), which ends with the environmentally loaded lament,

When I get to heaven
I will shed a tear,
Because it won’t be as sweet
as what I have right here.
This is my home.

a five year old will suddenly look up to daddy and say, “That’s not right. Jesus is better than what we have right here.”

From 11 to 12 this morning, Gary Eichten of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Rabbi Harold Kushner about the collapse of the 35W bridge. Kushner is best known for his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. There were several astonishing things about this interview—not unusual for religious talk shows on public radio, but astonishing still.

1. The most astonishing thing is that God’s grace is so great neither the Rabbi nor I was struck dead by God during the interview—he, because of his blasphemous belittlings of God, and I, because of my contaminated anger at what he said.

2. Another astonishing thing is that Gary Eichten, as far as I heard, never challenged the Rabbi to supp…

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My plan for this fall—and I want to stress it is a plan, not a promise—is a 7-part series on historically significant sins. It will be entitled “Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ.” The first message, on August 12, will be an overview of where we are going and why, as it relates to our life as a church and our witness in the city and the world.

Here are some goals for this series:

• To show that the Christian faith is not like Hinduism or Buddhism or vague New Age Spiritualism but is rooted in and made up of objective historical reality outside ourselves: God, Satan, creation, human beings, sin, fallenness, providence, and divine puposefulness in all thing…

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Torchbearers International began in the heart of a young Englishman, Ian Thomas, who at the age of 19 came to understand that “it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.” This timeless flame of truth has been spreading around the world through the ministries of Torchbearers International, calling all people of all ages from all nations back to the reality that the Christian life is not just a religion but a relationship with the living God made know in his Son, Jesus Christ.

So writes Chris Thomas (Ian’s eldest son), the General Director of Torchbearers from Estes Park. That “young Englishman” completed his course on Tuesday, July 31, 2007. There will be a memorial ser…

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I wrote this poem when I heard of a newlywed waiting for her husband after the bridge collapsed.

Listen

O God, please let him be unconscious,
With his wallet lost, unknown
In some draped cubicle, with nurses
Near, and scrolling through his phone.

You never stayed so late. O Jesus,
I would give this house, and weep
With joy to know he stayed at
Work, until he fell asleep.

It’s midnight. I’m afraid to call, or
Even look too closely at the cars
Above the water, with the broken
Windows, glimpsed between the twisted bars.

I sleep. And you are there, the current
Of the Mississippi in your hair,
Caressed, so still, so still, so breathless,
Love, as when last night I touched you there.

I wake…

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At about 6 PM tonight the bridge of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. I am writing this about three hours after the bridge fell. The bridge is located within sight of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Most of us who minister at the church cross this bridge several times a week. At this point I don’t know if any staff was on the bridge. Desiring God offices are about a mile from the bridge.

There are no firm facts at this point about the total number of injuries and fatalities. When we crossed the bridge Tuesday on our way out of town, there was extensive repair work happening on the surface of the bridge with single lane traffic. One speculates about the unusual s…

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This is a note of deep gratitude and tribute for the life of Raymond Ortlund Sr., who went to be with Jesus on Sunday evening, July 22, 2007. You can read the life facts in the news post and see a personal post from his family. But here is why I must say a word of public thanks.

In 1968 I had just come to Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. I was naïve theologically and foolish in my attitudes to the Lord’s greatest institution, the local church. I was still single and actually pondered – you are free to laugh out loud – whether there was a future for the local church. I was disillusioned with much of it and would walk the streets of Pasadena Sunday morning wondering how I coul…

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“Lord, you know that I love you.” John 21:15

In the fall of 1968, James Morgan, my professor of theology at Fuller Seminary, who died of stomach cancer the next year, looked me in the eye during a heated debate after class and said, “John, I love Jesus Christ!”

I have never forgotten that testimony. It was one of the most powerful words ever spoken to me.

When was the last time you ever said to anyone—your spouse, your child, your friend, your colleague—“I love Jesus Christ”? May I urge you to do that? What if 10,000 Christians in Minneapolis (or pick your town) said to someone today with eye-to-eye earnestness, “I love Jesus Christ”? This would be a tidal wave of truth and power.

Wh…

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