Some people are by nature tough, blunt, matter-of-fact, unsentimental. Others are tender, warm, soft-spoken, emotionally sensitive. Some, amazingly, are a mixture. In general, what makes these different folks feel loved is very different.

Being assessed by these different people can be dismaying. Their responses to a sermon, or a comment in conversation, can be poles apart — one feeling firmly loved, another feeling put off by perceived harshness.

What should we do? I think we should spend our lives soaking in the Scriptures so that we grow into the kind of people who feel loved by whatever the Bible portrays as loving.

It seems to me that most of us have a harder time feeling loved w…

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Let’s do this inductively. I ask. You answer.

John 3:17, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

• Why did God send his Son? _______________

John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

• Does not obeying the Son (e. g., when he commands us to trust him) bring us under God’s wrath or leave us under his wrath? _______________
• So what did God send his Son to save us from? _______________
• Is this a felt need among the unbelievers you know? _______________
• What are the implications for the content of preaching and …

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God says to Ezekiel, “Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 3:9).

The logic strikes me, at first, as odd. Don’t be afraid of the people of Israel. Why? Because they are a rebellious house.

Why would their rebelliousness reduce my fear of them?

Because the condemnation on their faces will not stick. They hold you in derision, but they are wrong and you are mine.

In other words, God is not addressing the question whether the rebels can kill Ezekiel. The logic is not: Don’t be afraid of them because they can’t kill you. They can.

Rather the logic is: Don’t be afraid of them, because they are the rebellious ones not you. The fear God…

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The grace of God is patient and works both instantaneously and over time. A mistake we sometimes make is thinking too idealistically, as though if we blow our first apology, there is no chance for a second.

The way to think about this marriage saver biblically is that it is an effort to see Colossians 3:13 fleshed out in real life: “Bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other.” There is both “bearing with” and there is “forgiving.” How do they mingle in marriage?

Here’s one way I have in mind. I will describe nine steps to reconciliation with your wife (or husband, or friend, or colleague). Something like this is needed when you are too sinful t…

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Last Sunday’s message struck a chord with many when I spoke of Christian friends letting you down. I argued that sometimes they forsake you never to return — like Demas. He loved “the present world,” and so abandoned the great apostle who craved the Lord’s appearing more than he craved the world (2 Timothy 4:8).

And, even more relevant, we saw that many friends let you down but can and should remain your friends and your partners in ministry. Paul said that nobody from his team or from the church in Rome showed up to stand by him at his trial (2 Timothy 4:16). Nobody. Not Luke or Eubulus or Pudens or Linus or Claudia or any of “the brothers” (2 Timothy 4:21).

Nevertheless Paul graciously…

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Anders Breivik’s sentence for killing 77 people in Norway on July 22, 2011 is outrageous. He was deemed sane and sentenced to serve 21 years in prison “in a three-cell suite of rooms equipped with exercise equipment, a television and a laptop.” That’s 100 days of posh prison time for each person he murdered, with a legal release possible at age 53. Life is cheap in Norway.

The news agencies explained that such a sentence

is consistent with Norway’s general approach to criminal justice. Like the rest of Europe . . . Norway no longer has the death penalty and considers prison more a means for rehabilitation than retribution.

They explained that “many Europeans” consider America’s crimina…

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After preaching on the inestimable value of God’s inspired word on August 11th, I was so moved that the desire to say it again another way kept urging me on. So I wrote this.

The Truth
A Meditation on 2 Timothy 3:14–17

Stay, Timothy. Stay in this firmament,
This world of light within the world. Relent
From wandering, from chasing mist. Remain!
Outside awaits the glistening world, insane.

Stay, Timothy. This sky, this vast terrain
Where you now stand, is not a painting, vain.
Nor is your mother fanciful. God wrought
This world. You were not fooled, but brought.

Stay, Timothy. A thousand flowers, fraught
With heaven's milk and holy fragrance ought
To make you stop, so …

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The term “elevated vagueness” caught my eye.

It was in a tweet by Fred Sanders linking to his article about F. W. Robertson, a 19th century British preacher. Even before I read the article I could smell the rot. Robertson, it has been discovered, was covering his sexual affair in private while covering the truth in the pulpit.

That is not surprising. There is a connection between skilled vagueness and concealed immorality. Why else would a man use great gifts to make things unclear unless he was afraid of clarity? And fear of clarity in preaching is a good sign that something besides doctrine is being concealed.

This is not new. And the reason I call attention to Sanders’ article is b…

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Do you pray for your straying soul?

I do. Daily.

The soul is always in motion. If you think yours is motionless, you are probably floating downstream.

Daily the soul is lured to other treasures, other satisfactions, other rewards besides Jesus and his way. Jesus taught us to pray daily, “forgive us for these wanderings and lead us not into, but out of, them.”

So, how do you pray for your straying soul if you believe in God’s sovereign will to bring back his wayward ones? For many years I have taken my cue from Jeremiah 31:18.

You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; cause me to return and I will return, for you are the Lord, my God.

Similarly…

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As a church we are memorizing Psalm 91 again. It's part of our Fighter Verse program. Again we face the seeming unreality of these promises. Ordinary readers start to stumble and need help. At least I do.

Here are the sorts of promises we are memorizing:

• Verse 3: "He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence."
• Verse 7: "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you."
• Verse 10: "No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent."
• Verse 12: "On their hands angels will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone."
• Verse 14: "I will deliver him; I will protect him."

…

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