Why is our first inclination to run our sins into the dark shadows and hide like Adam tucked up against a tree trunk?

We find it natural to hide our sins, even as Christians, but such an act contradicts our Savior’s death. “The gospel frees us to be authentic, to admit that our struggles and strengths have not been fully sanctified, and to allow others to apply the grace of God to areas of our lives that desperately need it" (55). Matt Chandler makes this observation in his new book, Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church (B&H, October 1, 2012). It's a book he co-authored with Josh Patterson and Eric Geiger, and it’s a book dedicated to pressing the church to think about a pattern…

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The Anglican Church designates February 27 as the Feast Day in commemoration of the pastor and poet George Herbert. So I am glad to wave again my little flag of love for Herbert’s poetry.

For depth of biblical insight, penetration of the human psyche, candor with his own wrestling soul, plundering of human language, surprising turns of phrase, technically unique versification, and musical much-making of the gospel, his poetry is unsurpassed.

• For the most thorough and helpful (and expensive) critical edition, see Helen Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

• Jim Scott Orrick gives us one poem a week with his helpful comments in A Year with George Herb…

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Perhaps most of you are accustomed to saying that the kingdom of God is “not yet” here and is “already” here. Not yet here in its consummation, but already here in significant fulfillments.

In fact, “fulfillment without consummation” was the scandal of Jesus’s ministry. He claimed that the kingdom of God “is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21), and yet Jesus was not overthrowing the Roman regime. Even John the Baptist was perplexed and asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3).

This was the “secret of the kingdom” revealed only to a few. “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables” (Mark …

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In my sermon last Sunday I argued from 2 John 1:5–7 that love among Christians is a great protection against deception. John wrote, “Love one another. . . . For many deceivers have gone out into the world.” So I take it that love helps protect us from these deceivers.

I said that I saw four reasons in 2 John that love functions this way. But I only had time to describe two of them in the sermon. So here are the other two.

1. Love takes seriously all the commandments of God.

Verse 6: “This is love, that we walk according to his commandments.” John had said this in 1 John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.”

This doesn’t mean …

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I continue listening to The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797). In the midst of chapter seven the slave obtains his freedom. It was 1766.

His own description of his ecstasy jolted me into a joyful experience of my own freedom — my stunning manumission from the power of sin to God through the death of Christ. Here is his amazing description of his joy.

My imagination was all rapture as I flew to the Register Office. . . . I could scarcely believe I was awake. Heavens! Who could do justice to my feelings at this moment!

— Not conquering heroes themselves, in the midst of a triumph
— Not the tender mother who has just regained her long-lost infant, and presses…

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One of several helpful discussions in the speaker panel at the recent Desiring God Conference for Pastors dealt with implications from Kent Hughes’s pastor-saving message on “Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome.” Two possible errors were discussed — taking our identity from how outwardly “successful” our ministries may appear, or never really trying our best for God in his work (but only passively waiting for him to act).

One conclusion of that conversation was that while our faithfulness is the big category for which God is concerned, we are meant to pursue fruitfulness as well — to faithfully pursue fruitfulness. It is, of course, true that God gives the growth, but Paul does pl…

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God, not us, has designed the blueprint for manhood.

In this three-minute video, Lecrae explains what it looks like.

Related videos:

• Lecrae Raps the Gospel in One Minute (Lecrae)
• The Gospel in Two Minutes (Trip Lee)
• Biblical Masculinity and the Importance of Role Models (Trip Lee)
• How Manhood and Womanhood Are Different (John Piper and Darrin Patrick)
• The Deeper Strength of Masculinity (Darrin Patrick)

When I was pregnant with our first child it seemed like all of my related worries were shrouded in the mystery of the unknown. And now with our fourth child on the way, even in the midst of exuberant joy and thankfulness for this new life, worries creep into my imagination like looming, stone statues.

I can recall the physical challenge of carrying a baby while caring for my young children and serving my husband who struggles with chronic pain. I’m reminded of what labor feels like when I support women as a birth doula. I can remember what it’s like to feel bone-weary and emotionally spent at the end of the day knowing a long night was ahead.

If you called me on the phone right now to ca…

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For the first forty years of his life, Moses lived in a place of strength. As a member of Pharaoh’s household he had social prestige, wealth (Hebrews 11:26), and youthful strength. When he became aware of and troubled by his peoples’ oppression he used this strength to exact vigilante justice on an oppressive Egyptian. That wasn’t God’s plan for deliverance. He had to flee for his life and ended up tending livestock in the quiet fields of Midian for his second forty years.

So he passed his youth in a palace of power and his middle age in pastures of peaceful obscurity. Then one day he stumbled on a burning bush, which turned out to be God’s surprising call for his third forty years:

Behold…

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I spent a lot of my early years in Africa trying to create a home for my family. When packing, I agonized over how much of America to stuff into Ziplock baggies. I packed shoes in five sizes for the kids to grow into and rolled packets of taco seasoning inside the toes to save space. I thought about holidays and recipes and music and toys and books.

But then we left. Evacuated in 30 minutes with one suitcase and a backpack. Three months and two countries later, we tried to establish a home again. Now we are ending a year in the States while my husband pursued a doctorate degree and where we tried, again, to establish a home —a home we will leave in two months.

Home keeps slipping through m…

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