In a raging storm in a rural town on the coast of Japan, a man and his daughter huddled against a warehouse. They held one another, they felt the fury of the wind and the snow, and they fought for life.

In early March of this year, a major snowstorm hit northern Japan. In the rural town of Yubetsu (in Hokkaido), it stranded a father, Mikio Okada, and his daughter, Natsune, in a snow bank.

Mikio had driven until his truck could go no further. The snow now piled up all around him. Recognizing that the vehicle would be overtaken by snow, he did what he thought best: he and Natsune got out of the truck, seeking shelter in nearby buildings.

Mikio and Natsune made it to a warehouse nearly 1,000…

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As we look out at the church today, there is so much that encourages us and fills us with gratitude. There is renewed zeal among God’s people for the spread of God’s glory across the earth. Like never before we hear brothers and sisters in different circles and different streams of contemporary Christianity talking about the gospel and mission, about transforming cities and reaching unreached people groups. These conversations are essential, and we hope they will continue with even greater intensity and intentionality in the days ahead.

But sometimes what we are not hearing can be as illuminating as what we do hear. It reminds us of an exchange in an old Sherlock Holmes mystery, where Holme…

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C.S. Lewis, panhandlers, and laziness: these are all themes from this week's lineup of Ask Pastor John podcast episodes. Three episodes focus on C. S. Lewis and the fall DG national conference: "The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis" (September 27–29 in Minneapolis). Details for the conference are forthcoming.

Excerpts follow from each episode (click on the hyperlinked titles to listen).

Why Host a Conference on C. S. Lewis? (Episode 81):

November 22nd, 2013 marks 50 years since C. S. Lewis died in 1963, the same day John Kennedy died, the same day Aldous Huxley died. But behind the occasion is the man and his extraordinary influence in so m…

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“But I believe in Jesus too,” my five-year-old said, unconvinced by my explanation why she couldn’t have some of the bread and juice.

We had slipped out of the service after I received the elements because she became rowdy with questions. I led her a little ways from the crowd and knelt down to meet her eye to eye. My hands were on her shoulders, posturing to seize the moment, until my unsatisfactory answer quickly led to a bigger talk as she continued her case.

Now staring off in her own thoughts, she replied, “Dad, I believe in Jesus, but I mean, I’ve never seen him before. I’ve never heard how he talks.”

This wasn’t a crisis. She was just stating a fact. It actually came off a little b…

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I know myself, and I know that I couldn’t be any more angered by abortion. So when I first started seeing things about the Gosnell trial, I skipped right over it. I am sure that many of you feel the same way now. What can we possibly do about it, and how can reading about the horror of what happened in that “clinic” help us be any more faithful in our own lives?

But when I finally did read a bit about it, I found myself surprisingly challenged and encouraged, and here is why. The Gosnell situation shines light on the darkness of abortion in a way that nothing else has in a long time. Stories like this one (and the recent video sting of that clinic in the Bronx) make me realize that I am jus…

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“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26)

A few days ago we laid the body of my wife’s grandfather in the ground outside the little brick church in the cornfields where he attended all 97 years of his life. I was given the profound honor of preaching at his funeral. And the words of John 11:25–26 were my text.

I chose them because Jesus said them to Martha when Lazarus lay dead in his tomb. And I was to stand behind the old pulpit in front of a full casket.

A corpse is a fierce reality. It demands that we explain these claims of Jesus — perh…

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A friend recently asked me if I could give her some parenting advice. I smiled and said that I couldn’t because I’m not an expert and don’t know really what I am doing. She laughed and remarked on the ways parenting humbles us. My friend did not realize just how true her statement was. For many years, I taught, counseled, advised, and trained parents in the raising of their children. It’s a remarkable testimony to God’s grace toward me that I’ve come to a point in my own parenting where I am not at the ready to give advice.

Many people describe marriage as the laboratory where our spiritual growth is fostered and developed. I find it to be equally true of parenting as well. God has used par…

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Reformed theology is theology in process. Semper reformanda, we say — always reforming.

As a body of thought, Reformed theology is not complete. The challenge and opportunity for Christians is not to revise the biblical principles but to make our doctrinal formulations more biblical — and faithfully apply them in different cultures and contexts.

Developing Theology in Community

One of the goals for the Reformed African American Network (RAAN) is to “develop theology in community.” As the network took shape, we knew we had to avoid any kind of theological imperialism. While it’s true that the African American community can benefit from Reformed theology as it stands, Blacks have much to of…

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One of the common hopes and repeated phrases around the pro-life movement is that “abortion will become as unthinkable as slavery.” I long for such a day.

The only problem is that the elements that made slavery possible are still thinkable now. We see it in how people behave toward children, particularly unborn children.

Consider the legal issues around Baby S., the little girl who God miraculously placed into a loving Christian family after her disabilities were discovered during a surrogate pregnancy for parents who decided they didn’t want her.

When her surrogate mother could not be bullied into an abortion, a lawyer for the genetic father reminded her that she had signed a contract. …

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The Book of Acts is clearly one of the most action-packed segments in the storyline of Scripture. The title, “The Acts of the Apostles,” cues us in on this clue from the start. As many commentators have suggested, a more accurate title would be something to do with the acts of the Holy Spirit, or perhaps “The Action of the Ascended Christ by His Spirit Through His Church.”

The book opens with Jesus ascending as human to the throne of the universe, sending the Spirit, and commissioning his messengers. “You will be my witnesses,” he promises, “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And so Luke recounts the movements in that outline — all action and…

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