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Joe Rigney

Joe Rigney serves as a fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College. He is a husband, a father of three, and the author of a number of books, including More Than a Battle: How to Experience Victory, Freedom, and Healing from Lust.

He Descended into Hell?

He Descended into Hell?

Where was Jesus after Good Friday? Becoming like us in every way, Jesus’s spirit went to Hades — not to suffer but to open the way to heaven.

Your Sorrow Will Turn to Joy

Your Sorrow Will Turn to Joy

Morning & Evening Meditations for Holy Week

A team of pastors and scholars walk us through Holy Week with short meditations for each morning and evening, from Palm Sunday to the triumph of Easter.

Designed for Joy

Designed for Joy

How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice

God created men and women in his image — equal in value and complementary in roles, which are integral to God’s good design for humanity.

Killjoys

The Seven Deadly Sins

Our hearts were designed to enjoy a full and forever happiness, not the pitiful, temporary pleasures for which we’re too prone to settle.

The Enticing Sin of Empathy: How Satan Corrupts Through Compassion

The Enticing Sin of Empathy

How Satan Corrupts Through Compassion

Satan drives a subtle and enticing ferry from the truth that feelings are important to the lie that feelings are all that’s important.

The Stable Presence: Five Traits of Resilient Fathers

The Stable Presence

Five Traits of Resilient Fathers

Our homes need men who see with clarity, stand with stability, and act with wisdom. We need resilient, sober-minded fathers.

The Gift of God’s Judgment

The Gift of God’s Judgment

Our Election Crisis and Opportunity

The election of either candidate may be evidence of God’s judgment. But what if the fact that we’re faced with this horrible choice is already our call to repentance?

Ask God to Forgive You, Not Excuse You: Five Lessons from C.S. Lewis

Ask God to Forgive You, Not Excuse You

Five Lessons from C.S. Lewis

When we confess to God as we are, we find that we become our true selves — stable, strong, full of life and joy, and conformed to the image of Christ.

Begin Where You Are: How to Renew Your Prayer Life

Begin Where You Are

How to Renew Your Prayer Life

C.S. Lewis wrote a book on prayer in which he pens four words that might change your prayer life: “Begin where you are.”

Some Lose God While Serving God: A Subtle Danger in Christian Ministry

Some Lose God While Serving God

A Subtle Danger in Christian Ministry

How many have lost Christ while doing much for Christ? They evangelize, do good works, defend the truth, and yet in the process, forget their first love.

When to Baptize Our Believing Children

When to Baptize Our Believing Children

Baptized members, in a congregational church, must be able to stand in the assembly of saints on their own two feet. Which has implications for when we baptize our believing children.

The Good War Against Moods: How Stubborn Faith Overcomes Feelings

The Good War Against Moods

How Stubborn Faith Overcomes Feelings

Saving faith is a stubborn thing. It holds onto Christ even when our emotions and moods bid us to let go.

Lord, Deliver Me from Me: A Daily Prayer Against Unbelief

Lord, Deliver Me from Me

A Daily Prayer Against Unbelief

When doubts assail and fears prevail, run to your Father in prayer: “Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in you.”

Where Do We Find Jesus in the Old Testament?

For me, one of the most exciting elements of Scripture is its use of typology. Put simply, [Typology is] the idea that persons (e.g., Moses), events (e.g., the exodus), and institutions (e.g., the temple) can — in the plan of…

Pray and Obey Anyway: How God Meets Us in the Valley

Pray and Obey Anyway

How God Meets Us in the Valley

Do you want to know what devastates the halls of hell? A Christian who feels abandoned by God and yet still believes, still prays, still loves, still obeys.

Beware the Anger of Your Soul: How to Restrain Ungodly Passion

Beware the Anger of Your Soul

How to Restrain Ungodly Passion

As we feel the temperature of our souls rising, we need to stop and remind ourselves that ungodly anger will only add iniquity to our injury.

I Have No Good Apart from You: Prayer of the Satisfied Heart

I Have No Good Apart from You

Prayer of the Satisfied Heart

Many of us struggle to experience contentment because we look for it in the wrong places. The satisfied heart prays, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

‘Lead Me into Temptation’: How We Make Room for Sin

‘Lead Me into Temptation’

How We Make Room for Sin

Often, we keep returning to the same sins — lust, jealousy, envy, anger — because we keep making room for temptation.

Walk the War Before You: What It Means to Live by the Spirit

Walk the War Before You

What It Means to Live by the Spirit

If the Spirit lives in you, you do not need to give in to sinful desires anymore. You will not be perfect, but you can be increasingly free.

Seven Ways to Pray on Election Day

Seven Ways to Pray on Election Day

Judgment always begins with the household of God. Heartfelt repentance for our own sins is where we must start.

The Confusing and Perfect Love of Christ

The Confusing and Perfect Love of Christ

Sometimes the hardest part of following Jesus is waiting for him to help, to heal, to answer. His delays, however, are expressions of his love.

Do You Feel My Pain? Empathy, Sympathy, and Dangerous Virtues

Do You Feel My Pain?

Empathy, Sympathy, and Dangerous Virtues

Empathy has become a more popular virtue than sympathy in recent decades. But the shift does not come without its dangers.

The Shadrach Option

The Shadrach Option

Shadrach and his friends, along with the early Christians, recognized the idolatrous claim for what it was, and they refused to go along. They defied. They said, “No.” And here’s the clincher: They did so because they were seeking the good of the city.

Confronting the Problem(s) of Evil

Biblical, Philosophical, and Emotional Reflections on a Perpetual Question

Introduction Where was God? The question is always the same. After the initial shock and horror subsides, after the news crews go home, we're always left with the same question: Where was God? Did he know it was going to…

Invisible and Unmistakable: How Scripture Pictures the Holy Spirit

Invisible and Unmistakable

How Scripture Pictures the Holy Spirit

If you want to understand the Holy Spirit better, you can begin by grasping the images of the Spirit given in Scripture: wind and breath, spirit and river, oil and bird.

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