biblical fidelity

Do you remember show and tell when you were in school? I don’t recall what I took to show my classmates, but I remember that my classmates and I could bring in items that were meaningful to us in one way or another. We didn’t bring things that we didn’t like, or things that weren’t important to us...

Two summers ago, I preached through the book of Jonah. It remains one of the biblical narratives that I identify with most personally. Like Jonah, I once ran from God’s call on my life. The story of Jonah is straightforward, but its depths are profound, particularly in how it points us to Jesus...

When was the last time you considered your spiritual gifts? When you think about them, are you quick to recognize they were given to you by Christ for the edification, equipping and encouragement of the church, or were you tempted to think you somehow earned your spiritual gifts by way of education...

God had cursed David for his sin with Bathsheba. The curse is spelled out in 2 Samuel 12:10-15. In the next chapter we see the ugly blossom of the curse in David’s life. Not surprisingly, sin produces sin in its own likeness. Just as David had committed sexual sin and murder so too do we see that...

In the first two parts in this series ( here and here ), we discussed the truth that eloquence can only glorify God when it takes the role of servant rather than the master. We also so that eloquence starts from the heart of the preacher and primary depends on the unction of the Spirit. However, we...

George Schmidt, Magdalena, and the Bible Beneath the Pear Tree When the Moravian missionary George Schmidt left South Africa in 1744, he left behind a few converts, a copy of the Dutch New Testament, and a few trees he had planted, including a pear tree that had grown to provide some shade to his...

Where do we turn when we are brokenhearted? Some of us turn to entertainment to distract us. Others of us throw all our time and attention to a hobby we’re good at. We may call a couple of good friends and share why our heart is broken in hopes they will cheer us. We may take a trip to the grocery...

We often see ourselves as the heroes of the stories we read. We identify with noble characters like Atticus Finch, Elizabeth Bennett, and Frodo Baggins—rarely do we align ourselves with flawed figures like Bob Ewell, Mary Bennett, or Gollum. This tendency extends to how we view the early church in...

The metaphor of God’s kingdom as a vineyard is one that has Old Testament vintage, which is appropriate when talking about a vineyard. Long before Christ’s first advent, the prophet Isaiah described the Kingdom of Judah as a vineyard well-supplied to do what it is supposed to do: produce grapes for...

Some years back Google prepared a little celebration on their main page for Claude Debussey (1862-1918). It was a delightful animation honoring the French composer on his birthday. Google called the animation a doodle, wherein they recreated a moonlit trip down the river Seine while Debussy's most...