Yesterday, I had the privilege of addressing a chapel full of students on the subject of their spiritual lives. The title which I was assigned was taken from an address given over 100 years ago by B.B. Warfield, “The Religious Life of Theological Students.” There was hardly time to cover this...

There are many model prayers in the Bible. The most famous is The Lord’s Prayer, recorded for us in Matthew and Luke; but there are others besides. Recently, Mark Johnston has turned our attention to the prayer of Daniel , or, more specifically, to the prayer life of Daniel. Both Daniel’s specific...

Micah 7:14-20 Have you ever looked back at your life or your ministry? How does it appear to you – as a success, or as a failure? In the last chapter of Micah, we see Micah reflect on the entirety of his ministry in Judah. Micah overlapped with three kings, one of whom was lukewarm; one of whom was...

Micah 2:6-13 From the beginning, Israel was faced with the prospect of false prophets trying to pass themselves off as prophets of God. Anyone coming in the name of another god was to be disregarded ; those coming in the name of the LORD were to be tested . Prophets were only to be obeyed if they...

Micah 1:1-7 If you look around the United States today (with apologies to our overseas readers), several things stand out. First, we are a military power. We face threats, but we have confidence in our military might. Then there is our economy – the most robust in the world. We live in a time of...

Last week, I entitled my column, “ How to Wreck a Church .” In my mind, the false teachers in Jude had (and have) the potential to do just that. They come in secretly; they flatter; they are immoral and follow their own desires; ultimately, they will be destroyed by God. But when we step back and...

Escapism seems to be everywhere. If you have internet access, try typing “escape” or “escapism” into a search engine. You might not want to visit all the sites that come up in such a search, but what you will see – if you need proof – is that many people seek to escape. Or think about the...

Teaching has its own occupational hazards. Teachers complain about lack of respect and pay. They frequently gripe about the students under their care. Teachers grumble about other teachers. In fact, you can read complaints about any and all of these things from teachers in the ancient world, from...

When I give instructions to my children, or even to my students, they often come in the form of warnings: “Be careful not to postpone this assignment to the last minute…” “Watch out for cars on the road…” “Make sure to proofread your papers…” I don’t think I’m alone in doing this; in fact, I think...

Last words are important. If you’ve ever been with someone at or near the moment of their death, you know what significance they have. What someone says in those final hours takes on added poignancy and significance. If they are of sound mind, we treat these last words with special reverence,...

I’ve been browsing the Christian blog sites lately. This is always a risky move; you never know exactly what you’ll find. But in the first few weeks of the New Year, there are some articles you can count on seeing. There are plenty of reflections on the year past. And there are always resolutions...

What could be more broadly evangelical than Christmas? It’s a time when all celebrating Christians agree on what the holiday means, and even many non-Christians pretend to believe – or at least to affirm that something good happened on the night Christ was born. Christmas would hardly seem to be...

What is Christmas all about? What are we to learn from God becoming a man? These should be pressing questions during this holiday season. And while these questions point us to great mysteries, they are also matters about which the Bible speaks plainly. In fact, on a number of occasions Jesus...