Last spring I had the privilege of speaking at a conference for NFL players put on by Pro Athletes Outreach (PAO), a group which exists to unite a community of pro athletes and couples to grow as disciples of Jesus and positively impact their spheres of influence. They have a fantastic outreach to professional football and baseball athletes and their wives. I’ve seen firsthand the amazing difference they’re making. In the off-season I exchanged emails and texts with dozens of NFL players and cha..Continue reading→
Home
Thoughts
Motherhood Is a Marathon
I wanted to do great things for God. In the spring of my senior year of college, on the brink of embarking upon my own journey into adulthood, my future was undecided and that was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. As a philosophy major, my path was narrower than I had realized, but I was sure it would take me on some grand and glorious adventure. I knew the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. “Glorify” sounds like such a grand term. It evokes images of battlefie..Continue reading→
1 Peter 5:7–8: How Not to Battle Anxiety
Anxieties attack our faith and torment our peace. The question with anxiety is not whether it will come, but rather, how can I fight it when it does? Watch NowContinue reading→
Is Love of Money Really the Root of All Evils?
Is the love of money the “root of all evils” or only the “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10)? “All evils” is the formal English equivalent of the original Greek (pantōn tōn kakōn). It is remarkable that all older versions of the Bible translate 1 Timothy 6:10 in the more literal way: “The love of money is the root of all evils” (or all evil). This includes the Wycliffe Bible, Luther Bibel, Geneva Bible, King James Version, Douay-Rheims, Darby Bible, and Revised Standard Version. Bu..Continue reading→
Hot Topics
The Blessing of Humility (Book Review)
Bridges insists “A life of humility is not an option for a believer to choose or reject. It is a command of God.” To teach the beauty and value of humility as well as to start on down the path toward humility he turns to the Beatitudes saying, “these expressions of Christian character are a description of humility in action.” I wonder if The Blessing of Humility is Jerry Bridges’ final book. It was published posthumously, but soon enough after his death that it’s very possible there was still a..Continue reading→
Are We Living in the Last Days?
“When I look at two titans of theology like Martin Luther and Jonathan Edwards and I see them making predictions and voicing their expectations of the near return of Jesus and being wrong, that gives me pause.” We have to be careful not to be guilty of what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for—what I call the Red Sky Syndrome. If you recall, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they had an ability to predict the weather. They could look at the sky, and if it was red at night, they would say, “Sailor’..Continue reading→
“God Made Me for China” — Eric Liddell Beyond Olympic Glory
“Americans of my generation remember Eric Liddell largely because of Chariots of Fire, the 1981 British film written by Colin Welland, produced by David Puttnam, and directed by Hugh Hudson.” Olympic glory abounds in Rio as the 31st modern Olympiad is well underway. This time, the event is living up to its hype, especially for Americans, who are likely drawn to the pomp and ceremony as much as the athletic competition. The medal ceremonies represent both climax and catharsis, with athletes awa..Continue reading→
The Trinity: Praying to the Father through the Son by the Spirit
“In the Covenant of Redemption, the Son voluntarily agreed to become incarnate and undergo the miseries of this life and the excruciating death of the cross and the victorious resurrection from the grave for us. And when he ascended, he entered into the loving heavenly Father’s presence with our (now glorified) human nature where he represent us and has ongoing sympathy, indeed empathy, for us.” The Christian doctrine of the Triune Godhead is often thought more in terms of an intellectual puzzl..Continue reading→
Life & Society
Parties at War: Boris Johnson pulls out of leadership race
Boris Johnson will not stand to be Conservative party leader. After a morning of shock revelations, the former London major and champion of the campaign to leave the European Union, said was not the right person to lead the UK. The move came after his Vote Leave colleague Michael Gove and home secretary Theresa May both announced they will run for leader. Gove, the justice secretary, announced his surprise bid with a dig at Johnson who he said could not "provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead". He had been expected to support Johnson's campaign after the pair were leading lights in bringing the UK out of the EU. The shock announcement came as both Labour and Conservative parties headed for a summer in turmoil as a leadership race begins within both. The justice secretary Michael Gove will run against Theresa May, Stephen Crabb, Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom. Home secretary Theresa May announced her leadership bid earlier o..Continue reading→
Anti-Christian bias, the BBC and the problem of religious literacy
Is the BBC institutionally hostile to Christianity, only interested in knocking our faith and promoting other religions? It seems unlikely, on the face of it, but that's the charge leveled against it by a Christian group that's just presented a 12,000-signature petition to director-general Lord Hall. Voice for Justice calls on him to "protect the UK's Christian heritage and reject current proposals to reduce and downgrade Christian programming in favour of increased coverage for Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths". It accuses the BBC's head of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed – a Muslim – of regularly commissioning documentaries "displaying clearly pro-Islamic bias, while calling into question fundamental tenets and teachings of Christianity". Britain, it says, is a Christian country and so Christianity should be treated with respect and given more airtime than minority groups; and, "In particular, Islam should not be singled out for special interest and presen..Continue reading→
Women who attend religious services five time less likely to commit suicide, study says
Researchers also found that Catholic women were less likely to commit suicide than Protestant women. Women who regularly attend religious services are five times less likely to commit suicide in comparison to those who never attend services, researchers have found. A study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry found that among more than 89,000 women, "attendance at religious services once per week or more was associated with an approximately 5-fold lower rate of suicide compared with never attending services". Researchers concluded that "frequent religious service attendance was associated with a significantly lower rate of suicide." The women, most of whom were white Christians, were studied over a period of 15 years between 1996 and 2010. During that time, 36 committed suicide, which is among the 10 leading causes of death in the US. "Our results do not imply that health care providers should prescribe attendance at religious services. However, for patie..Continue reading→
‘Satanic Islam’ pastor James McConnell forgives BBC presenter for ‘hijack’ interview
Pastor James McConnell says he forgives the BBC interviewer who pressed him on his attitude to Islam. The controversial Belfast pastor cleared of broadcasting hate speech after a sermon in which he branded Islam 'satanic' has said he forgives the BBC interviewer whose interviews with him brought him widespread negative publicity. Pastor James McConnell was tried after a sermon in which he said: "Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell" was broadcast online. He was charged with contravening the law against causing a grossly offensive message to be sent by means of a public electronic communications network. BBC presenter Stephen Nolan won an award for an interview with McConnell in 2014. One of the judges, Kevin Marsh, said: "Nolan was well informed and well prepared and tested the pastor's arguments robustly and persistently. The overall effect was an engaging interview in which not just the pastor'..Continue reading→
Movies
Goodbye, Family Christian Stores
This week, it was announced that Family Christian Stores — one of the world’s largest Christian retailers — will close all 240 of its stores. This isn’t really shocking; Family Christian had gone through bankruptcy a few years back. But it will have an impact; more than 3,000 employees are going to lose their jobs as the stores shutter and Christian culture loses one of its largest and most diverse suppliers of books, music and trinkets. Granted, this is just the nature of the beast these days. ..Continue reading→
Have you caught up with “It’s My Favorite”?
Hey everyone, Not going to lie: it’s been a week. Work, school and home life have been busy, and the general insanity of our world right now has really robbed me of a lot of energy and will to write. It’s a shame, because I have some really good stuff on deck for you. One new series I want to write and one Oscar-related miniseries of articles, and I’m hoping that starting this weekend those will start posting. And in the weeks ahead I’m going to really be jumping into the reviewing pool again ha..Continue reading→
Watch: New music video for The Shack with new footage
Itching to see The Shack — or at least to get a taste of it before it comes out five weeks from now? Well, maybe this will tide you over: the powers that be have released two new songs from the film’s soundtrack, one of which even has a music video. Here is the video, for a new acoustic version of Skillet’s ‘Stars’: The studio has also released the full version of ‘Keep Your Eyes on Me’, which is sung by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and has previously been heard in the trailers. Here is a Spotify ..Continue reading→
The Story of God: Proof of the Divine
Photo by Amanda Slater, Flickr. C.C. Licensing. Season two of “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) on the National Geographic Channel. Once again, I’m writing about it here each week from a Christian perspective as a preview. This post is about episode three, the season finale, “Proof of God.” In the final episode of “The Story of God’s” second season, Morgan Freeman travels the world speaking to people who believe they’ve experienced proof — often tang..Continue reading→
Oscar nominations — my own two bits, and a complete list
It looks like La La Land is the movie to beat at this year’s Oscars. The film, a jazzy musical that stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and an actress trying to make their way in Hollywood, racked up 14 Academy Award nominations this morning — tying the record set by 1950’s All About Eve and 1997’s Titanic. However, because La La Land was nominated twice for original song, it is actually nominated in 13 categories — which is more than the 12 categories that All About Eve was nominate..Continue reading→
Let’s talk Oscar noms!
Some quick thoughts on the 2017 Academy Award nominations, which were announced earlier today. A full list of nominees is available here. At first blush, my biggest surprise is that there isn’t a ton here I would bicker with. The list of nominees this year is really darn good, spread out over several movies. Maybe it’s because I saw fewer movies than normal this year or simply because so many of the nominated films are on my best-of list, but I can’t really find a bad choice among the films. Re..Continue reading→
Star Wars Episode 8 gains a title
Earlier today, the official Star Wars Twitter feed ended more than a year of speculation by revealing the title of the latest entry in the saga, due out this December: It’s official. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is the next chapter of the Skywalker saga. This December. #TheLastJedihttps://t.co/ySkVwQcMTPpic.twitter.com/eHrPgbsRJq — Star Wars (@starwars) January 23, 2017 [Read More...]Continue reading→
Encountering the Mystical in the ‘The Fits’
The fascinating film about adolescent encounters with the sublime gives us plenty to ponder. If you’re looking for a film that inspires lively conversation, you’ve got to check out The Fits. Anna Rose Helmer’s debut feature film runs a brief, but intense, 72 minutes, leaving plenty of time for discussion and debate afterwards. It caused a stir last year at Sundance, and critics have been talking about it ever since. Fortunately, Amazon Prime subscribers can currently stream it for free—and for ..Continue reading→
Review: The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (dir. Dallas Jenkins, 2017)
The Resurrection of Gavin Stone is a “faith-based” comedy about a washed-up former child star who, having trashed a hotel roof bar, is told to do a couple hundred hours of community service at a Chicago-based megachurch and ends up starring in their Easter play. It’s a safe, formulaic and utterly predictable film — precisely the kind of “Christian” movie I tend not to review here — but because of my interest in movies about Jesus, I was interested in seeing how this film would depict the play. T..Continue reading→
Music
One-Way Conversations by Hollyn
Hailing from Ohio, this Dove Awards New Artist of the Year nominee has been working the past year on her debut full length album titled "One-Way Conversations". Listeners were introduced to this vibrant you lady on TobyMac's latest release with the songs "Backseat Driver" and "Lights Shine Bright" and later with her debut #1 single "Alone (featuring TRU)". As a songwriter, Hollyn co-wrote all of the songs on her debut full length album and worked with producers Bryan Fowler (Ryan Stevenson), Wit and 42 North (Andy Mineo), Cole Walowac of Capital Kings, Eric Ramey (Britt Nicole) and more. The album[...]Continue reading→
Run The Race (Single) by Holly Starr
The new single from Holly Starr, co-written with and produced by Bryan Fowler (Ryan Stevenson, Tobymac, Mandisa, Hollyn).[...]Continue reading→
The Garden (Deluxe Edition) by Kari Jobe
Grammy nominated Kari Jobe is the premiere female worship leader in Christian music. Coming off her last live album, Majestic, which featured the worship anthem 'Forever' and radio hit 'I Am Not Alone', Kari Jobe has returned to the studio to record her new album, full of brand new worship anthems for the church and for personal reflection. Finding inspiration from life's joys and hardships, Kari leans into the firm foundation of Christ through it all. With career sales that top 1 million, Kari still comes back to the reason why she started in the first place- leading people into[...]Continue reading→
Kat&Jared EP by Kat&Jared
"Everyone goes through difficult seasons. When we're in those seasons we can either choose to magnify our problems or we can magnify who God is. These five songs are really just a collection of songs that celebrate the life that comes by choosing to enter into God's presence." Kat Hartmann Kat&Jared, Kat and Jared Hartmann, are worship leaders and songwriters whose passion is to help people discover the life that comes from friendship with God and spending time in His presence. Kat and Jared spent the first nine years of their marriage traveling the world with Flyleaf, a platinum selling[...]Continue reading→
Sing it Now: Songs of Faith & Hope by Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire has never been one to "rest on her laurels" (Associated Press) and continues to prove that her strong work ethic couples well with passion as she prepares to release SING IT NOW: SONGS OF FAITH HOPE on February 3, 2017 jointly through Nash Icon Records and Capitol Christian Music Group. For an entertainer with an illustrious career that has elicited 35 No. 1 singles, over 56 million albums sold worldwide, prestigious industry awards, lead acting roles and brand endeavors, new is a rarity yet an art form she has perfected. From the set of her forthcoming music[...]Continue reading→
Books
A Look at Notable 2016 Publications
TEDS President offers his list of best books “There is no end to the making of many books,” says the author of Ecclesiastes. In the United States alone, there were close to one million titles published during the past year, with revenue approaching $1.8 billion. Hundreds of titles competed for our attention during 2016. I offer the following observations with the recognition that I have no doubt missed several important works that some of you would have included in such a survey. The books not..Continue reading→
Recommended Biographies By or About Women
Faith Cook is an author, biographer, and hymn writer. She grew up as a missionary child in war-torn China and has chronicled her story in an autobiography. Her own biographical work has been on both men: Fearless Pilgrim: The Life and Times of John Bunyan William Grimshaw of Haworth and women: The Nine Day Queen of England: Lady Jane Grey, Selina: Countess of Huntingdon: Her Pivotal Role in the 18th Century Evangelical Awakening, and Anne Bradstreet: Pilgrim and PoetContinue reading→
Bibliotheca Bible – a Review
There are many things that I have great admiration for, but perhaps one of the things I enjoy the most is seeing a long-awaited, labor of love come to full fruition. The tenacity, hard work, dedication, and pitfalls along the way in seeing something through to the end is something that, for lack of better terms, gets me emotionally invested in a project. Yet not all projects are equal and not all catch my particular attention – but if we’re truthful, that’s precisely what makes these types of th..Continue reading→
Christianity Today’s 2017 Book Awards
Our picks for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture. Make a list of all the blessings the Protestant Reformation has brought, and eventually—long after jotting down iconic phrases like “salvation by grace alone through faith alone”—you’ll get around to the CT Book Awards. Books, of course, had existed long before Luther posted his 95 Theses. But there’s no denying that reading and the Reformation, with a vital assist from Gutenberg’s printing press, soared toget..Continue reading→
Where Should Our Women be Discipled?
Pastors and elders want thinking women in the church, right? And yet popular beliefs that came out of the nineteenth century’s cult of domesticity still seem to linger in the evangelical culture today. Back then, people taught that women’s brains were inferior to men’s intellectually and that women needed to reserve their energy and blood flow for reproductive purposes. These are ideas we usually joke about now, even to provoke a woman in innocent fun, because we know them to be scientifically p..Continue reading→
10 Books Every Christian Teenager Should Read
A reader recently asked the question: Do you have a suggested list of books for teenagers, something like a “Ten best books every Christian teenager should read?” It surprised me that I have never compiled such a list, especially since I’ve got two teenagers of my own. I decided I’d better remedy this oversight straight away. Here, then, is a list of ten great books every Christian teen ought to read—or at least consider reading. Please note that these are not necessarily the ten best books your teens will read in their lifetime. Not all of these books will stand the test of time as Christian classics. But each of them is suited to twenty-first century teenaged readers and together they will provide a foundation for the Christian life that will prove both deep and wide. I list them in no particular order. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. It is rare that a book is elevated to the ranks of the classics, but The Holiness of God is a prime candidate. Sproul’s book will introduce teens..Continue reading→
Signposts to God and More (RJS)
Books, books, books … What is the best book you’ve read on Science and Christian faith? It seems to be the season … not the holiday season, but the book season. I recently received three new books. Books by a physicist, a biologist (with training in theology as well), and a philosopher. All three tackle questions of science and Christian faith. Each of the three presents an interesting perspective – and I intend to dig into them more completely over the upcoming months. Peter Bussey’s book, Sign..Continue reading→
2016 Reading Challenge Update: September & October
This year I have been participating in the 2016 Reading Challenge, a fun way to increase and diversify your reading through another year. I took the challenge and set this year’s goal at 104 books. However, because so much of my reading has to go toward reviewing books that are recently published and of interest to Christians (both for reviews published here and in WORLD magazine), I decided to pick from all over the list rather than working through it in order. What follows are the books I completed in September and October and, in parentheses, the reading challenge category they fulfill. Below that is the complete list of categories I need to cover. As you can see, I did not finish many books over the past couple of months, something that is not unusual as my reading ebbs and flows over the course of the year. You can see my previous updates for January, February, March-April, May, June, and July-August. Sexual Morality in a Christless World by Matthew Rueger. This is a brilliant w..Continue reading→
6 Reflections on Community Inspired by Bonhoeffer
My church has recently launched a series on community called Better Together. In conjunction with the sermon series, I, in collaboration with my senior pastor, wrote a small group curriculum to compliment the series. I love community, which is why I love small groups. Like many of you, I work hard on our small group system at my church to equip leaders and to help many in my church experience the fullness of community—the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, as I continue to reflect on communi..Continue reading→
World
Weekend Edition—July 1, 2016
Care for Refugees, America Divided, Church Signs, and more! Evangelicals and refugees: Care first, conversion maybe later—Adelle M. Banks Love and care may open the door to the gospel, but even if not we should love and care. Today’s Betrayal of Women by the Female Bloc on SCOTUS—Dr. Gerard Nadal Razor sharp analysis of how the three female SCOTUS justices betrayed women. The Plight of the Falling Pastor—Daniel Darling interviews Scott Sauls Pastors can never have too much encouragement t..Continue reading→
Wise Decision-Making in God’s Economy
How do we know that we are pleasing God in all that we do? Who will be our next president? It’s a question that is on everyone’s mind. In light of the upcoming presidential election, economic questions like, “Should we trade with China?” or “How do we pay for our debt?” are swirling in the minds of Americans. Questions like these are important, but they are also overwhelming and seem to best belong with pundits and academics. The reality is, the average American has little impact on the econom..Continue reading→
The Purge: Election Year
The opportunity for biting social critique gets swept away in a torrent of bloody destruction. Few, if any, of CT's readers probably ought to see (or bother seeing) The Purge: Election Year. Like its predecessors (The Purge and The Purge: Anarchy), its world is drawn thinly in ways that don't actually help the very interesting concept of the plot: that in an alternate universe very close to our own, the U.S. is ruled by the NFFA—the New Founding Fathers of America, a party of apparent..Continue reading→
The BFG
Fairy tales need real dragons. Roald Dahl weaves strange yarns for kids, mixing imagination and whimsy with a distinct strand of menace. The enduring popularity of his stories—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published in 1964!—depends on all those threads, menace included. What good is Matilda without the criminally neglectful parents or abusive Agatha Trunchbull? Or James and the Giant Peach without the cruel aunts? Or Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator without the Vermicious Knids?Continue reading→
American
Five Principles for Approaching the Bible after Genome Science
Adam and the Genome Books are officially available tomorrow. Clips from the first chapter in the second half of the book. Principle 1: A text out of context is a pretext. Every statement about Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, in Jewish literature, and in the New Testament is a statement made from a context and into a context. Furthermore, some of the statements about Adam and Eve in all of this literature are designed to speak against that context. That is, those statements are polemics and ap..
The Parable of the Good Deplorable
The Parable of the Good Deplorable, by Jason Micheli In front of a crowd of 70 (Or 140, who’s to say how big the crowd really was?) this lawyer tries to trap Jesus by turning the scriptures against him: “Who is my neighbor?” he presses. It’s the kind of bible question they could’ve debated for weeks. Read one part of Leviticus and God’s policy is Israel First; your neighbor is just your fellow Jew. Read another part of Leviticus and your neighbor includes the illegal immigrants and refugees in y..
Epiphany Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP
In the News: The Fate of Refugees
Nation states have chosen and encoded in law their boundaries and what it takes to get in and out of those boundaries. I don’t get to walk into Canada without going through an officer’s inspection, and Canadians don’t get to enter the USA without inspection. Such laws seem reasonable to most of us. Even so, what about refugees? In the Ancient Near East nations by law insisted in international treaties that refugee slaves be returned to their masters. One of the more remarkable counter-cultural l..
US
Democrats lost because they raised religious liberty fears
The reason the Democrats lost, argues David Bernstein in the Washington Post, is that their words, actions, and policies made large numbers of Christians afraid that their religious liberty is in jeopardy. So even though they had major qualms about Donald Trump, they voted for him in large enough numbers to give him the victory. Bernstein’s point, I believe, is that Democrats wouldn’t have to threaten religious liberty to meet their major policy goals. The country could have gay marriage without..
Macy’s drops Planned Parenthood
Macy’s department store no longer funds or matches contributions to Planned Parenthood. Neither do AT&T, Coca-Cola, Ford, and Xerox. For a list of big corporations that still do fund the abortion provider, click the link after the jump. We’ll see if the biggest funder of Planned Parenthood has a similar change of heart: namely, the United States government. From Macy’s: We No Longer Donate to Planned Parenthood Abortion Business | LifeNews.com: Another large corporation has decided to cease dona..
“Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray”
More prophecies of the coming of Christ for our Advent contemplation: Isaiah 35, yesterday’s Old Testament reading. I give the chapter after the jump. It’s about how God “will come and save you,” and what this will mean for “the redeemed,” those “ransomed by the Lord.” This includes those who are weak, infirm, and “anxious.” I take special comfort from verse 8: “even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.” The Ransomed Shall Return35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the dese..
CIA says Russia helped Trump
The CIA says that Russia deliberately interfered in the American election in order to help elect DonalTrump. Russian hackers broke into e-mails of both the Democratic and the Republican national committees, but turned over only the Democratic batch to Wikileaks. The correspondence between Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta and various Democratic operatives proved highly embarrassing to her campaign and likely cost her some votes. Trump and his people are denying the Russian involve..