When I left Islam to follow Jesus, I didn’t know what it would cost me. I hadn’t realized what it would take to deny myself, lay my life down, and take up my cross (Matt. 16:24)....
The immediate answer to the question posed in my title is, Yes, of course. Each individual Christian has the immeasurable privilege and joy of knowing and enjoying the love God has for them in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 2:20)....
Shame and guilt are often confused in people’s thinking. What are they, and how do they differ? More important still, how might we be set free from the debilitating effects of shame? Here are ten things to keep in mind....
Worship involves our bodies as well as our hearts and minds. Our posture tells a story. It makes a statement to God and to others about the state of our souls and the affections and passions of our heart....
Those who self-identify as Open Theists deny that God has exhaustive, meticulous foreknowledge of all future events, including (especially) the morally responsible decisions of human beings....
The most famous verse in the Bible, at least among Christians, is John 3:16. But do we really understand what it means? Here are ten things to keep in mind as you reflect on it....
Worship involves our bodies as well as our hearts and minds. Our posture tells a story. It makes a statement to God and to others about the state of our souls and the affections and passions of our heart....
Keep ReadingNo biblical text so vividly portrays for us the true meaning of Christmas as does 2 Corinthians 8:9. There the apostle Paul wrote this: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). In what sense was Christ "rich" or "wealthy"? I want you to thin...
Keep Reading100 years ago today, December 11, 1918, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born. He entered into the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, August 3, 2008. So in honor of his 100th birthday, I want to re-post an article I wrote about him back in 2013. It's difficult to explain the personal impact of Solzhenitsyn. He was such a massive figure in the public eye and provoked...
Keep ReadingLast week I wrote about the Montanists and probably caused many of you to scratch your heads wondering, "Who in the world are the Montanists?" Today we turn our attention to another odd group known as the Nicolaitans. There is at least one profound difference between the two: the Montanists were most likely genuine believers in Jesus; the Nicolaitans were most assuredly no...
Keep ReadingMy former colleague at Wheaton College, Alan Jacobs, now a professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is without question the most widely-read and brilliant man I've ever known. There is virtually no intellectual discipline on which he cannot speak with remarkable insight. I'm sure he'd blush (and protest) to hear me say that. In any case, on November 30 of this year h...
Keep ReadingAbout what? I suspect that many of you have never heard the name Montanism or the individual Montanus from whom the movement is named. Often times when contemporary cessationists wish to ridicule or caricature charismatics they accuse us of being modern day Montanists. So, what was this movement and what did they believe? (1) We can date the emergence of Montanism in Phry...
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