5 centuries ago Martin Luther’s barber asked him how to pray. Luther responded with a 40 page letter entitled A Simple Way to Pray that has been read and practiced by Christians ever since. Last night I shared one of Luther’s methods for meditating on God’s word with our church. It’s called garland prayer.
As a garland is made by intertwining multiple strands of greenery, Luther teaches us to weave a 4 strand prayer. …
Melissa Kruger reminds us that the Christian life is entirely paradoxical. She wrote the following in a recent blog at Ligonier:
…He who gains the most trinkets and toys does not win contentment in the game of life. When the world is gained, it may provide momentary happiness, but it is impossible for lasting joy to be sustained from temporary pleasure.
In contrast, the upside down way of the gospel leads us to deny
I recently finished Tim Keller’s new book, Prayer. Per usual, Keller has found the balance between writing accessibly while leading the reader through deep waters. His book on prayer will be my go-to book (outside of the Bible, of course) to recommend to Christians who want to learn to pray. Keller spends the first half of the book explaining what prayer is, why it’s important and why we should want it. In the second …
You’ve likely seen a preacher raise his leather bound copy of the Bible over his head and say something like, “This book is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God.” If you haven’t, welcome to the South. But how many church members have heard these kinds of powerful words and never understood what the preacher meant? What’s inerrancy? Why does it matter?
In 1978 a group of evangelical theologians who were concerned with preserving a …
How can I study my Bible better? It’s a question I hear all the time, and there’s a million ways to answer it. In this post I cover the first Bible study resources that I’d purchase if I was starting from scratch.
Here are a couple books I’d tell you to buy if you’re just starting to study the Bible seriously.
I …
A chasm stretches between the words “is” and “does”. Unfortunately, we live in a culture far more interested in “does” than “is”, and this interest negatively affects the way we think about the church. If I were to ask the average church member to tell me about the church I would get hundreds of “does” answers.
The Bible is a text.
Well, that’s obvious.
And how does one understand a text?
One reads it.
If you feel like those sentences are basic then you understand how I felt in my Old Testament courses at The College at Southeastern. Why did I leave home, rent a house and commit four years to hear a professor tell me something I already knew? That’s what I asked myself. I know the Bible is …
In Genesis 12 God promises to make a nation of Abram’s descendants. It’s one of the most ironic passages of scripture in the Bible. Why? Because Abram was an old man who had no children. Along with the promise to increase Abram’s offspring God also promises that through Abram all the nations of the earth will find blessing. This promise is repeated continually to Abram and his descendants throughout the rest of Genesis.
This morning …
I scan through the news everyday. My web browser is set to automatically open Drudge, NY Times, and Washington Post pages so I can keep up with world events. I listen to a daily news briefing and analysis from a Christian worldview. I confess that there is too much news to be properly outraged at. I know that so much information is coming down the pike that I rarely stop to simply ponder the news. …
Yesterday I had the opportunity to preach to our church from Colossians 2. As I introduced the topic of the sermon I also gave our church some context for Paul’s letter. Specifically, I wanted them to understand Paul’s mission strategy of reaching the cities like Rome and Colossae. The following is an excerpt from my sermon:
…Paul’s fellow minister, a man named Epaphras, had taken a mission trip to the city of Colossae. The city
