The publishers of the Christian Standard Bible recently sent out an email with a list of practical suggestions for using the summer to connect with neighbors for the advance of God's kingdom. Here's a modified version of that list: Move to your front yard. Think about where you're more likely to see your neighbors, and then spend your free time there. Read a book or enj...

Thomas Schreiner is the professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has written The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments, along with numerous books and commentaries at both a scholarly and more popular level. His recent book, Spiritual Gifts: What They Are Why They Matter is a more popular lev...

When we hear the expression, "the good, the bad, and the ugly," we naturally conceive three separate categories. Good things happen in life. Bad things happen in life. And while the bad and the ugly categories may bleed together at times, ugly thingsuniquely bad, life-altering thingsunfortunately occur with sufficient frequency as to require a distinct category. But can t...

The Psalter has found massive popularity with Christians and non-Christians alike. The psalms have been sung, chanted, memorized, and meditated on by God's people, and others, for thousands of years. Simply put, the psalms are beautiful poems that speak to the soul and aid the soul in speaking to God. Whether the soul needs a medium for expressing sorrow, grief, joy, or th...

I love Narnia. If I could go anywhere and be anyone I would go to Narnia and I would be a Narnian. My love for Narnia has ebbed and flowed over the course of my life, beginning when I was a young child. My father read the Narnian chronicles aloud to all of us children after our evening family devotions. I loved hearing his different voices for the different characters. I p...

Love for musical expression is woven into the fabric of humanity. Dr. Mark Futato writes, "Whenever really big events occur in the history of redemption, more often than not, you'll find music and poetry." When God delivers Israel through the Red Sea, there is singing and dancing. During the height of King David's reign, we have music and poetry. When Israel's Messiah fina...

It was a crisp, clear November morning but the anticipation was as thick as butter. Steam rolled out of helmets while the dancing players rubbed their hands together and gazed over the frosty field, "Let's play ball" finally rang out from the Saint Louis Cardinal. "Rocky and Jim you're on my side. We'll take on the rest of you." It was going to be a good day. Mickey had pi...

Wherever there are people there are differences of opinion. Friendly debates are had (in person and online) about sports teams, cars, diets, and so on. These kinds of arguments don't really matter all that much (unless you're talking about the Vikings current Quarterback situation). When it comes to Bible translations, similar differences of opinion arisebut these differe...

Sunday is Easter, the Christian celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Christians gather the first day of every week for this same celebration, but tomorrow marks the anniversary of the event. Or does it? "Not so," some Christian authors insist, "not the anniversary of the event, simply the commemoration of your personal experience of itwhatever 'it' means to yo...

On the exact day I was born (July 13, 1985), Dick Knox celebrated his 57thbirthday. You're probably asking, "Who is Dick Knox?" For those who don't know him, allow me to share several things about this extraordinarily ordinary friend of mine who had a profound impact for Christ upon my life. It's May 1995, and Dick Knox learns that his fellow church members Ross Maureen ...

My church recently hosted a Vacation Bible School. If you've ever helped out with a VBS before, you know the drill. Hand out flyers in the surrounding neighborhood. Decorate the church building. Distribute prizes ordered from the Oriental Trading Company. Act crazy. And then take a long nap when the week is over, because, for whatever reason, VBS is exhausting. But is VBS...

John Bunyan, the unlikely pilgrim of Bedford, England lived a dream. He lived his beloved and classic dream, The Pilgrim's Progress. From burdened to preacher, and from prisoner to victor, Bunyan's journey mirrored Christian's. John Bunyan was born in November 1628. He lived a godless life until as an adult he married a woman who became his Evangelist by sharing two books...

These considerations were offered byPastor Dan Millerto the members of Eden Baptist Church in May 2016 as preliminary groundwork for helping certain members discern the Lord's direction regarding their potential involvement with a church plant. The points have been altered slightly to reflect their general application to churches in any context who may be facing a similar ...

A young woman was contemplating marriage to a young man. He had not yet proposed, but they continued to discuss the prospect of matrimony. He had chosen pastoral ministry as his life's vocation. She wisely discerned that marriage to a minister would constitute something other than a normal life. A level-headed woman by nature, she determined to weigh her future rationally,...

Waiting can be challenging. This is especially true when it is something good that you strongly desire. Over the past few months, my wife and I have been waiting for God to summon us to a ministry position. As we wait, we wonder at the wisdom of God as He prepares us. Seminary is all about preparing for ministry, yet it can be demanding. The schedule and lack of sleep ca...

Currently, the Wednesday night adult prayer group has been working through Luke's gospel. This study involves reading considerable amounts of Scripture in a short amount of time without being able to engage in deep teaching and discussion of everything that was read. This raises a really good question:is reading such a large amount of text at the expense of deep explanatio...

In this post, I'm going to attempt to answer the question: "How did the church planting partnership between you and Eden Baptist develop?" As is often the case for God's people, our path toward this endeavor has not exactly been a straight and simple one, but here are a few of the key points of that journey. Beginning in 2005, I had the privilege of being part of a new c...

When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the AlmightyBy: Joni Eareckson Tada Steven Estes I think we can all agree that anyone who has lived in a wheelchair for over fifty years with no use of arms and legs, all the while demonstrating true joy and satisfaction in God, has something worthwhile to say about suffering. Joni Eareckson Tada sure does! Two premises steer...

A month ago, I graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Bethlehem College Seminary. Along with the thousands of hours of study with hundreds of hours in the classroom were the countless hours of learning acquired outside seminary's walls. Like most every person I know, seminarians don't learn their theology in a vacuum. We practice it in our daily lives as husbands...