Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain [fleeting] life that he has given you under the sun, … Read More
How to Help Your Kids Read and Enjoy the Bible
My friend, Jake, is a young father I have tremendous respect for. Recently he asked me how to help his daughter, Meg, learn to read and enjoy the Bible. It’s a great question and related to a core value all Christian parents share: We believe a firm hold on Scripture is necessary to keep faith strong and alive. The question is … Read More
The Problems with Justification by Faith Alone
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1, ESV) “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24, ESV) I thought about titling this piece “How Wesley Helped Reformed Folks Get the Gospel Right” or “Orthodox Church Corrects Protestants for De-emphasizing … Read More
How to Please God
There is no greater arrogance than not to desire to be justified by faith in Christ.[1] -Luther In keeping with celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, I wanted to do two posts on how we are justified before God. In other words, how do we make peace with God? How do we please Him? All Christians care deeply about … Read More
Why the Reformation Still Matters
I’m a Protestant who believes Luther made an awful lot of mistakes, but got the big thing right—the gospel.- Mark Noll This summer I traveled to Sacramento to attend the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). A highlight of my week was getting to hear EPC member and American historian Mark Noll. In honor of the 500th anniversary of the … Read More
Back to School to Honor a Good Man
I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me… so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I give thanks to you forever. (Psa. 30:1,2,12, NRSV) … Read More
Listening to Marital Advice from My Younger Self
Tomorrow, my wife, Pam, and I will celebrate our thirty-first wedding anniversary with a meal at Seasons 52. Eleven years ago, on our twentieth, I wrote a piece for National Fatherhood Initiative called Three Simple Things to Improve Your Marriage. Reading it again, I still find it valuable and hope you will too. Here’s the article and I will conclude … Read More
Stealing Ecclesiastes Back!
In the opening track, “Helter Skelter,” of U2’s 1988 Rattle & Hum, Bono shouts, “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles and we’re stealing it back!” In the same way, Ecclesiastes is a book that the New International Version’s (NIV) translation of “vanity” as “meaningless” has stolen from many, and I want to steal it back! Rather … Read More
I Can’t Seem to Change
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. –Oscar Wilde As a carpenter, it’s no secret I’ve installed a lot of windows. The time I jumped out of one, however, is something I’ve kept hidden until now. I’ll explain below. The Christian faith teaches that the ground is level at the foot of … Read More
What I’ve Learned from My Catholic Friends
In an interview celebrating the legendary friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, and C.S. Lewis, evangelicalism’s “patron saint,” British author Colin Duriez describes what Lewis learned from Tolkien: [Tolkien showed him that] “the nourishment he had always received from great myths and fantasy stories was a taste of that greatest, truest story– of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ… Lewis … Read More