When I drive home from work, I often see a guy at the bottom of the off-ramp holding a cardboard help-me sign. I rarely carry cash, so I have none to give him. Still, I do my best to avoid … Continue reading Low Anthropology | Book Review
“Imagine that you have the following choice to make for your listeners,” writes Matthew D. Kim in the opening paragraph of Preaching to People in Pain: “(1) They can listen to sermons that only address the topic of success in … Continue reading Preaching to People in Pain | Book Review
“Suffering is ubiquitous, success is not,” writes Matthew D. Kim in Preaching to People in Pain. Ironically, the content of many, if not most, sermons focuses on success more than suffering, however. Are pastors missing an opportunity to speak into … Continue reading How to Preach When People Are Suffering | Influence Podcast
“There is power available to you that can unlock your soul and all of its hidden longings,” writes John Lindell—“the buried hopes of the past, the strength needed for the moment, and the dreams for a beautiful future. That is the power of the best news: the gospel is able to change your life at this moment, even now.” In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with John Lindell about this power, which is the power of God’s grace. Lindell is pastor of James River Church, a multisite congregation in Springfield, Missouri. He is devoted to seeing the local … Continue reading Why Grace Is More Liberating Than You Believe | Influence Podcast
John Stott’s Confess Your Sins is a little gem of a book. Originally published in 1964, it has been reissued by Eerdmans. As far as I can tell, the only change to the original is that Scripture quotations, unless otherwise … Continue reading Confess Your Sins | Book Review
What is sin? What is Jesus’ relationship to sin? And what is ours? First John 3:4-10 provides an answer to each of these questions. First, what is sin? Verse 4 says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” According to the Bible, God’s moral will is revealed in both nature (Romans 1:18-20) and Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Sin is the intentional disobedience of this divine will. It is acting contrary to both reason and revelation. Because the devil is the first and most notorious example of such disobedience, John considers all sinners to be of the … Continue reading Sin, Jesus, and Us (1 John 3:4-10)
Sin has a powerful grip on us humans, which we do not have the power to break free of. Only God has that kind of power. So how does he break the grip of sin on our lives? Answer: through the death of Jesus Christ. We find a brief description of how God overcomes sin through Christ in 1 John 2:1-2: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice … Continue reading Liberator, Defender, Sacrifice (1 John 2:1-2)
When it comes to the issue of ongoing sin in the life of the believer, Christians often make one of two mistakes: either they claim an easy victory over sin or they concede an early defeat to it. A careful reading of 1 John 1:8-10 is the cure for both mistakes. In the history of Christian theology, people who claim an easy victory over sin have come to be known as perfectionists. They believe that God’s Word and Spirit are so powerfully at work in the life of the believer that he or she can attain sinlessness in this life. … Continue reading Two Mistakes about Sin (1 John 1:8-10)
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