The sportswriter Red Smith was once asked if writing a daily column was difficult. “Why, no,” Smith replied. “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.”[1] Admittedly, Smith’s observation is a little overwrought. But only a little. There is a way to write that costs the writer very little. And then […]

“Thank you, Lord,” I uttered when I got off the phone with my doctor. A few months before I had been diagnosed with melanoma, and a few days after the surgery, I received the welcomed news that the cancer had not spread. The Lord kindly answered my prayer. Several weeks later I sat on our […]

Editor’s Note: This post is excerpted from Visible Grace: Seeing the Church the Way Jesus Does by Caleb Batchelor. The book is available now from 10Publishing. Paul wasn’t afraid to address sin. Just ask the Corinthians. But what first grabbed Paul’s attention when he thought about that rowdy, discriminatory congregation in Corinth? God’s visible grace (1 […]

I teach church history as part of my profession. In doing so, I’ve discovered it to be exactly what my teachers described—a wonderful means of keeping the faith. Of the figures from our past who have helped me, Martin Luther stands at the top of the list, as he continually points me away from myself […]

I have a lot of friends who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints (LDS). One I see regularly is the bishop of his ward; he regularly emphasizes, as do my other LDS friends, how we both worship Jesus, how we have a lot in common, and how we’re on the same […]

Mission is all about God. At Midwestern, we emphasize the study of who God is (theology) and what God does (mission). Good theology is crucial to missiology because the mission begins and ends with God.[1] The one true God has one unified mission, and each person of the Triune God distinctively carries out this mission […]

He is inexhaustible. Unsearchably rich (Eph 3:8). Bottomless. We receive him, thinking he’s a pond, only to discover over time he’s an ocean. In him there is surprise after surprise. Endless discovery. Startling wonders around each bend. He’s ruling and reigning over the entire cosmos such that the top headline of both FoxNews and CNN […]

While attending Heriot Watt University I took a public speaking class. The course led students to produce and effectively deliver a public speech on any given subject. A well-crafted and excellently delivered speech can certainly produce results; at the very least an applause would be warranted. Although a response is given it is usually short […]

In the past, God used trials to refine both my soul and my art. Regardless of the darkness faced, processing with the Lord birthed poems and words. I often turned to the Psalms, with their patterns of lament, repentance, and praise. So, it shocked me when the pattern shattered, and Psalm 88:18’s final words permeated […]

Are we seeing the end of religious liberty? For Christians in America, we see the complexities of cultural engagement. Articulating the truths of biblical Christianity regarding sexuality and gender alone, brings conflict or worse. So, it is good and right to be concerned and wonder if the end of religious liberty is near. We also […]