I suppose this is essentially a modern fulfillment of the biblical principle “your sins will find you out . . ."

The deal is all of Christ for all your nothing.

… for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God… —from Acts 5:38-39

It has been asked in a variety of ways from the outside and the inside since the so-called "young, restless, and Reformed" tribe hit the threshold of unignorable visibility: Can this movement be sustained? Is it just a fad? What are your concerns, fears, and…

The move is subtle. The switch from ordinary human achievement to blasphemy requires no explanation. It just flatout happens.

The ministry of preaching cannot be divorced from the ministry of soul care; in fact, preaching is actually an extension of soul care. There are a host of reasons why it is important for pastors who want to preach meaningfully to know their flocks as well as they can, but here are three of the most important.

Of course we should be glad when any purveyor of smut shuts down or suffers a setback. But we should not delude ourselves. The culture of porn is financially rich and dangerously addictive.

There is a gospel spring beneath the deathly depravity of Judges 19.

“Come, get under my shade,” the bramble calls. “I will take care of you.”

This does not make pain painless, of course, but it doesn’t make it purposeless either.

We familyolaters take what most of us consider the most important thing in our lives and give it the weight of our worship in a way that is both dishonorable and unsustainable. And we end up living "Thus saith the family" rather than "Thus saith the Lord."

The rainbow symbolizes the gospel, for God has "laid down his bow." To turn it into a symbol of pride, then, is sadly and truly to test God into taking it up again, to invite his wrath.

Monday. What to do with these Mondays of ours?

"The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth blog about how cool he is with, you know, whatever your deal is, man."

Too often our creativity and intelligence don’t adorn the gospel, but obscure it.

The pastor should give no harbor to about-talk that avoids to-talk.

Is Jesus smart? Does Jesus know the way the world actually is? Can he be trusted in this moment to give us sound counsel?

We sometimes expect pastors leaving under bad terms to leave a bad taste in the church’s mouth, but we don’t really think about what can go wrong when an otherwise good pastor leaves under otherwise good circumstances.

A word to my brother-pastors, who every week labor in preparing to teach the Bible in the weekend gathering while the dark cloud of the new cultural downgrade hangs over them:

Brothers, let's not go about our weekly sermon preparation and personal discipleship in sackcloth and ashes. Let's get into the vineyard of God's word, get some holy sweat worked up, whistling while we work, lifting our hearts…

"The only thing of value the church has to offer is the gospel."

… or buying Twitter followers or gaming the analytics to inflate website stats, etc.

At least 5 things:

1. It's dishonest.

No, it's not illegal. But neither are lots of unethical, dishonest things. The asumption that people make when they see "Bestseller" labeled on a book or 600,000 followers on your Twitter page is that you came by those accomplishments the straightforward way: attracting…

We are aiming for awe of God.

Christians should have nothing to do with utilitarian arguments against abortion.

Biblically speaking, what can we learn about pharisaical behavior?

There are lots of websites that exist for the church. This is what it means for us to be For The Church . . .

There is one great sign that you are loved more than you thought.

Whole relationships carry on in the dark sometimes, especially in churches, where everyone is in relationship with everybody's projected version of themselves, with facades.

Salvation by Christ's work is a gift of grace received through faith. This salvation is total (Romans 8:30) and we see its totality in John 6.

As changing views on gay marriage, among others, go to show, secularization marches on. Traditionalists may be on the losing end of historic real estate, at least for now, as well as booed out of the public square for their views on sex. Down the road, though, they still look to possess something else critical.

We think bigness is the way. We think bigness solves lots of problems. We think bigness is safety. We think we can get too big to fail. But it's the other way around.

Someday, Jesus the Redeemer will return to redeem everything. Fully. Completely. Eternally.

If you are only taking notes during the sermon because you feel you must, because you treat the sermon like a lecture or "lesson," I would encourage you to reconsider.

A gospel-centered church will grow into a kingdom-mindedness that is a constant reminder that no local church owns anybody and that what is best for every local church is whatever is best for the expansion of the gospel and worship of Christ.

I love my friend Jesus, because he's sweet in all the ways I deeply need and greatly want.

Who is this King of glory?

Complementarianism is not generally about authority/submission, as if they exist in a moral vacuum. It is about what biblical authority/submission look like. Any man who treats his wife in a neglectful or abusive way is no complementarian; he is a walking perversion of manhood in need of repentance.

The art of preaching the gospel falls not only within the category of Instruction but also Exultation.

I wonder how the resolutions of us donut-eaters might stack up to these from Jonathan Edwards.

It's not the strength of the faith that saves, but the strength of the Savior.

Not warm fuzzies.