This past weekend, we held a small group training at my church, Foothills Church, for up-and-coming potential small group leaders.  This training is not a normal training though, in my experience, at least.  We spent two days being intentional about training our soon-t0-be small group leaders on our discipleship strategy, the art of being a [...]

This week, the opportunity to write an article for the local newspaper about Hanukkah came up. I looked forward to going to the local Jewish congregation (which I had no idea existed prior) to interview a retired teacher and Hebrew instructor. In addition to what I learned of Hanukkah (which Jesus himself celebrated in John [...]

How often do you hear of Christians wrestling with doubts concerning their spiritual lives? Am I really saved? Did I understand the depth of sin or faith when professing Christ as Savior as a child? Is God real in my life…..what about everything I’m hearing from professors at school? These questions and countless ones like [...]

Sometimes — and usually when someone is trying to skirt a direct question about their spiritual life — a person will say their faith is “just between me and God.” It implies that everything about being a Christian is internal and personal. But check out these verses: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is [...]

Why do we celebrate Easter? Why did Jesus have to die? What was accomplished on the cross? What is important about Christ’s resurrection? Thabiti Anyabwile and Erwin Lutzer help us to think through these important matters.

You are on the verge of wrecking your life.  I know that with certainty.  I’m not psychic, and I’m not reading your mind as you read this chapter.  I doubt this book will be in print long enough to be read by artificially intelligent androids; so for now, I’m assuming if you can read, I [...]

As a political reporter, I found myself a few days ago in one of those smoky situations straight from a movie scene. To my left, an elected official danced close with a girl half his age, a girl not his wife. To my right, a lobbyist for a huge company stared drunkenly into the eyes [...]

Why? Why did this happen? More than ten thousand people are confirmed dead, several nuclear reactors are spewing toxic radiation, and millions of homes and livelihoods destroyed. Amidst the massive destruction wrought by the recent earthquake in Japan, the troubling question arises.

“It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ… It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or in the nature of faith, but in the object of [...]

John Murray defines faith as “knowledge, conviction, and trust.”  Does it matter what we believe, so long as we have “faith”? Murray points out that we must believe the right things in order to have saving faith: “It might seem very confusing to say that faith is knowledge. For is it not one thing to [...]