Category Archives: Church Life

Disappointments

By | 17 Aug 2023

Introduction Several years ago, our church’s guest speaker was a former pastoral staff member, a Calvinist-Baptist minister closely aligned with John MacArthur and John Piper doctrinally. His message centered on the events recorded in John 11: the illness, death, burial, and raising-from-the-dead of Lazarus in Bethany. His sermon remarks opened with the statement “God will disappoint us” and… Read More »

They Speak With Other Tongues #9:
When The Perfect Comes?

By | 15 Aug 2023

Over my almost 50 years of serving Jesus, I’ve met more than a few sincere Christ-loving folks resistant to the charismatic experience. I’ve also run across more than a few flaky tongue-talkers who also zealously love our Savior yet cannot seem to get their act together, whether doctrinally or character-wise. Most of the former I’ve encountered holding that… Read More »

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Part 4 — The Ugly

By , | 10 Aug 2023

In this final installment, John and I will conclude our evaluation of the Word of Faith (WoF) movement at this moment in history. Again, John gets to go first. John The ugly happens when the bad goes unchecked. Because most people are human, there is tendency to feel good about your choices. This is not necessarily bad until… Read More »

The Saints Who Say “NIH!”

By | 22 May 2023

Introduction Despite the obvious Monty Pythonism in the title, we are not here to discuss very nice, not-too-tall shrubberies. “NIH” in the title of this article is the abbreviation for “Not Invented Here.” It’s a flavor of the groupthink form of cognitive bias. Those who suffer from groupthink in general display an inherent distrust of and/or hostility towards… Read More »

The Doctrine of Excuses

By | 28 Dec 2022

Awhile back, I had occasion to phone my former employer’s offices in Florida. As I was waiting on hold for my co-worker to pick up, I was blessed as I listened to one of our university president’s recorded class sessions they play in lieu of hold music. During that session, he was proclaiming the integrity of God’s Word,… Read More »

Where are We Going? And Why are We
in This Hand-basket? — Part 2

By | 27 Dec 2022

In my previous article in this series, I identified some historical trends which have brought us to this sorry moment in world history. In this final article, we’ll look at its spiritual underpinnings. The Final Quest As mentioned in my first article on humility, Rick Joyner’s book The Final Quest has had the single hugest impact upon my… Read More »