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 »
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 »
Introduction Some of you may have recognized the title of this article as a motto from a humorous bumper sticker. Truth be told, that is precisely where I got it! Why did I chose this title instead of something more pedestrian — or even more importantly — original? Because a broad spectrum of Americans — including Christ-followers —… Read More »
One of my wife’s and my favorite Bible passages is commonly known as the “Aaronic Blessing,” “Aaronic Benediction,” or “Priestly Blessing.” If you have a religious heritage based in Judaism or a liturgical Christian denomination, such as Methodist or Episcopalian, you have certainly heard it pronounced over the congregation by the rabbi or pastor, usually at the end… Read More »
The Barna Group recently found that 80% of professing Christians do not know how to apply their Christian beliefs to their everyday lives. This condition is called “pietism.” The NT calls it by another term: carnality. Pietism divides human existence between the “spiritual” and the “unspiritual” aka the “sacred” and the “secular,” therefore pietist Christians do not believe… Read More »
One of the common objections raised against the prosperity message is that Jesus, as our perfect earthly Example, and His disciples were all poor folks who didn’t have two shekels to rub together. This article will hopefully put that myth out of our misery once and for all. One of my favorite non-fiction authors is Rodney Stark, Ph.D.,… Read More »
