Mere accuracy is not enough; orthodoxy can become deadly in the hands of misguided truth-tellers who appear to care more about defending their positions than caring for those in pain. It’s important to learn this lesson: just because someone tells the truth or defends the truth doesn’t mean they’re faithfully representing the One who is the Truth. 

You might suppose God to be illogical as a basic concept. After all, if God is supremely good and also supremely powerful then how can he allow – or perhaps even decree and ordain – something we find utterly cruel and unthinkable? Surely the presence of AIDS and Auschwitz points to the absence of God, and convicts him of either wicked disregard or tyrannical cruelty or incompetent weakness. Either he’s good but not very strong or strong but not especially good. What I can say is that some god whose actions we utterly understood, or some god who acted according to our standards at all times, would be a god very much on our level and not one who could save us at all.

With you, our hearts are heavy and grieving over the horrifying shooting death of children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, this week. Nineteen second, third, and fourth-grade children died at Robb Elementary School. Two teachers also lost their lives shielding their students from gunfire. We weep with sorrow at this news, but we are also angered, bewildered, and shocked.

Ascension Day is one of those genuinely great days that deserves so much more attention than we often give it. On this day, the Church marks Christ’s departure from the bounds of earth to take up the throne on high reign as our King-Priest, interceding for us as he rules over us and all things. The Risen One has ascended on high and is enthroned in splendor at the Father's right hand.

Stop signs are a gift. Well, they are if we see them and obey them. Stop signs can save your life and the lives of others too. Yes, we’re in a hurry, we must get to where we’re going because what we have to do is so essential…because we are so essential! Or so we think. The Stop sign says, “You’ll get here but you’re not on this road alone. Be mindful of others and go at a pace that makes sense.” That’s a lot to get on a sign, so I’m glad we settled for ‘Stop.’

When we confess the bad news - that we are sinful, under judgment, and need a Savior - we are led by grace to the good news, that we not only have a Savior but the Savior and he offers us what the writer of Hebrews called ‘so great a salvation.’ We can’t save ourselves but what a magnificent deliverance is ours in Jesus. We can’t work to gain our salvation. Far from it. We rest in the salvation he freely bestows on us as a gift. When it comes to forgiveness and eternal life, “He’s got this!”

For nearly fifty years now, I’ve been engaged in one way or another in the pro-life movement. From giving talks in London schools & colleges and helping with the start of a crisis pregnancy center to advocating for adoption and laws that recognize all life as sacred, I’ve counted it a joy to stand with so many who have sought to be a voice for a massive and silent segment of our society: the pre-born.

Christ has come to build his Church and he will cleanse and renew us by his grace. He does this not only for our sake but for the sake of his saving Name being heard in the whole world. We exist for the sake of those who have not yet entered the Kingdom. So let us bid farewell to convenience-based religion, be more concerned about prophets than profits, and remember that the House of God isn’t confined to a beautiful building on Yamato, but is in fact every believer as we enter the world with Jesus’ message and mercy.

Why was healing so tethered to Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom? Why was healing such an important feature of his ministry anyway? In other words, apart from the simple fact of relieving human pain, why did Jesus heal people and why should we expect him to continue to do so now?

I want my friends in the GRN to hear me when I say that I understand why you’re responding to the issues which concern you. I share those concerns, even if we differ on how to deal with them. Such concern is a sane response to a church threatened with sinful pressures within and sinister snares without. That’s why we need to sing Psalm 133 without our fingers crossed as if we could celebrate unity only with those with whom we completely agree. 

In fasting, we are reminded that we are creatures blessed by the Creator with provision, that we are His servants empowered with his grace for our work, and his subjects ennobled by his truth. In fasting, we celebrate that we have God’s own word and will as our most needed food. The hunger we experience reminds us of how much we depend on God and not on ourselves, of how desperately we need him. Being satisfied with his word reminds us that our true treasure is Christ himself and that he alone can satisfy our souls.

The PCA has been my home for more than twenty years of ministry. All of the storminess has made me pause to give thanks for all I love about the PCA. I started making a list and decided to share it. Maybe others can make a list too.

The PCA is an Evangelical and Reformed denomination that has room for every GRN church I can imagine. The GRN’s version of the PCA, however, has no room for the vast majority of PCA churches that differ from them. And that’s the difference. The GRN desires a hyper-homogenous, super-southern, strict subscriptionist PCA — nothing short of a revolution — while others want an evangelical, good-faith subscription, a national church with a global vision that has a posture of serving inclusion rather than defensive exclusion.

Karl Barth wrote, “Prayer is a grace, an offer from God.” What do we mean when we say that prayer is a gift God gives us before it is an activity we engage in? Let’s consider this in three ways, communion with God, growth in grace, and help for others.

Church families need homes and these dedicated places remind us that all of creation is sacred, that every square inch is a stewardship entrusted to us by God. The stones and glass and beams and scents and acoustics and light and textures, both interior and exterior, serve the soul as well as the body. They also serve the city as well as the faithful.

It's time for a "swords into plowshares" day to dawn in the PCA. I  don't know that those who hold to strict subscription - or its defacto form of forbidding the teaching of allowable exceptions - can stay in community with good faith subscription brothers and build together. Perhaps not. But I hope so.  After all, both love the Lord Jesus Christ, his word, and his Church. Both are committed to the Great Commission. Both need one another. What neither may be animated by, however, is the condescending spirit of neo-fundamentalism. Fundamentalism has no place in our fellowship and will surely displace many because it has already begun.

I don't know how else to put this, but the Best News you'll ever hear, the truth that sets people free, might sound a lot like some pretty bad news to start with. The Church's job is to make the message clear, not acceptable - only God can do that. That's no excuse for arrogance or other forms of religious jackassery performed in the name of being radical. On the contrary. As I noted at the outset, the idea is making disciples that follow rather than audiences to be entertained. There's nothing wrong with entertainment. That's just not the mission.

I believe we have a crisis of formation in the Church and we must respond to it with an invitation to the Holy Spirit to awaken us to our deep need for Christ himself to not only dwell within us but reshape us, to form us within, to reshape our attitudes about everything from prestige and power to envy, fear, and greed. Dallas Willard wrote, “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples - students, apprentices, practitioners - of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

I’ve wondered about the citizens of Bethlehem passing the stable area where Mary had given birth to her son, gently laying him there in a straw-filled stone food trough. I wonder what they thought? They were strolling past the greatest story in human history - the greatest miracle imaginable - and probably never gave the scene a second glance or thought.  We can do the same. We can walk right through Christmas, right past the miracle in the manger, straight to the cranberry sauce singing “I’ll be home for Christmas” without a second glance or thought about the majesty that has unfolded.

The Bible speaks of the Messiah’s arrival as a moment when people that were entrenched in darkness suddenly saw a great light. The ancient world was dark. Very dark. And that was without changing any clocks.