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The Sermon on the Mount is, perhaps, the most famous discourse on record from the Lord Jesus. Snippets of this sermon appear in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but the fullest treatment, of course, occurs in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 5–7. Spanning three chapters and over one hundred verses, Jesus of Nazareth proceeds to reveal […]
What influences our children’s lives the most? As Christian parents we would all like the answer to be that we are the main influence in our children’s lives. We know that is how it should be. Parents are the source from which children ought to be learning their values, beliefs, and Christian faith. However, that […]
This article below is adapted from chapter two of The Character of Christ: The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of Our Saviour, by Jonathan Landry Cruse (Banner of Truth, June 2023). Do you think of Jesus as being a happy person? Does a joyful Jesus seem incongruous to you? After all, dealing with […]
Six months into our church plant, a visiting friend asked if we had someone playing the role of church historian. At the time, I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes or laugh. First of all, I didn’t know what a church historian even did. I honestly thought it reminded me of middle […]
As a person who has lived without a study Bible for most of my life (I received my first one four or five years ago), I am still warming up to their usage. In my view, the value of a study Bible edited by trusted authors is in its useful comments and exegetical tools, which […]
Tom was a young pastor on a large pastoral staff. There were decisions being made by the senior pastor that he found concerning. When he spoke up, he was maligned. Ruling elders would harangue him. He was occasionally pulled from preaching duties even though his name was in the bulletin. He sought out help from […]
I knew of six seminarians who shared a house—all of them eager to serve the Lord and his church. Ten years after graduation, three of them were broken and wounded, having left churches after prolonged spiritual abuse from a senior pastor. Sadly, such experiences are far too common for the people of God. They come […]
Some fears are common to humanity: rattlesnakes, heights, spiders, and such. As a committed Christ-follower, at the top of my list, I would add an unexpected word: mediocrity. Lukewarm. The word shakes my soul. The fierce words of warning written to the Laodiceans give me great pause and cause a godly consternation at the concept […]
“I’m just a stay-at-home mom.” I say it without meeting the person’s eyes, with my hands behind my back, and a sheepish smile. Usually, this question comes after I’ve asked the person about their career—I ask the nurse how long she’s worked, or the hairdresser if this was her dream job as a little girl. […]
Like civilization generally, the church moves through history atop the highest peaks and the deepest valleys. While our Western culture presses Christianity to the margins of acceptable public social activity, many have decided to assimilate to the larger culture to stay relevant. This assimilation has caused a decline in social and political capital for the […]
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So wrote English historian and politician Lord Acton in an 1887 letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton. It was a few years earlier in 1883 when, across the Atlantic, prominent American writer and orator Robert Ingersoll encapsulated a similar sentiment: “nothing discloses real character like the use […]
What’s scarier to you: noise or silence? Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s about a society that is filled, not with silence, but with noise—ear buds in the ears or screens in front of the face. That was how everyone—or almost everyone—in the book lived. Little personal reflection, […]