When the trials of life unexpectedly come knocking at your door, the last thing you may be thinking about is joy. Yet, the Bible repeatedly calls us to have joy in life’s most turbulent times (James 1:2-3). How in the world is this possible? Is it realistic that a Christian can still smile, pray, rejoice, and serve when the weight of the world is squeezing the last drops of joy from their heart? 

It’s 30 minutes before the guests arrive. Dishes are piled high in the sink from the meal you just spent 3 hours preparing. You give your husband a glance that pleads for his assistance, but he misses the cue. Your son walks through the door and gives you a hug while gently insinuating that you don’t smell guest-worthy. You rush to take a quick shower and throw on some clothes only to find the kids have destroyed the house that you just spent hours cleaning.

Let’s not be surprised. The world is a dark place, and attacks on Christianity by our culture are in abundant supply. A quick scroll through your social media feed or a fifteen-minute segment of the evening news will prove that. While some might say, “It’s worse than ever!” we must admit that somewhere in the world it’s always been like this. Jesus put it this way when preparing His own disciples for His departure: “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).

The constant drumbeat of media, radio, podcasts, and social media can pump a steady diet of negativity and brokenness into our minds each day. Compound that with our own pain, sickness, and suffering and it is easy to understand why so many people experience the feeling of hopelessness on a daily or weekly basis. But for the Christian, don’t forget who gets the last word! 

I’ll never forget the moment when Pastor Matt burst through my office saying, “Greg, we’ve got to go! There’s an active shooter down the street at our local grocery store.”

The first question I asked was, “Are they detained?” To which he responded, “Don’t know. Let’s go serve our city!”

This is one of the most pressing questions when it comes to healing, and it must be answered by using the Scriptures. Opinions and abuses abound, so the only way to address this question is to cement ourselves in the truth of God’s unchanging Word.

Unfortunately, many Christians are uninterested and uneducated in utilizing video to reach their friends and family with the gospel. This is a tragedy given all of the unbelievers who are using social media to plunge this generation into darkness. On the other side of the spectrum, there is another error that is easy to fall into it. Social media is designed to create an addiction to attention, so Christians must be on guard not to use social media for their own glory.

In many ways, the internet has become the Buckaroo Buffet of information. News sites and social media feeds serve us a bottomless smorgasbord of information. But at this restaurant, the waiters are paying attention. Algorithms note what holds our attention and are all too happy to heap more of it onto our plates.

Over the past year, I preached through 1 John to our “Next-Gen” ministry. After 19 sermons of verse-by-verse exposition, I can’t speak for every person who sat through the series but I can speak for myself: my heart and mind were transformed by the Word. Preaching never gets old. Not because I get to monologue for 35-45 minutes uninterrupted, but because of what studying God’s Word does to my soul.

Each time a pastoral suicide hits the news cycle, the Christian and secular publishing worlds forge an awkward alliance in an attempt to sort through the obvious question that is pressing in on everyone’s mind: how can—or how does—a pastor get to the point where he would make the decision to end his own life?

It’s a good question, and it’s a question that needs to be explored humbly and prayerfully for the sake of current and future shepherds and the overall health of Christ’s church.

Do you realize that you wield the greatest power on earth when you unleash the power of the gospel? We need not entertain the crowd or cave to culture; we need only to give them what they so desperately need – the truth and nothing but the truth! It is, and always will be the gospel that delivers unstoppable power.

I still have them. By “them” I mean the slew of copy-and-pasted text messages I sent to several brothers in Christ soon after listening to the first episode of Christianity Today’s “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast – “Highly recommend☝🏼”. Fast forward, and I am writing this article, and doing so at a decidedly slower pace, and with a decidedly more measured tone. And why? Because while “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” certainly has many things going for it, the podcast also presents many areas of concern for the biblically-minded and discerning follower of Christ.

I recently met a pastor in passing who offered me encouragement regarding our upcoming church plant. He pastors a massive church (several thousand) so he took the opportunity to overflow some of his wisdom in our direction.

As we talked, I realized his methods would undoubtedly bring people in the door, but they seemed to miss the heart of how Christ Himself grew His church.

One of the most often employed and most convincing arguments marshaled for the charismatic position of a “private prayer language” is 1 Corinthians 14:2. The Apostle Paul says that one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, supporting the charismatic belief that the gift of tongues is a private prayer language. The fact that “no one understands” seems to support that this language is not a human language at all but rather a heavenly, angelic one.

There’s an old story about an English professor who was trying to illustrate how differently men and women think. So the professor wrote these 5 words on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate them correctly: “Woman without her man is a savage.” As you might imagine, the men and the women took two different roads when it came to their punctuation.

Outside of our relationship with Christ, there is no area more vital to the health of our homes, churches, and society at large than the area of marriage. Marriage has long been the favored target of the Devil ever since he sought to deceive Eve and trigger original sin (Genesis 3:1-24). Our adversary seeks to erode the holy matrimony that God destined for His sons and daughters. This reality is hardly breaking news.

“Jesus said, ‘Greater works you will do!’ We are called to raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out devils, and make heaven come down to earth! You can do it! just step out in faith and walk in the power He has given to you.” So says the apostolic revivalist or televised faith healer as he or she revs up the crowd into a frenzy of self-confidence.

Wokeness is not surprising. It is normal behavior for a world filled with sin. But when believers begin to cave to the culture and blow over in the wind of deviant doctrine, that can be surprising — mostly, disturbing.

It was 6:28 on a Friday evening. With my heart pounding rapidly, I heard the garage door finally open. I plastered a smile on my face, waiting patiently at our tiny kitchen table with two babies in highchairs. Within one minute of my hard-working hubby stepping through the door, I vehemently quipped a quick hello and lunged a plate of food in his direction. Then, silence. He knew he had stepped into an unwelcome home.

The Christian home is a godly indoctrination camp.

God has ordained the home to be the primary worldview shaper of the next generation. Stated another way, it has always been the intention of God that a father and mother would purposefully disciple the kids within their four walls to know who God is and know the truth found in His Word.