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We are born to die. Not that death is the reason why we were born, but it is an inescapable part of our future…

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 (ESV) By the final week of Jesus’ life, he was famous. When he entered[…]

One of the greatest joys of performing a wedding is the pre-marital counseling that Angela and I offer a couple in advance of the big day. We usually meet in our home on several occasions to discuss issues such as theological compatibility, communication, finance, and romance. As I prepare to perform a wedding today, I[…]

Augustine’s first literary work as bishop was a two-book reply to certain questions about biblical interpretation. The questions had been sent to him by the successor of Ambrose in Milan, Simplician, who had also previously mentored Augustine during a season of spiritual difficulty. This following extract on divine mercy comes from Augustine’s answer to Simplician (in[…]

Founding director of International Awakening Ministries, Richard Owen Roberts is a world-renowned student of revival. His 9,000 volume collection on the subject forms the nucleus of Wheaton’s Billy Graham Center Library. In this passage from Repentance, he explains and insists that true repentance is more than inward pain. One can experience the deepest possible remorse over[…]

The most significant patristic source of the Protestant Reformation was Augustine of Hippo (354-430). The so-called Doctor of Grace, Augustine is especially illuminating during Lent when he explains how human temptation serves as an opportunity for Christ’s resurrection power. Such is the point of the following extract, drawn from his Commentary on the Psalms, 60:2-3.[…]

“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” – Romans 8:37 I was with some friends recently at lunch and a few of us were reflecting on where we would be without Jesus. Our thoughts ran to unsaved loved ones, and old, unsaved friends who over the years have lived lives that were[…]

The gloomy and grey spell of February afflicts the human soul. And just then, when life feels most painfully frozen and dark, we enter the period of Lent, a church season full of somber, remorseful, even morbid introspection. How terribly depressing. Could it be, however, that Lent, like the Cross itself, is counterintuitively life-giving? Could[…]

The great English journalist and satirist Malcolm Muggeridge, reflecting on forms of despair in the 20th century—particularly among proponents of Stalin in Russia and Western nihilists devoted to materialism and abortion—said modern man has a “suicidal impulse,” a type of self-hatred. This impulse has spawned a bewildering number of proposals to cure, or at least[…]

Last week on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the so-called Reproductive Health Act, a monstrous law that permits babies to be aborted up to the day of birth.  So how is the church responding? A Time for Church Discipline When asked about the law on Fox &[…]