Whoever you are in whatever station you might be as you sit down to read this post, let’s play a game of pretend together. Let’s pretend that you are a young man in your mid-twenties. You have just graduated from seminary and have been called to your first pastorate at a small rural church. The […]
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Reading the Bible Christocentrically: Rescuing the Ark Narrative from Enlightenment Reductionism
Interpreting OT history is often a confusing task for the church. How do you apply Israelite history to the modern church? There have been two dominant attempts to resolve this tension: allegory and historical-grammatical method. Allegory arose mainly with people who deeply believed the OT was of value to the church and about Christ, so they […]
Baptist21 Launches Podcast: Interview with SBC President Johnny Hunt
Baptist 21 has been working to launch a podcast that is available through I-Tunes. The Baptist 21 podcast is now available through the I-Tunes directory. The podcast’s main focus will be interviews of SBC and Evangelical leaders. These men will be asked questions about who influences them, what should our focus be in the 21st […]
The Politics of Jesus
The First Baptist Church of Durham hosted a conference last week entitled The Politics of Jesus. Here is an excerpt describing the questions addressed by the conference: The modern church finds itself riddled with internal contradictions between the teaching of Jesus and politics. The demands of caring for the poor, the elderly, and children fiercely […]
The Passion of the Persecuted
On November 18, 1951, the United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, provided a collection of affidavits accusing the Communist Romanian government. He wrote that the peoples freedom of expression and the freedom of press have been “have been willfully, callously and systematically violated by the Romanian government.” That very same year, under the watchful […]
Jihadist Suicide Bomber? The Gospel and Samson
I remember having a conversation with my brothers and a friend of theirs in which the subject of Samson’s salvation came up. Their friend exclaimed, “I don’t even know if that guy was regenerate!” Of course Samson broke his Nazarite vow on several occasions, made multiple rendezvous with pagan women, cohabited with one, and committed […]
Understanding the Cross: Responding Godly in an Ungodly Age, Part 2
5 quick things that I use in my life to respond in a godly way and to fight back certain sins (I am grateful for men like Pete Schemm, Dwayne Milioni, and Danny Akin who have helped me compile this list, this is not exhaustive, but I believe it is helpful): 1. Dwell and meditate […]
Understanding the Cross: Responding Godly in an Ungodly Age
This post will “piggyback” on Jon’s “Teaching Teens about Temptation.” I had the privilege last night of speaking to some of the teens at my church on the topic of responding in a godly way. I will share with you a little bit of what I shared with them and steps I take to be […]
Teaching Teens About Temptation
A few days ago I got to speak to the teens in our church about temptation. Temptation comes to ALL of us. There are many temptations that teens face: “fooling around,” internet pornography, peer pressure, tearing down others to make yourself look cool, drugs and alcohol, smarting off to parents, self-righteousness among the holier-than-thou […]
An Examination of “The Cross and Christian Ministry” with Implications for Southern Baptist Life, Part 1
Carson, D.A. The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. Pp. 137. This post is the first in a series of two. This post summarizes the book and provides many pertinent quotes (which are bolded) for our examination. The next post will examine the implications of this […]