I confess that I have been—for my entire life—an unabashed reveler in schmaltzy Christmas traditions. The music, the food, the movies, the anticipation of the season. I’ve always loved it. Nevertheless, it is also true that every year I find myself less and less satisfied by the pablum of the season and more and more desirous of something more. I identify with Charlie Brown’s consternation at the end of that TV special, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!” I’m not writing this to dump on Christmas traditions—even the schmaltzy ones. My family has them, and we will continue to keep them. I simply want to make…

How could there possibly be anything more mysterious and wonderful than the incarnation of Jesus Christ? God became a man. God took on mortal human flesh and became subject to all the things that every other mortal is subject to. He sneezed. He coughed. He got headaches and an upset stomach. Every morning he got up, shook the dust out of His hair, and put his hand to the plow in his Father’s field. Jesus Christ was not only subject to sickness, but also to death. The eternal Son of God was die-able. In fact, he did die. And three days later, what was mortal became swallowed up by immortality…

You may have read the news last week that the Communist government in China has cracked down on a church in the city of Chengdu. A couple weeks ago, Chinese authorities arrested pastor Wang Yi, his wife, and over 100 Christians who attend Early Rain Covenant Church. The Communists regard religion as a threat to the regime, and so authorities charged them with “inciting subversion of state power.” Wang Yi and his wife have not been heard from in over a week. Foreseeing his arrest, Pastor Yi wrote the declaration below to be published by his church should he be detained for more than 48 hours. The declaration “explains the…

In late 2017, Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. appointed a committee of six persons to prepare a report on the legacy of slavery and racism in the history of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Today, that report was released. We all know the sad history of slavery and racism in the SBC, and we know that SBTS has been part of that story going back to 1859. Still, it is heart-breaking to read the particulars, and this report has those. I am grateful for my colleagues who worked for the last year to produce this report—Curtis Woods, John Wilsey, Kevin Jones, Jarvis Williams, Matt Hall, and Greg Wills.…