United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0 — United (@united) April 10, 2017 By now you have all heard about the United Airlines fiasco involving the violent removal of a ticketed passenger. I won’t rehash the whole story here (although I did get a first person account from my colleague John Klaassen who was seated right in front of the removed passenger; see the guy in the orange shirt here). After videos of the incident went viral, the CEO of United released a statement claiming that passenger had been “re-accommodated.” This neologism has been widely mocked—especially since video footage of the incident had already been seen by half…
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The Miracle of Mercy
Some songs age like milk. And other songs age like wine. In the latter category is Steve Curtis Chapman’s 1994 tune titled “Miracle of Mercy.” It felt like a personal testimony when I first heard it in 1994, and it only feels more so today some 23 years later. And it was on my mind due to a sermon I preached this morning at my church—the last message in a series on the Pastoral Epistles. Sermon: “How Grace Changes Us” (Titus 3:1–15) [the song is at 22:35] Titus 3:1-15 is a text that—among other things—tells Christians how they are supposed to relate to their unbelieving neighbor. Paul commands us “to…
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Ten thoughts about the “Billy Graham Rule”
This is by no means everything that can or should be said about the so-called “Billy Graham Rule.” (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this.) Nevertheless, here are ten brief reflections on this particular discipline: 1. We must take sexual holiness seriously because God takes sexual holiness seriously. To reject God’s purpose of holiness in our lives is to reject God altogether. For this reason, we must be blood-earnest about holiness. “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality… Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man…
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Why our churches need more gray hair
In Titus 2:2, Paul writes to Titus about the older men in his congregation: “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.” –Titus 2:2 These older men are not to be confused with those who hold the office of elder (cf. 1:5). The “older men” are those who literally have advanced age. Paul says that these men must have several exemplary characteristics. “Sober-minded” translates a term that means “very moderate in the drinking of an alcoholic beverage” (BDAG). Its figurative extension here means “be free fr. every form of mental and spiritual ‘drunkenness’, fr. excess, passion, rashness, confusion” (BDAG). It is a…
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Santa in a gay marriage in new picture book
Santa is a gay man in an interracial relationship in this new picture book https://t.co/XUnqe7lh3E pic.twitter.com/i1m6tYfSIg — People Magazine (@people) March 30, 2017 HarperCollins will be publishing a new book featuring a gay Santa. Here’s the report from TIME magazine: A new picture book will depict Santa as a gay man in an interracial relationship, publisher Harper Design confirmed Tuesday. The book, Santa’s Husband, goes on sale Oct. 10 and tells the story of a black Santa Claus and his white husband who both live in the North Pole. Santa’s spouse frequently fills in for his husband at malls, according to a description of the book Harper Design provided to…
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Did Jesus ever experience doubt?
Pete Wehner wrote a moving meditation on suffering and the Christian life for The New York Times on Saturday titled “After Great Pain, Where Is God?” After sharing some gut-wrenching stories of suffering in the lives of his friends and loved ones, he asks the question: “So what, then, does Christianity have to offer in the midst of hardships and heartache?” Wehner says that while Christianity doesn’t offer answers in the moment of suffering, it does offer consolation. Wehner points to C. S. Lewis and to Jesus himself as examples of sufferers who wrestled with doubt and uncertainty. Their examples offer consolation to all sufferers who find themselves plagued with…
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Is the religious left really a “political force”?
Reuters has a report out today about how President Trump has activated the religious left. Here’s the gist of it: “The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action,” [Reverend Serene Jones] said. Although not as powerful as the religious right, which has been credited with helping elect Republican presidents and boasts well-known leaders such as Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson, the “religious left” is now slowly coming together as a force in U.S. politics. This disparate group, traditionally seen as lacking clout, has…
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Princeton Seminary rescinds award to Tim Keller: What does it mean?
Princeton Theological Seminary was recently embroiled in controversy over its decision to give the Kuyper Award to Pastor Tim Keller. The award is supposed to go to a “scholar or community leader whose outstanding contribution to their chosen sphere reflects the ideas and values characteristic of the Neo-Calvinist vision of religious engagement in matters of social, political and cultural significance” (source). As an accomplished pastor and missiologist, Keller certainly meets that description. So why the controversy? Members of the Princeton Seminary community and constituency believe that Keller has disqualified himself from receiving this award. So earlier today under pressure from these groups, the President of Princeton Seminary rescinded the award.…
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Top Ten Memories of OneDay 2000
Sarah Zylstra has a really fun piece over at The Gospel Coalition about John Piper’s famous “seashell” sermon from the 2000 Passion Conference called “OneDay.” I was at OneDay, and I had a great time recounting my memories of that event in a brief interview with Sarah several weeks ago. Of course there was a lot that we talked about that did not make it into the article. For that reason, I thought would briefly jot down some of those thoughts here. So here are my top ten memorable memories of the memorable occasion known as OneDay 2000.
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Are You a Scoffer?
Yesterday, we learned from Psalm 1:1-2 that “blessedness” is “happiness.” If you want to be a happy person, you have to avoid being like the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers (v. 1). The root of blessedness—indeed of true happiness—is knowing God through His word (v. 2). There is one other item that we need to look at from verse one—the word translated as “scoffers.” Perhaps it is not too difficult to comprehend what David means by “the wicked” and “the sinners,” for in both cases he is talking about law-breakers. But what is a scoffer, and how do we avoid sitting in his seat? We can answer both questions…
