Alan Jacobs, in his delightful little book entitled The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), challenges the notion that reading good literature improves a person's character. He quotes the eighteenth-century scientist G.C. Lichtenberg who wrote, "A book is like a mirror: if a [donkey] looks in, you can't expect an apostle t...

TAKING VOWS SERIOUSLY Our lives would be much better off if we simply took our vows seriously. The breakdown of marriage, family, and faith can easily be attributed to a lack of faithfulness to important vows. We are quick to make them, but slow to keep them. We are guilty of making piecrust promiseseasily made, easily broken. Followers of Christ, however, should take vow...

THE REAL STRUGGLE The foundational doctrines of election and predestination may be troubling to those who have never been seriously exposed to them. Perhaps you have been thinking to yourself, "The doctrine on the sovereignty of God in election cannot be right. The God I have known and worshipped all of these years would never elect some unto everlasting life and pass ove...

The Cross: A Magnification of God's Love The Gospel never gets old ... never. How can it, if we really understand our nature's wicked, depraved, and helpless condition, and the lengths to which Christ went to save us from divine judgement? Jesus was brutally nailed to the cross because of our sins. The Son of God bled and died for us. He willingly received the wrath and c...