“There’s no greater source of inspiration than an abiding friendship with Jesus.” –– Davy Flowers At TGCW21, Sarah Walton, Caroline Cobb, Hunter Beless, Davy Flowers, Ruth Chou Simons, and Jen Wilkin discuss what it looks like to be a creative in this age of technology. How do we not seek our own glory on social media? How do we balance home life with ministry work? How do we serve both our local church and the global church at the same time? The panel discusses these questions and more. Simons encourages us to think of our social media platform as the living room of our home, allowing for a m ..read more

Both my parents passed away in the month of March. The anniversaries of their deaths are within one week of each other. It’s now been 20 years since my father went to glory and seven since my mom opened her eyes to the full presence of Jesus. Two dear friends lost a father within the last year, and one—through burning tears—asked me if the intense grief will ever go away. She was close with her father, and his sudden loss caused overwhelming pain and longing. Does the pain from loss go away? No. I don’t believe we ever shed the hurt entirely, though I do think time eases the despair. The sting ..read more

The love of God and the wrath of God are commonly pitted against one another, particularly in the doctrine of atonement. If the cross is the demonstration of the love of God (Rom. 5:8), then how could it also be an expression of his wrath?  This dichotomy arises from a sentimentalized view of love and a caricature of wrath. In our society, love is often reduced to affection or affirmation. To love someone is either to have warm feelings toward her or to affirm her without conditions. And when people in our society think of the wrath of God, they imagine a red-faced deity with a bad temper ..read more

It’s that time of year. At Easter, parents will buy their kids cute outfits and fill baskets with plastic eggs and chocolates. Holy Week provides an opportunity to invite neighbors to Sunday worship and to hunt eggs with the kids in your backyard.  Most importantly, this is a time to share the story and joy of the resurrection. Here are 10 great resources to help. Storybooks 1. The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross: The True Story of Why Jesus Died and Rose Again by Carl Laferton, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri (The Good Book Company, 2016), ages 3–6. Laferton’s book in the Tales That ..read more

I opened WhatsApp and wrote to my friend, “I’d love prayer for patience amid sleep deprivation, please!” But what I was actually thinking was: “Please pray for good sleep so I can be patient!” I was sleep deprived because we had three children aged 4 and under. Perhaps you’re sleep deprived because your job requires you to be on call at night, you suffer from insomnia, or you care for an elderly relative. And perhaps, like me, you fall into thinking your ability to be patient with others comes from getting enough sleep. It is harder to be patient when we’re exhausted. We need sleep—God knows w ..read more

In 2003, I was reading a small book by Hugh Hewitt, In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World, when I stumbled across a sentence that would change the course of my life: “Start and maintain your own Web log (blog).” That night, I took his advice and started my own blog, Evangelical Outpost. While blogging had begun in the late 1990s, there were still relatively few Christian bloggers in the early years of the new millennium. In his book, Hewitt even lamented, “At present no great blogger has emerged with a distinctly evangelical worldview.” That began ..read more

Generation Z is marked by an increasing number of “nones,” meaning people who claim no faith at all. Watchful Christian observers, then, take genuine hope in two recent notable events. A simple chapel service at Asbury University became a round-the-clock worship service for two weeks. Described as “radically humble,” this awakening continues to spill over onto other campuses. Asbury’s president explained, “We cannot stop something we did not start.” At the same time, theaters are playing Jesus Revolution, which chronicles the spiritual revival that caught fire in the parents and grandparents o ..read more

As I finished my lecture one day, I noticed the ache on a student’s face and asked her to stay after class to talk. Her eyes welled with tears—it had been a difficult year. She told me she’d entered the social work program with a fervent desire to follow Jesus’s commands to visit the prisoner, serve the poor and outcast, and care for the orphan and widow (James 1:27). But the testimony of her faith in Christ and her firm belief that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God had isolated her from other students, made her the target of insults, and put her at the center of faculty conversations ..read more

So often, Christians overwhelmed by sexual sin are practically shoved down the aisle by their church communities. Pastors may tell couples that once they’re bound within a biblically legitimate marriage relationship, sexual activity has Scripture’s seal of approval, and they can work together on whatever besetting sexual sins they bring to their union. But as the newlyweds soon discover, marriage tends to amplify, not alleviate, besetting sin. It doesn’t cure unhealthy relationships; it codifies them. Suddenly, a relationship formed to honor God has all the makings of a human tragedy. But does ..read more

In The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer comments on his generation: “Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies.” Tozer’s assessment is timeless and true of my generation too—Generation Z. Gen Z is disenchanted with and disconnected from the local church, uninterested in religion and Christianity especially. Many of us are walking around like spiritual zombies. Sometimes I question why I invest in my local church despite my generation’s apathy. Why do I attend Sunday morning worship? Why do I re ..read more