To be honest, I would rather not write this post, but it needs to be written. It needs to be written because this problem plagues nearly every Christian family in the world. In nearly every one of our families there is someone who at one point pledged his or her allegiance to King Jesus by being baptized, but is now living in shameless rebellion to Christ. Should we just mind our own business? Should we rebuke them? Should we shun them? How would Jesus want us to handle these situations? Pray without Ceasing Before we say or do anything, we need to pray. We need to be like Epaphras, who “stru ..read more

Today’s post is part four of our “Re-Examined Series,” in which we are taking a look at some well-known passages that may not mean what we’ve tried to make the mean over the years. Today we will re-examine Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Honestly, I’ve been shocked this week as I’ve dug deeper into this verse. Let’s look at it together. How It’s Often Read One way people read this passage is a promise that if you teach your children about God, they will be faithful to Him in adulthood. Sadly, this has caused a lot ..read more

If you know me and my family personally, you probably know my nine-year-old son loves baseball. He watches nearly every Texas Rangers’ game on television (or lies in bed listening to them on the radio), he pitches for his Little League team, he could sit and talk about baseball for hours on end, and it’s a rare occasion that he does not have some sort of ball in his hand (even in the house). But I strongly believe Christian families need to exercise caution when their children have athletic talent and passion. The Idolatry of Sports I believe anything can become an idol and I think a good def ..read more

We have a tendency to think of Christianity in very individualistic ways, “If I want to be a Christian, that is between me and God; and if I don’t want to be a Christian, that is between me and God.” But the truth is, your decision to follow Jesus – or not follow Jesus – will affect far more than your own eternal life. Your decision could bless – or devastate – your descendants for countless generations. My Heritage of Faith In some families there is a heritage of higher education, athleticism, or military service. In my family, however, there is a heritage of faith. Both of my parents, all f ..read more

It finally happened. I was teaching a children’s Bible class of 3rd-5th graders, when one of the boys said something like, “I can’t be descended from Adam and Eve, because Adam and Eve were white.” I thanked him for bringing that up and used his comment as an opportunity to address the fact that although Bible story books almost always depict Adam and Eve as Caucasian, the books are simply wrong. I’ve been saying for years, we need to stop illustrating everyone in the Bible as white. The Human Race One of the major themes of Scripture is that the entire human rac ..read more

We live in an increasingly brutal and violent world. A world in which young men walk into movie theaters and schools and heartlessly gun down the precious souls in their paths. Whenever something like this occurs, cries of outrage can be heard across the land, saying, “Something has to be done to stop this!” I agree! Something has to be done to stop this! But first, let’s examine the culture in which we live today. We live in a culture which… …glorifies gore and sensationalizes sin. Our television shows, movies, and video games have created young people who don’t blush or flinch. They have b ..read more

The SnapChat app is a new app for smartphones and it is something about which, I believe, parents need to be very concerned. This app allows users to take a picture of themselves, send it to friends, and have it disappear forever in a matter of seconds. I’m sure you can see the attraction this app has for those who might be tempted to use it for “sexting.” You may not have heard about the SnapChat app yet, but if you haven’t, you’re one of the few. The people at SnapChat say they process more than 30 million messages a day. It is becoming quite the phenomenon. I realize many are using this ap ..read more

Two of the best days of my life were the days my boys were born. Each time, I was in awe! The child that I had waited nine months to meet was finally here. I remember, when my wife was pregnant with our first, looking at the ultrasound and saying, “How could anyone say that’s not a person? That’s my son!” I would never intentionally do anything to put my children in harm’s way. I would have never encouraged my wife to have taken something into her body which could potentially harm my children while she was carrying them. But, there’s a possibility that many of us have unintentionally put our c ..read more

A ..read more

A ..read more