Exploring Faith and Spirituality

Religion

The Holy Spirit Makes Ordinary Women Extraordinary

When I was a child, my Grandma Ruth’s house was dark and disorganized. Piles of papers teetered here and there, and old wood furniture was pushed against the walls. Grandma seemed stressed and not ...

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Don’t Assume Biblically Literate Students Are Doing Fine

In high school, I was in quiet crisis: reeling from abuse, hidden family dysfunction, and unspoken doubts about my faith, all while trying to navigate the maze of adolescence. I’d silently resolved...

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Science Requires the Christian God

Scientists engage creation empirically rather than philosophically; they seek knowledge through sense experience. Yet this distinction between empirical and philosophical research is relative, not ...

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Whatever Happened to Postmillennialism?

“Only fools and madmen are positive in their interpretation of the Apocalypse.” Charles Spurgeon’s warning came amid a boom in mid-19th-century speculation about the details of Christ’s second comi...

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To See the Unseen: The Holy Spirit’s Eye-Opening Work

Huddled with his disciples in the upper room, Jesus named a critical problem they’d soon face: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more” (John 14:19). The trouble of that news was clea...

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The Psychedelic Renaissance: A Story of Hype and Hubris

Amid the tumult roiling the West, a powerful renaissance of psychedelic drug use is sweeping through our culture. This resurgence results from a concerted, highly motivated effort by key individual...

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Make Demons Boring Again

As a friendly neighborhood angelologist, I periodically field calls about supernatural encounters. For example, a group of students recently approached me with some questions spurred on by their ex...

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Becoming Good Stewards of Our Bodies

Melissa and Courtney talk with Lisa Whittle about how a whole body theology can keep us from obsessing or neglecting our bodies. They discuss the need for a foundational view of our bodies drawn fr...

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The Guardian view on Christianity and the UK far right: churches must stand up to the false prophets of division | Editorial

Symbols of Christian nationalism were prominent at last Saturday’s ‘unite the kingdom’ march. Their deployment had little to do with religious faithEngland’s established church has now been leaderl...

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Spiritual Formation ‘Technique’ Isn’t a Substitute for Battling Sin

Your church announces two concurrent adult education classes. The description for the first: “Join us in Room A to explore how conquering the flesh helps us walk by the Spirit.” The description for...

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What Acts Teaches About Church-Growth Problems

At the end of Acts 2, life looks exciting for what had only recently been a tiny band of Jesus-followers. Days before, they were fewer than 200. Now they number thousands. What has happened is more...

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5 Powerful Duas from the Quran Every Woman Should Know

For Every Struggle, there’s a Supplication and Strength in Turning Towards Allah It begins quietly, doesn’t it? A late-night tear. A silent prayer whispered after Fajr. The feeling that no one f...

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Cultural Apologetics is Older Than You Think

I’m a full-time professor at a Christian university and a part-time teaching pastor in my local church. My students range in age from 18 to almost 90. Despite their many differences, they tend to v...

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A Struggling Pastor’s Journey to Joy

For many years, I was a joyless, powerless, struggling pastor. However, late in life and ministry, God opened my eyes to his glory, the depth of my pride, and the joyful wonder of the gospel. This ...

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How David’s Kingship Illuminates the Gospel’s Genealogies

Genealogies are the least-read segments of Scripture. I have no hard facts to back up my claim. But be honest; when’s the last time you heard a genealogy read in a church service? How quickly do yo...

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The Fatherless Epidemic: Raising Up Men in Urban America

Damien McDaniel has been charged with murdering at least 18 people in Birmingham, Alabama, over the course of 14 months. His alleged victims include a firefighter, a UPS employee, and the mayor’s c...

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Sing with Getty and Other Greats in This New Hymnal

Music and family have always been connected for me. My grandfather taught me the Christian faith largely through our Welsh heritage of singing. Shortly before he died, our family gathered around th...

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Male Friendship Is Declining. Wives Can Help.

Last fall, my husband hesitantly mentioned that some guys from church were planning a weekend away to play golf, and they’d asked him to come. Before I could tell him I thought it was a great idea,...

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Why Finishing Well Matters More Than Visible Success

I already felt overbooked with weddings and studying for my ordination exams and a scheduled shoulder surgery when, unexpectedly, a key pastor left our church. Then the congregation put me in charg...

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Where Is King Jesus When Violence Reigns?

It’s bad enough no gruesome tragedy goes un-noticed by social media. But now we have to see the video of these attacks, almost in real-time. This is no movie. The screams, the fear, the blood—it’s ...

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The N. I. C. E. Dystopia: C. S. Lewis on Escaping Our Humanity

Christmas 1944 dawned well below freezing around Bastogne, Belgium, during one of the coldest winters on record for northwest Europe. Neither the cold nor the harassing German artillery was the wor...

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