Blog: January 2015 — December 2015

I have found it to be painfully true that:  If you don't plan to read the Bible, you're planning not to read the Bible. For many years now I've see people embrace and benefit from a two-year Bible reading plan.  It's a good pace--slow enough to take in what you're reading each day, but also fast enough to allow you to keep previous parts in mind as you read new sections. Do you have a plan?  When 2016 rolls around in a couple weeks, will you be ready to go?  Click here to read or download our 2016-2017 Bible reading schedule.

This week Indiana authorities charged two men with the murder of 28-year-old Amanda Blackburn.  Early on Nov. 10, while Amanda’s husband, Davey (a pastor), was at the gym, intruders entered the Blackburn home and shot Amanda.  She was 12-weeks pregnant. Davey Blackburn has since made the point that he chooses to forgive the killers.  Although he feels deep grief and anger, he said “going down the path of bitterness” would “destroy my soul and it will destroy everybody around me… So today, I choose forgive­ness, and I pray that tomorrow I ...

J. D. Greear, a pastor in North Carolina, is the author of Gaining By Losing:  Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send.  He asks:  if we thought of all our blessings (e.g., here at Goshen) as seeds, how many of them are we planting for kingdom growth, and how many of them are we keeping in storehouses to feed ourselves?  “Jesus measures the success of our ministries not by how large we grow the storehouse, but by how widely we distribute its seeds” (p. 16). Greear draws on Jesus’ counterintuitive teaching that “He who loves his life ...

I’ve been studying Paul’s Letter to the Romans lately, and I’m seeing afresh that, while the bad news is worse than we might ever imagine, the good news is more glorious than we might dare to believe.  In other words, the Gospel isn’t just an emotional boost to improve your life and help you feel better:  it’s about coming face to face with our sin in all of its vile dimensions and damning conse­quences AND about how God, out of the awesome grace and goodness of his heart, made a way for his enemies (i.e., us!) to be forgiven, reconciled and ...

Elisabeth Elliot, widow of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, passed away last week at the age of 88.  Memorials and tributes have been pouring in, reminding us of God’s remarkable work in and through her life. I am so thankful for her bold, wise, courageous discipleship, and how she went public with her passion for the glory of Christ.  Along with thousands of college students, I heard her speak in a characteristically frank manner at Urbana ’79.  If Elisabeth Elliot was anything, she was direct—no nonsense:  if Jesus is your Lord, stop playing ...

In our staff meeting this week we spent time reflecting on God’s promise in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Let that good word sink into your soul:  the Lord who made you and who, in Christ, has rescued you from sin’s guilt and eternal death, promises that your future is secure.  He will never abandon his children and he will never leave us on our own.  Both now, as we walk the path of this rugged life, and on into a glorious everlasting future, our Heavenly Father will most assuredly keep his loved ones with him! We ...

IF you’re a follower of Jesus—if you’re someone who’s turned to Christ for saving grace and eternal life, for the gift of God’s adoption and redemption and justification… if you’ve come face to face with your sin and guilt before the Holy Judge of all things and then run to the Savior as your only hope for mercy and life—THEN you’re saved; you’re a child of God who’s accepted into his forever family! If all that is true of you, then your sins are forgiven.  Period.  Your status in the courtroom of the universe is “not guilty.”  You’re ...

In the last two months two senior saints from my home church in Minneapolis have departed this world and entered into the radiant presence of Jesus.  Wally and Alexa Midura were in their 90s and had been married for 71 years when God called them home.  They stand like pillars of godliness in my memory as I consider the vital ministry God gave them as praying and teaching partner-leaders. “Uncle Wally” and “Aunt Alexa” led Junior Church (for grades 1-6) at Edgewater Baptist Church in Minneapolis for decades.  They were an institution ...

This week’s release of the movie, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” based on E. L. James’s novel, prompts me to offer some words of mourning, caution, hope, and prayer. You may be aware of the “success” of the Fifty Shades series—over 100 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide. Of course, a profit-driven entertainment industry is ready to print or project anything that will make money. So if readers/viewers want to hand over their cash to get lost in a fantasy of sexual exploitation and abuse, the publishing and movie industries are more ...

In Luke 7:11-17 a young man has died, his mother’s a widow, and the townspeople of Nain are marching to the graveyard. But Jesus intercepts the sorrowful procession, unleashing his compassion-fueled power to bring the dead man back to life: it’s a miracle! But remember, that young man has to die again. And all the people Jesus heals get sick again and eventually die. This life is still this life—and heaven’s still heaven, and we’re not there yet. Jesus did not raise the young man from Nain to minimize the hope of future resurrection (and ...