Introduction I remember once kneeling at the feet of my father and praying as I tried to clip his toenails. With his third-stage Parkinson's disease, he was not able to do things like this for himself, and with the muscle weakness in my hands from Lyme disease, I was afraid of cutting him since he bled so easily. The pain of my mother's heart failure and precarious recuperation weighed down both of us, and I could almost hear my father's lonely sobbing still echoing from t

Introduction It has often been joked that those looking for a perfect church will render it imperfect the moment they set foot in it. Without a doubt, any church is made up of imperfect people, and if we can't accept this, we will no longer have a church. While some consider it their sacred duty to size everyone up and boot out all the people who have problems, others see this type of compulsive "sorting" as the danger in teaching sound doctrine. They think--and understa

Begin with the Facts Any honest study of a text from God's Word must begin with the facts. A command of the facts must include a careful examination of the words used in the text, not only in a reliable translation but in the original languages. The facts of the text must then be placed in their proper context --not only the circumstances surrounding the composition of the text but also the intended audience and the author. In the strictest sense, all of Scripture is w

A Revelation to Behold As a partial repost of A New Year's Revelation, it seems fitting to reorient our vision this sacred season to Christ Himself as we embark on a study of the Book of Revelation. With all those who "love His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8), we yearn for His Second Coming to begin Christ's earthly reign as He restores all of Creation. We do not believe with the postmillennialists that we ourselves will usher in Christ's reign. Nor do we see conclusive eviden

Reclaiming Fact from Fiction If ever there were a time to exercise the discipline and devotion due to God's Word, it is now in these days of popular obsession with the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Second Coming of Christ. When--with the help of the Holy Spirit and an obedient heart--we apply to the biblical text those reading strategies that separate fact from fiction, we will see that the Book of Revelation is not a riddle but exactly what it says: a revelation. Alt

A Gift Still to Be Opened The new year teases like a bright green package still waiting to be opened. What does it hold in store? We want a new beginning, but we don't want things to change. We pick up a blank journal, turning hope into history with a deep resolve to meet our destiny unafraid. Some people take Christmas with them, leaving up tiny twinkle lights all year. But what if we all kept candles burning out of holy expectation? A Revelation to Behold A revelat