Free Refills

This book was never really meant to happen. I was writing a book about Jesus forgiving Peter when my editor said something I took the wrong way. “You should make this a kids’ book,” she told me. I assumed she meant it wasn’t very good. Or that my writing was missing the mark, or at […]

On the night when everything began to unravel, Jesus set the table. It wasn’t a table filled with certainty or strength. It was surrounded by confusion, pride, fear, and the quiet tremor of coming failure. One man would betray him. Another would deny him. But all would scatter. And still, Jesus broke the bread. “This […]

There’s an unbreakable link between Easter and the Bible. The earliest Christian creed, quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, puts it simply: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose on the third day—“according to the Scriptures.” These weren’t later inventions; they were the words of some of the first disciples shortly after […]

C.S. Lewis once compared Christianity to a great house. The central hallway represents the shared core of the faith—belief in Christ as expressed in the creeds focusing on the big essentials. Off the hallway are many rooms: the denominations. Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Orthodox, Catholic, Pentecostal—each room furnished a little differently, each with its own style, […]

In debates about the historical Jesus, one method has gained significant attention over the past few decades: the “minimal facts approach.” Most closely associated with scholars like Gary Habermas and Michael R. Licona, this approach argues that a small set of widely accepted historical facts is sufficient to establish key events in Jesus’ life with […]

I’ve heard it most of my life. Preachers explain their approach as seeking to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” It sounds bold. It gets loud “amens” though it provokes little reflection. Why wrestle with complexity when you can fit your preaching philosophy neatly between a fish decal and a cross symbol on a […]

We are jutified by grace through faith, not works. Martin Luther said the church stands or falls on this doctrine. A Luther scholar once told me Luther said that about a few other doctrines too. Classic Marty. But still—this one matters. Justification is how we’re made right with God. Yes, it can also mean how […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  My Biblical Case Against […]

Before you haul me to the stake and strike a match, know this: John Piper makes the same case. And if that jars you, consider the possibility that we’ve absorbed an assumption the Bible never actually makes. Is the Bible crystal clear that Christians must give ten percent to their local church as the baseline […]

The term “Silver Tsunami” originally refers to the dramatic demographic shift of the Baby Boomer generation into old age—a wave of aging that will reshape society at nearly every level. As the Pew Research Center and Census estimates show, tens of thousands of Baby Boomers turn 65 each day, and by 2030 all Boomers will have reached […]

We traded physical worship for a program—and it cost us. Biblical rhythms and historic practices got shelved for better lighting and longer sermons. We’ve lit the stage and dimmed the people showing our preference for performance over participation. Worse than that, we’ve allowed our practice to dillute our doctrine. We’ve traded tradition for novelty, often […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Two Commands for Parents […]

Some doctrinal positions require so much cherry-picking you’d think we were baking a pie. We’re all capable of it. That’s why sensitive topics deserve honest engagement with all the relevant texts—not just our favorites. Because of the complexity of the biblical texts, and the theological whack-a-mole way conservatives handle it, I’m really not big mad […]

I hear this question everywhere I go: How do parents relate to kids they raised in the faith who no longer believe? I don’t have a magic formula or a silver bullet. My oldest kids—twin boys—are only nineteen. Our nest is still full. They still believe. And I know there are no airtight guarantees. I’ve […]

Maybe a better question than “has the Spirit stopped working?” is “why have we stopped expecting him to?”. Why I’m Not a Cessationist

Let’s talk about the old debate over the age of the earth, shall we? Why I’m Not a Young Earth Creationist

In this episode, I discuss why I elected to leave T.U.L.I.P. in the dust. Why I’m Not a Calvinist

Ring Out, Wild Bells by Lord Alfred Tennyson Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, […]

The New Year marks a lot of hope and restored commitment for many people. We set resolutions. We download diets. We get serious about going to the gym. For some of us, we think about heading back to church. If you’re a regular attender, at the gym or at a church, it can be easy […]

Why I’m Not a Fundamentalist

On Heresy and Heretics

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Theological Growing Pains ⊕ […]

The following post is a review of the book by Palestinian minister Munther Isaac. The organization I work for, Scholar Leaders, has partnered with and supported Dr. Isaac over the years. The review below is written by my colleague Juliany González Nieves for InSights Journal, which is available for free online along with the other […]

There’s a War at Christmas too. How should we pray? My colleague from Scholar Leaders Taras Dyatlik says we should pray like Daniel. Taras is a continual source of encouragement to me from afar as he shows me what war tested hope and tear stained joy look like. Take a minute to read his reflection […]



You have to be a fan of eighties television to appreciate this title. Kirk Cameron was one of the child stars on “Growing Pains,” a widely popular sitcom back in the day. Many people know him better for his outspoken Christian witness as an adult. I shared on social media that I appreciated his wrestling […]

  “Now as myth transcends thought, incarnation transcends myth.” —C.S. Lewis I know you’re turned off by the Church for a bunch of reasons. I probably agree with you more than know. There’s a lot of junk that gets associated with Jesus. I’m tired of it too. But what if Christmas is still pointing us […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  A Prayer for Peace […]

 One: We have room in God’s presence (John 14:2) Two: We will one day see Jesus (John 14:3) Three: We can know God (John 14:7) Four: We can serve God (John 14:11,12, 21) Five: We can talk to God (John 14: 13) Six: We have the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,17,26) Seven: We have the […]

Feasts reveal more about us than we may realize. Most Americans think of the holiday we affectionately call Thanksgiving primarily in terms of the dinner, a meal which takes on average seven hours to make and only sixteen minutes to eat. But as we see in the book of Acts, sincere gratitude is disruptive. Have […]

We stood in the meeting hall of a denominational gathering. A person who was, at that time, a coworker stood beside me. They were fully engaged in all the happenings and quite outspoken in favor of some, what seemed to me then and seems to me still, very secondary issue. I made a comment about […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Three Obstacles to Supporting […]

Anyone who keeps up with me knows I love the nonprofit I get to work for called Scholar Leaders. It has been the highlight of my professional career. Working for them has opened global horizons as I have met amazing Christian leaders and thinkers serving in the Majority World. It has changed my outlook on […]

In his monumental book The Resurrection of the Son of God, British scholar N.T. Wright tells the story of a king who once called upon his archers to shoot their arrows at the sun. He became angry when they all failed to reach their solar target. One clever archer waited until midday, aimed his bow […]

C.S. Lewis described a man’s incessant desire to be a part of the inner group as leading him to unkowingly cross a threshold of evil. In his Ransom trilogy, Lewis explains how Mark, a man determined to earn the approval of a group of scientists, becomes wicked while casually laughing at a joke with no […]

If I could have a beer with Jesus Heaven knows I’d sip it nice and slow I’d try to pick a place that ain’t too crowded Or gladly go wherever he wants to go You can bet I’d order up a couple tall ones Tell the waitress put ’em on my tab I’d be sure […]

The following Faith on the Road podcast episode features Dr. David Wang who serves as professor of psychology and spiritual formation at Fuller Seminary. Dr. Wang describes how his research over the last ten years, funded by the Templeton Foundation, unveils a sad reality. In North America, students are leaving theological semaries without a significant […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Making Ourselves at Home […]

Three for the World posts are quick updates you can read in a few minutes to learn more about what God is doing around the world. The following post comes from a prayer update from Oscar Garcia from Uruguay, the most secular city in Latin America.  Dear Friends, We live in Uruguay, one of the […]

I had the opportunity to return to prison last week to teach a course on Great Books. I don’t have a background in the Classics, so the course represented as much of a learning opporutnity for me as it did my students. In leading them through excerpts from a number of well-known works, I developed […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  On Peacemaking ⊕  Celebrating […]

A friend shared the following post on social media this weekend. It was originally written by Todd Benkart, founder and director of Hope’s Companion. It provides some really helpful steps for cultivating a winsome Christian witness: In times of deep division, followers of Jesus are called both to speak truth and to be peacemakers. These […]

“They say we were walking away from the faith . . . ” a narrator says on the recent album Reconstruction, “We wasn’t walking away from faith. We was walking away from fraud.” The most recent album by Grammy-winning rap artist Lecrae, is part response to a toxic Christian subculture, and part road map for […]

On occasion, I will turn my gaze from my shiny computer to my bookshelf just behind me. It’s filled with books most of which are at least fifty years old. The contrast between modern technology and antiquarian literature provides a bit of balance in my workspace located on a second-floor landing at the top of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  A City on a […]

Most Christians in American can relate in part to what Jesus had to say about persecution. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described opposition mostly in terms of words — insults and false accusations of evil (Matthew 5:11). But elsewhere Jesus warns his disciples of physical persecution and the loss of life. That […]

King Solomon provided the line later made popular by the Beatles, to everything there is a season (turn, turn, turn). Does this apply to beliefs? Is there a season for an open mind? What about a proper time for a closed mind? How can we know the difference between which mindset is appropriate. If truth […]

If you read the introduction of Mere Christianity you will quickly learn of C.S. Lewis’s goal of describing a core, the mere essence, the fundamental beliefs, associated with the Christian faith. His mission is laid bare in the very title of the book. Lewis wasn’t advocating a particular tradition. But he certainly wasn’t trying keep […]

You could probably have heard my eyes roll from a mile away when I learned they were rebooting the Fantastic 4 franchise. I’ve seen a handful of the past movies, and none of them were great. But I have to admit, the new one ain’t bad. It also provides a good excuse to revisit an […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Wicked for Good ⊕ […]

Three for the World posts are quick updates you can read in a few minutes to learn more about what God is doing around the world. The following post was written and compiled by Juliany González Nieves from Scholar Leaders.  Theology is not done in a vacuum. It’s deeply shaped by context, culture, and the urgent […]

“Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness cast upon them?” Galinda, the good witch, asks her adoring fans in Oz.  She is of course referring to Elphiba the wicked witch. But anyone familiar with Wicked knows there is far more to the story than meets the eye. Galinda isn’t really all that good, […]

  I was pleased to hear the familiar voice of a former student as I walked out of the Dallas heat into the very cool vibe of a hipster chicken restaurant. I was in town for the Southern Baptist Convention, which I wasn’t overly excited about. What I was quite enthusiastic about was hosting Dr. […]

Three for the World posts are quick updates you can read in a few minutes to learn more about what God is doing around the world.  Also known as the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan is a global giant in technological innovation, and has one of the world’s largest economies and most educated populaces. […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Prison Reflections ⊕  Pray […]

When Russian troops invaded his city, he helped his students and their families flee to the mountains. Then he and other men took the vans once used for their seminary and went back into the war zone to help others evacuate. The author of Hebrews has an expression for Christian like this, saying they are […]

There’s something very refreshing when you spend time with people who know they deserve nothing but grace and have nothing but Jesus. While that’s ultimately true of every believer, it’s generally overshadowed by our distractions and thoughts of personal accomplishments. When you mix in a little bit of ego and entitlement, you can hardly see […]

Three for the World posts are quick updates you can read in a few minutes to learn more about what God is doing around the world.  This week, we invite you to pray for Emmanuel Oluwayemi (formerly known as Ogunyemi) in Nigeria. In 2001, Emmanuel and his wife, Blessing, founded Life Builders Ministries International, a […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Science Only Asks for […]

“Jesus makes more sense,” Joe Rogan quipped on his recent podcast that has piqued attention from religious news platforms. The conversation with fellow podcaster, Cody Tucker, turned from conspiracy theories to metaphysics. “Where did it all come from?” became the center of attention on the Rogan show, albeit for a short time. What’s all the […]

Paul’s short letter to the church in Galatia packs a punch. He goes after religious leaders who were encroaching on the freedom of believers insisting that their devotion to God was inferior because they didn’t follow enough rules. Paul uses harsh language to describe his feelings about this legalistic group (see Galatians 5:12). Reminiscent of […]

It’s that time of the year in our household, as it is for so many other families, when we attend all the things. We’ve got spring band concerts, award ceremonies, and, this year, for our twins, we have high school graduation. It’s a big deal. At each event, one thing is certain. There will be […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  My Myopic Missions Mindset […]

I found the following video extremely helpful on just a practical level. But it has a lot of implications for the Christian life. Are you compromising to fit in, or have you really found a place where you belong? Think about that as you listen to this short clip from Brené Brown.  

Three for the World posts are quick updates you can read in a few minutes to learn more about what God is doing around the world. This week’s update is from Habtamu from Ethiopia. He writes: My name is Habtamu Solomon Kebede, and I am currently pursuing my PhD at Asian Theological Seminary in the […]

This post is a few years in the making. I started doing freelance work with an organization called Scholar Leaders a few years ago. I instantly fell in love with their work. I went full time with them in December of last year. They’ve forever changed the way I think about what is often called […]

“Imagine what God could do with me in five years,” Jelly says as he recounts his journey. In the following interview Jelly Roll opens about his faith as he talks about his hit song with Brandon Lake. This interview is touching and inspirational on so many levels and is well worth your time to watch. […]

I don’t know of any other show I’ve watched consistently for two decades. While there have been seasons I’ve lost interest, I always notice when it’s time for Ryan Seacrest to give his now infamous, “This . . . is American Idol.” But something different is going on this season. It has to do with […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  What the Hell Do […]

Forgive the cheeky title. But the topic is so heavy, I figured a little levity might help. I agree with C.S. Lewis who once said, “There is no doctrine I would more willingly remove from Christianity than [hell], if it lay in my power . . . I would pay any price to be able […]

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. […]

I still remember the lines from an old D.C. Talk cassette tape I had back in the day. If you’re under the age of 30, I need to give a little context. A cassette tape was the equivalent of a musical file. It’s what we used for “streaming” back in the nineties. It was about […]

The following video by Tim Keller on how anxiety requires pride, and lightheartedness requires humility and trust, is gold. Check it out: 

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Three for the World […]

Please pray for Dr. David Kasali in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After completing his PhD in New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1993, David returned to the faculty at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (Kenya), where he later served as President for eight years. Following the Second Congo War – which […]

In 1945, C.S. Lewis gave a talk to young ministers and youth workers in Wales. The title of his presentation was “Christian Apologetics.” I recently returned to this talk and was reminded again how rich of a resource it indeed is. Lewis’s outline of observations of his audience back is still helpful and insightful today. […]

I recently heard someone describe non-Christians as their enemies. It didn’t sit well with me for a lot of reasons, one of which is it doesn’t resonate with Scripture. Sure, if you take the military posture of some Old Testament passages and apply it to today you could justify that attitude. But that perspective doesn’t […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Three for the World […]

It’s been a minute since I served on a church staff. When I was seventeen I made a decision at a church camp that put me on a trajectory for Bible college and then grad school at a seminary. It also put me in a pipeline for ministry positions. I’ve worked at churches in Illinois, […]

A Prayer Guide from a theological leader from the underground church in China: For security reasons, I will only use my English name, Evangeline. My Christian background is the Chinese underground family church, where my father serves as a pastor. In 2010, he and other servants of God established an underground seminary. I taught there […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Three for the World […]

I’m starting a new column called “Three for the World” where I will feature short posts you can typically read in a few minutes about what God is doing through amazing women and men around the world. This post is about the remarkable Christian leaders in Ukraine. After extremely unfortunate,  inaccurate, and harmful comments by […]

“What about gluttony?” the person standing next to me shouted towards the stage. There was a large man near the platform speaking at the microphone at this particular denominational gathering. He was accusing a ministry leader (the man standing next to me) of being reckless for inviting a pastor who was known to drink beer […]

If your theology makes you mean, it’s probably not your theology. You might be a jerk. If your politics make you mean, it’s probably not your politics. You might be a jerk. Here’s the thing, don’t be a jerk. I posted this on Facebook and read the comments with a mild sense of curiosity. It […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  C.S. Lewis on Why […]

I was doing my old man work out earlier today, rocking out on an elliptical, when I noticed the message on the back of the shirt of the dude in front of me. It read, “This World is Temporary.” There was a time when I would agree with that sentiment, but anymore I see it […]

Finding Nemo taught us that all drains lead to the ocean. Maybe that was a metaphor for what happens to our goldfish when they die and receive their watery burial, but what about our other pets? Are they merely matter in motion, or is there something about them that lives on? Might we see them […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  A Christian Way of […]

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther once wrote that God does not need our good works. He went on to say that is our neighbors, the people we see and pass by every day, who are the ones who need our good works. How right Luther was. As you think about a new year, you might […]

The recent hit song “Believe” by Brooks and Dunn featuring Jelly Roll offers a good summary of where a lot people are today. The song centers around an old man named Wrigley who lost his wife and baby while he was away serving in the war. The chorus of the song comes from the man’s […]

Christian author John Dickson posted this on social media recently and it caught my eye. He shared a passage from a second-century Christian named Mathetes which means disciple. Mathetes wrote to another Christian named Diognetus who came from a Gentile background and is thought by some to have been a tutor of Marcus Aurelius. Mathetes […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  The Arrow and the […]

It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity. A friend shared those words with me when discussing what many experience as a mid-life crisis. “It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity,” they said. Sometimes the difference between the two is that simple, isn’t it? It’s a change of attitude that changes a lot. It starts by […]

In the midst of Job’s suffering he lamented “anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty” (Job 6:14). If anyone knew the sting of abandonment from surprisingly-neglectful friends, Job did. You might know how that feels too. The poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Arrow and the Song” captures the […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  A 3D God in […]

Forgive me for raising a question which has likely never crossed your mind. My mind works a little differently, I suppose. I’m curious, if the angels sang “glory to God in the highest,” I wonder what the devils might have blurted back in response. To me, it could have been a bit like an athletic […]

“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” —C.S. Lewis “What if God were one of us?” singer Joan Osborne asked. Her popular mid-nineties song continues the hypothetical with the lines, “Just a slob like one of us . . . just a stranger on the […]

Christmas plays a powerful and pivotal role in making sense of Narnia, where under the Witch’s curse it was “always winter and never Christmas.” When the prophecy of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve is fulfilled, through the entrance of the Pevensie children in the magical world, the curse begins to turn inside […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  A Personal Announcement ⊕ […]

I have an exciting personal announcement that might require a little context. I’ll begin by getting to the point. After twenty years in higher education working in three different universities, I’m officially making a transition to full-time creative work. That’s a side of my life that has been largely neglected, and I’m thrilled for the […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Do We Really Need […]

The human experience is lived in a body, but it’s filled with non-physical values. That’s why it’s hard for me to fully understand the perspective of a person who believes all of reality can be reduced to physical explanations. Anything else seems more believable than that to me. You can call it atheism, physicalism, or […]

Do we really need God? I’ve known plenty of people who don’t believe, or if they do believe no longer practice their religion. And they’re not cereal killers. I don’t think they’ve ever killed cereal. I’m pretty sure they like it. [Disclaimer: I know it’s serial not cereal] But I’ve also spent a lot of […]

This song speaks candidly about trauma with the powerful refrain, “The damage has been done, so this I pray, God give me the strength to get past yesterday.” For anyone who feels held back by yesterday, we can all pray for strength to get past yesterday. As Jelly Roll sings, “You ain’t the hell that […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Biblical Insights About Diversity  ⊕  Sermon: […]

I had the opportunity to speak at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, for their chapel service earlier this week. I addressed the issue of Christianity and diversity. According to Pew Research, Christianity is the most evenly distributed religion across the globe, making it the most ethnically and geographically diverse movement in the history of […]

I’ve always wanted a Jeep. I finally got one. It’s almost five years old with 70K miles, but it’s new to me. I didn’t realize I got a whole tribe with it though. Technically, I have a Jeep mullet. It’s a Jeep body with a truck bed. It’s business in the front and a tailgate […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Disenchantment, Deconstruction, and Disentanglement […]

I took Amazon’s advice while running on the elliptical the other day. I often watch something on Prime to pass the mindless-calorie-burning time, and the curated list of recommended movies based on my viewing history included “Infinite” starring Mark Wahlberg. It’s not good, in case you’re curious. But there was an element that works well […]

I think there are a lot of followers of Jesus in America who feel a little homeless. Of course, I can only see the world from my address in Ohio, so I understand my view is as limited as it is personal. Nonetheless, I’ve had a lot of conversations with folks in recent days around […]

C.S. Lewis could cook up a metaphor like my mom baking a meatloaf masterpiece. We’re talking perfection. I’d still dump a bunch of ketchup on it though, cuz that’s just how I like it. I’d mix in the mash potatoes, green beans, and corn, and turn the whole thing into a ketchupy, meaty, casserole of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Richard Dawkins’ Final Lecture […]

  I vividly remember the buzz around four individuals who described themselves as the “four horsemen of the atheist apocalypse”. There was an energy in the air, filling the bookstores, and going viral on social media. These four thinkers included the philosopher, Daniel Dennett, the neuroscientist, Sam Harris, the razor-sharp-witted journalist, Christopher Hitchens, and the […]

The following is a short article on true religion that appeared in both a Missouri and Ohio paper in 1842. The author is not identified. It gives a brief and timely reminder of what the Bible considers pure religion. “What is religion? Not that which meteor-like, shines for a brief period and then fades and […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Live Like Aiden: The […]

I’ve posted the video below from a talk I recently gave at SBU as a part of the series “Why Believe in God?”. Taking the first two chapters of Romans, I argue that the text explains two paths away from God. One way is hedonism as described in Romans 1 as living as though God […]

Last night my son Josiah asked me to play a song by the artist Thomas Rhett. It’s a sweet song about his memories at his grandmother’s house. Why would my thirteen-year-old be drawn to a song like this? Because we’re all drawn to mamaw’s house, that place of love, acceptance, food, friendship, conversation, and laughter. […]

Living in a small village in Ohio makes it rather unlikely that your community will make international news. And yet it often does. The governor of the state lives on a farm here. We’ve had recent Olympic gold medal winners who attended school here. And the man called “the father of Labor Day” was an […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Liar ⊕  The Redemption […]

This last week, the Wall Street Journal featured an obituary in their review section. It was nearly a full page about Mike Ullman, the corporate leader who helped fix J.C. Penney. There were a few things I loved about his story. First, how he met his wife: “At a fraternity function, he met Cathy Emmons, a […]

Good grief, the new Peanuts movie is brilliant. I loved it. And so did my kids. But it really does depart from the tone and trajectory of its original creator Charles Schulz whose life closely paralleled his characters. His daughter Amy Johonson said it best, “My dad is Charlie Brown, inside and out.” According to […]

What are the lies you tell yourself? How do you respond to your inner critic? Listen to how artist Jelly Roll responds to the voices inside his head. What lies do you need to call out today?

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Don’t Ask Why ⊕ […]

A friend recently sent this to me on Facebook. I think it’s worth considering when it comes to finding effective ways for people to feel valued and heard. A lot of times we plan on rebuttals while others are talking instead of listening to what they have say.

I’m writing this post from a Starbucks in my hometown. My son Josiah and I have been camping at a lake outside of town all week. A storm moved in a little after 4AM that sent us into town looking for shelter. It seems one of the worst places to be in a storm is […]

I recently stopped by Walgreens to pick up a prescription for my son who is battling a poison ivy breakout. He was itching to get some relief. So off to the drug store I went. I’m such a good dad. I took note of a sign by the counter as I waited in line. It […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Back Pew ⊕  The […]

Singer/song-writers are the poets of our generation. If you want to see how an idea looks like with skin on, read some lyrics to a popular hip hop or country song. Maybe that’s why I gravitate towards the singer Jelly Roll since he embodies both genres. But in this case, I want you check out […]

You can add my name to the long list of people who are dreading this election season. Like you, I’ve grown tired of the radioactive rhetoric and the polarizing partisanship. How can we make to November and beyond? G.K. Chesterton once pointed out a particular burden for those seeking a better way. He said, “There […]

I stopped being embarrassed about my joy of sketching shortly after meeting Gilbert Keith Chesterton. The introduction was made by none other than Clive Staples Lewis, who, I later learned, was an amateur artist himself. Their company was joined shortly thereafter by Lewis’s fellow Inkling, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, a gifted illustrator in his own […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Shining in the Shadow […]

The Apostle Paul describes the believer as an artistic creation when he says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). Others have pointed out how the Greek word translated here as “masterpiece” is the […]

I’ve written about the rap turned country artist Jelly Roll here before. His songs are filled with religious references from “Son of a Sinner” to his thoughts on prayer in “Favor” or his confession of “Hungover in a Church Pew.” What would you do if a big buy like Jelly Roll with tattoos on his […]

She describes herself as a “Bible believing, powerlifting, cancer surviving, PhD astrophysicist.” I’ve followed Sarah Salviander on social media for a few years and always find her stories interesting. Her recent post is worth consideration. “One thing I could not get past as an atheist was the lack of internal consistency of my worldview. When I […]

The poet William Herbert Carruth, after extolling the beauty and mystery of nature, notes how humans respond in different, yet similar ways. Each stanza of his poem “Each in His Own Tongue” ends with a couplet containing the same last line. The first set ends with this contrast, “Some call it Evolution, And others call […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  The Miraculous Sermon I […]

Do you ever find yourself reading the Bible with something less than enthusiastic belief when it comes to stories about talking donkeys, floating axe heads, and rising corpses? Welcome to the club. We don’t see that kind of stuff every day, or any day for that matter, so it can feel unreasonable even when we […]

It’s stuck with me all these years later. The well-known theologian began his talk with the words, “I’ve written more about the Greek word for head than any other scholar.” The talk was about biblical complementarianism and the speaker was none other than Wayne Grudem. He went on to say, “Yet it took me a […]

“Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; And àll tràdes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, […]

  I’ve never used the Bible to learn how to change the oil in my car, build a bookshelf, or fix my lawnmower. In those cases, YouTube turns out to be a far more helpful guide than God’s Word. That’s not the case when it comes to issues of the soul. I’ve been thinking about […]

You’ve seen the style. Some of you love it. Some of you hate it. It’s the notorious man bun, donned by men in various cultures throughout time. But did you know Jesus had a man bun? In Ireland he did. When missionaries — following in the footsteps of Saint Patrick — preached the Good News […]

Last week I stood beneath C.S. Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College in Oxford and shared the story of his journey from atheism to belief in God. To my left (in the picture) is a nature trail called Addison’s Walk where Lewis famously walked and talked with J.R.R. Tolkien and talked about how Christianity is the […]

In the middle of WW II, C.S. Lewis gave a couple sermons at St Mary the Virgin University Church in England that have influenced a generation of Christian thinkers. The talks were “Learning in War Time” and “The Weight of Glory.” Last week I gave a short talk on Lewis’s sermon “The Weight of Glory.” My […]

“Well, at any rate, we now have less chance of dying of cancer,” quipped C. S. Lewis in response to learning of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, knowing that his own country was on the brink of joining the war. As a World War I veteran, he knew the ugliness of combat. And for a man […]



Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Christian Rap & Snoop […]



Science was born on the 28th day of the month of May in 585 BC. The Greek philosopher Thales was the mastermind behind the whole show. He predicted a solar eclipse with accuracy and is considered to have invented science by Isaac Asimov, the famed science fiction author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. […]



When asked which kind of God Richard Dawkins would want to believe in, the famous atheist cited the Christian God. “I’d choose Christianity every time,” he said. Describing himself as a cultural Christian, Dawkins shared concerns about the growth of Islam. “So I call myself a cultural Christian and I think it would be truly […]



A Better Resurrection By Christina Rossetti  I have no wit, no words, no tears; My heart within me like a stone Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears; Look right, look left, I dwell alone; I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief No everlasting hills I see; My life is in the falling […]

There are questions that need to be answered and answers that need to be questioned. The slogan “Jesus is the answer to every question,” rings hollow to most because it’s demonstrably false. What’s the price of gas? Jesus. What’s the atomic number of zinc? Jesus. It just doesn’t work. Our penchant for superficial answers is […]

When I was in junior high school I entered a national art contest and won a scholarship to take correspondence courses from the school Charles Schulz attended. I’ve long since dreamed of creating a comic strip. Adulthood kind of got in the way it seems, but I’m finally getting around to it. Here’s the first […]

Even if you disagree with the guy, I bet you can’t outdo C.S. Lewis in his ability to illustrate an argument. His word pictures are both memorable and compelling. In Mere Christianity he gets at his arguments in many ways — from the rational and the theological to the existential, reasoning from what it feels […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  Deconstruction and Doubt (Season […]



What do you do with your doubt? Do you ignore it? Are you ashamed of it? Do let it rule you? Is it your boss? What can you do with your doubt? I’m speaking in chapel this morning at Southwest Baptist University on the passage in Psalm 73 where Asaph, the worship leader for Israel, […]

Do you have a soul? Can science say anything about it? Can science disprove it? Brian Cox, the musician turned professor, says science makes it plain the soul does not exist. If there was some other material source present in the body, it should be detectable in some way. Since the soul is not detectable […]

I had dinner last week with a friend who works in the Netherlands. I was intrigued by a word he used to describe a common label for religious belief by people in Amsterdam. It’s from the Dutch word “iets” which simply means something. When referred to as a shared belief it is referred to as […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  My Silent Confession ⊕ […]

What do you believe? How do you know it’s true? What are your reasons for believing it? What even counts as real knowledge? These are the kinds of questions thinking people ask themselves. I’m sure you’ve asked these questions or ones like them before. We could throw our hands up, shrug our shoulders, and not […]

The influential 19th century British pastor, Charles Spurgeon, once said, “Few men repent of being silent.” Those words will cut you to the quick if you let them. How many times have we failed to speak up when deep down, we knew we should have? I’m guilty as charged. I think of when the Apostle […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  The Photocopy Syndrome (Part […]

In this series I’ve talked about some ways we don’t fit in. Maybe it’s your quirky personality. Maybe you’re infected with a case of creativity that makes it hard to simply color inside the lines like everyone else. Maybe you can’t stay quiet when something is not right, even if no one else will speak […]

Someone once said, “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” Facts. This needs to be said, because when you’re standing alone ― or running alone in the case of the quote ― it’s really easy to assume it’s because you’re in […]

If you have to radically change who you are to fit a place — you’re changing the wrong thing. Full stop. To be clear, there is no place on earth that will be a perfect fit. That’s life. You know that already. But you also know that becoming someone else doesn’t work either, don’t you? A […]

Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in? Like, in a round-hole-kind-of-world, you’re more of a square-peg-kind-of-a-person? What if your unique design, gifting, and personality serve a purpose, even if they make you feel like a consummate outsider? Maybe you shouldn’t become someone else in order to fit in? Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every […]

Beauty and brains and virtue never dwell Together in one place, the critics say Yet we have known a case You must not ask her name But seek it ‘twixt July and May C.S. Lewis penned these lines inside a book he gifted to Sigmund Freud’s granddaughter-in-law June. To be clear, Lewis knew her then as June […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:30AM (EST). ⊕  The Lion, the Psychoanalyst, […]

Clint Eastwood’s 1985 film “Pale Rider” is about a mysterious preacher who shows up, apparently, as the result of a little girl’s prayer. Like most cowboy movies, he’s there to drive the bad guys out who are bullying the local residents. But there’s a powerful scene that puts an honest twist on the twenty-third Psalm […]

Have you ever done an autopsy on the positive change you’ve experienced in life? What did it look like? What caused it? What kept it going? It’s probably worth thinking about, isn’t it? In our low moments, we are aware of both our brokenness and despair. It’s can be easy to think we will find […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  A Rant for the […]

Death follows hard after breathing beings. He ain’t stopping ’til he freeze your feelings. Or seize your nerves and leave you reeling. Listen. This is no joke, you’ve been told before. It’s too late, when he’s knocking at your door. But the Devil’s surprise, Can’t believe his eyes, The hinges whine, He discovers his prize. […]

Last week I felt compelled to say something I’ve felt, and thought about, for quite a while now. I posted it on Facebook and it was liked, shared, and commented on — all the things — a bunch of times. Serving in leadership in seminaries and churches in North America has been a rich blessing, […]

I sometimes break the law. I’m not trying to brag. It’s not the general law I break, it’s a couple very specific ones. And I’m not talking about the speed limit either. My insurance agent reads my blog, so we won’t talk about that. I love going the speed limit! That’s all you need to […]

I’ve been encouraged to post my recent series “Making Your Way in the World Today” as an Advent reflection. While that wasn’t my original intent in writing those posts, it makes good sense to me. And when you have multiple people encourage the same thing, you should listen. I’m also including an audio file of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Making Our Way in the […]

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13) According to Bob Marley, we can “overcome the devils with a thing called love.” He’s not wrong. Whatever those devils are to which Marley is referring, whatever the devils are you’re dealing with today, I bet […]

Bob hates Hope. Bob is the name I’ve given to that negative voice inside my head that tells me lies. Maybe you don’t have a Bob. I do. You can call it insecurity, shame, or even past trauma. I call it Bob. And he really hates Hope. If Hope were another voice inside, it’s the […]

My favorite definition of faith comes from the late pastor R.C. Sproul who described the virtue as “well-reasoned trust.” I like that because it tethers our beliefs to reason. Only a fool believes that for which he has no reasons at all. But faith also transcends reason. You likely put your faith in people who […]

“Nothing is more powerful than beauty in a wicked world,” sings artist Amos Lee. He’s not wrong. The theologian in me wants to nuance the notion of a wicked world, because I think this place is more of a mixed bag than that. But I still think Amos is on to something. Our world is […]

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of leaders on Zoom and I was asked to share a Scripture passage to open our time. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve written a few posts that are connected under the theme of navigating sorrow during the most wonderful time of the year. […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  McThoughts ⊕  Tear Stained Joy ⊕  Surprised […]

I came down with a nasty head cold a couple weeks ago while speaking at a conference in Detroit. If you have never given a talk in front of hundreds of people while you’re on cold meds, you really don’t know what you’re missing. While it might sound fun, I can promise you it’s snot. […]

Dear Reader, It’s taken me a long time to learn that joy and sorrow aren’t mutually exclusive. The truth is, we never know either fully. I’m sure we couldn’t handle it if we did, either way. We can’t, in this world, know one without the other. Life is a mixture of both, and to hope […]

I work at McDonalds a lot. Well, to be clear, they don’t pay me. I mostly get coffee and use their WIFI. I have to say that, because I’d feel a little gross if I thought people envisioned me eating a steady diet of fries and Big Macs. But sometimes I wonder if it’s all […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕ Rethinking the Kind of […]

One of the current joys of my life is serving alongside a dear friend, Rob Rosenbalm, in the teaching ministry of Fairfield West Baptist Church in Fairfield, Ohio. I help with the planning for the sermon series and speak there about once a month. It really is a highlight for me each month. Rob is […]

Do you ever wonder how your life might have been different? I sometimes do. For example, I sometimes wonder what life might have been like if I had pursued the creative interests of my youth. It was the summer of 1994. I was seventeen. I had been a Christian for less than two years. My […]

What is the kind of person God uses? Are they tall, short, skinny, not-skinny, female, male, Asian, Caucasian, African American, Latino, Italiano, are they southern, northern, educated, non-educated, blue collar, white collar, no collar? While we all will say God can use anybody, I think we typically have a mental picture of the sort of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Is God Moody? ⊕  […]

Have you ever seen someone so moved by emotion that you could tell their brain had kind of checked out? Maybe you’ve been there yourself. Sadly, I know I have. Whether it’s the result of anger, frustration, confusion, or despair, there’s a certain look in a person’s eyes when they’re operating on pure emotion. God […]

Earlier in the week, I decided to move a fallen tree on my own and it decided to fight back. The result has been a pulled muscle in my lower back and a few days of lying around. Last night my daughter joined in my get-feeling-better-movie-marathon and we watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  The Icy Moon of Methuselah […]

In Colossians, the Apostle Paul explains to his readers how to stand firm in their faith in the midst of plausible arguments that are contrary truth. He doesn’t recommend an apologetics conference, a popular podcast, or a best-selling Christian book. He admonishes these young believers to root themselves deeply in a gospel-centered faith community that’s […]

Luke said it was an angel. Joe, the first century Jewish historian also known as Josephus, calls it an owl. The king who met an unfortunate demise called it a messenger. If you ask me, they were all talking about the same thing. Acts 12 is an interesting chapter that begins with the martyrdom of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Voltaire and the Bible […]

Recently I was driving through another state for a speaking engagement when I noticed a road sign with a rather smart message. “Littering is unlAwful!” is stated. The “unl” of unlawful was really small so that the message really read “Littering is Awful.” This state regulated sign is doing more than communicating a law. It’s […]

The Joshua tree is an iconic symbol of life in the Mojave Desert. It’s a tree straight out of a Dr. Suess story or ripped from a Vincent van Gogh painting. With its porcupine-like bark, spiky leaves, and topsy-turvy-arm-like branches, it looks like a clumsy giant towering over the barren, brown, sun-drenched landscape. For me, […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Are We Happier Now ⊕  God […]

In a recent post for The Times, journalist Rod Liddle laments the loss of Christianity. It’s not because he’s a Christian, when it comes to belief in God, he agrees with the liberal bishop he once interviewed who, when asked about God’s existence, responded, “How the bloody hell would I know . . .” But […]

“Hangin’ in there, just barely. Throwin’ up prayers, like Hail Mary’s. If You’re still there, Lord, spare me,” sings Jason DeFord (known as Jelly Roll). The artist stands out for his ability to transcend genres, categorized as a rapper but also celebrated on the country music charts. I appreciate the honesty of his lyrics and the resonance […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  KB, Flame, and You ⊕  Prison […]

  He was totally right. Adam, that is. He’s a fellow church member who told me I’d love my time in prison. He should know. He’s spent plenty of time there himself. Adam served for several years with an organization that offered classes in Ohio prisons. When I told him I had been invited to […]

I’m thrilled to have KB and Flame joining us at SBU for our fall worldview conference. Spend the day with us on October 20th for a preview day of the university, worldview seminars, and evening concert by two godly guys who are using their gifts to bless the Church and impact the culture. You can […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Goodbye, Summer. Adios, Students. ⊕  Religion, […]

A recent article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal highlights the work of epidemiologist Tyler VanderWeele, who serves as Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. He’s published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and multiple books. Though the evidence for the […]

I only recently learned the literal meaning of the expression “adios.” I had always assumed it meant goodbye or see you later. I wasn’t entirely off. But a friend who has recently moved back to the States from Colombia explained, it means “Go with God.” It’s a benediction of sorts. In our small town, the […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Five Ways to Get […]

I had a blast chatting with Rush Witt from New Growth for the first season of their podcast Straight to the Heart. We talked about truth, beauty, and goodness. We also hit the topics of C.S. Lewis, imagery and belief, and why in the world caffeine is so important to my life. You can check […]

There are about a million ways to get God wrong, and the path to getting him right is extremely narrow. That makes theology—the way we organize our thoughts about God—important, urgent, and even dangerous. If we get God wrong, we will never understand our place and purpose in this world, let alone in the world […]

There are about a million ways to get God wrong. As the rap artist Andy Mineo once said, “God made you in his image and he didn’t ask you to return the favor.” It can be hard to just let God be God. And what does that even mean, after all? The twentieth century pastor […]

I am thrilled that “C.S. Lewis: The Writer Who Found Joy” comes out next month — July 11 to be exact. For those who aren’t Amazon members, July 11 & 12 they have free shipping! I’ll share more about the writing process in a post next week, but for now, here’s what a couple other […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Survey the Screwtape Letters […]

The first season of the Mere Caffeination podcast is now in the books, in which we survey the Screwtape Letters and interview some amazing guests. Sam Allberry kicked off the first episode. The season included interviews with Christian author Trillia Newbell, and Ameen Hudson, cohost of the Southside Rabbi podcast. In the final episode, we’re […]

In a recent piece at the Big Think website, Peter Cave, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, author of How to Think Like a Philosopher, encourages readers to ditch all their beliefs and start over. This highlights the moral dilemma of belief, which can be framed by the question of whether or not it […]

Last week, I took my sons on a camping trip for fathers and sons put on by our church’s student ministry. We hiked. We perspired. We stunk. We ate food cooked over an open fire. It was a manly endeavor. After breakfast the next morning, a leader shared some encouragements from the book of Ecclesiastes […]

Several years ago I heard a speaker compare a Christian’s personal witness with concentric circles. Their testimony is the first circle in their personal apologetics. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, there will be additional circles expanding outwards. While a person’s account of the hope within them is where their apologetic begins, it should […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  The Evil That Haunts […]

The Wall Street Journal recently commemorated the 50 year anniversary of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment  in Literary Investigation, calling it “arguably the 20th century’s greatest piece of nonfiction prose.” Solzhenitsyn wrote it from over hundreds of interviews of fellow prisoners. He dedicated the work to those who didn’t live to tell their […]

It is true that we are far too stingy when it comes to doling out grace to others and far too generous in serving ourselves. That’s because our faults are understandable. Indeed, we understand them well. It’s the faults of others that are truly incomprehensible. And we would straighten them out were they not so […]

What would you say if you could preach just one sermon? This is the topic of a collection of works published in 1929 as If I Could Preach Just Once. The contributors are diverse, ranging from atheists to apologists. And the sermons are as variegated as their authors. The prolific atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell provides […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Idol Thoughts on Investing […]

The Apostle Paul tells us we’re all going to worship one of two things. We will either worship the Creator, or we will worship the creation (See Romans 1). It’s pretty simple. We will either allow the world to point us beyond itself to its source, as King David does in Psalm 19, or we […]

There have only been a few new shows April and I have really enjoyed throughout our marriage. For the most part we stick with the classics from the Dick Van Dyke Show, to I Love Lucy, Wonder Years, or West Wing. But having seen those programs a million times, as great as they are, I […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  C.S. Lewis on Mixing Faith […]

Lewis knew a thing or two about love for God and country. He served in the first World War. He was an atheist then too, but that doesn’t mean he changed his view of service, or, even warfare after he become a Christian. As a Chrisitan, he once gave a talk to a pacifist group […]

Ameen Hudson is a writer and speaker who focuses on the intersection of theology, art, and culture. He’s also the co-host of the Southside Rabbi podcast that he does with rap artist KB. He and his wife are members of Living Faith Bible Fellowship in Tampa, Florida. He joined me for episodes five and six […]

The Wall Street Journal recently carried the story “Our Many Jesuses” by journalist Francis X. Rocca. The piece discusses the diverse projections of Jesus in culture, almost implying an inability to get back to the real Jesus as recorded by the gospels. The article reminded me of the late eighties song by Depeche Mode — […]

The days are what they are. Some are good, some are bad, most are remarkably forgettable. All of them are flying by. Understanding this can help us form realistic expectations, and keep us from giving in when we feel stuck in a rut. But if we, whose lives span precious few decades, grasp this reality, […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Devil’s Work ⊕  An Analysis […]

Joyner Lucas is a gifted lyricist and rapper. Like most memorable songwriters, his music mixes autobiography, story, and cultural commentary. He was nominated for a Grammy for his 2018 song “I’m Not Racist,” originally released on his YouTube channel and quickly going viral. Shortly after, Joyner collaborated on a song for Eminem’s tenth album. His […]

Years ago I visited with a popular writer and speaker whom I knew from his regular appearances at large youth ministry conferences. “We teach our kids to pray to the Mommy/Daddy God,” he told me. “We don’t want them to think of God with a gender,” he explained. I was reminded of that conversation earlier […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Should We Pray to God […]

I had the opportunity to talk to Christianity Today about the new research out by the Pew Research Center. Their survey shows perceptions of evangelicals are really high among a particular demographic: evangelicals. The rest of the population see us far less favorably. One exception is atheists, whose opinion of evangelical Christians has increased slightly. […]

In her recent article, Americans Warm Up to Every Religious Group Except Evangelicals, Kate Shellnutt reports on the Pew Study that shows a continued negative opinion of Evangelicals in North America among the general population. A surprising change is that atheists have warmed a couple degrees in their opinion of Christians. Shellnutt writes: Evangelicals received […]

My son Josiah loves Kane Brown’s music. Like with my other kids, I try to listen to music by artists they like and talk about it. I spent my teen years in a church where any form of “secular” music was discouraged (though that was never enforced in our home). I attended a Bible college […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Lewis’s Abolition of Man Offers […]

I was interviewed by The Pathway about C.S. Lewis’s influential work The Abolition of Man. This February marked the 80 year anniversary from when Lewis first published what was originally an academic lecture series. Lewis packed his arguments from The Abolition of Man into his third science fiction book That Hideous Strength. If you’re more […]

I had an atheist friend ask me how I could live with the narrow claims of Christianity. “How do you feel about being so narrow minded?” he asked me. I was a bit amused by the irony of his question. So, I responded to my friend: I am a Christian. Christianity is still the world’s […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  How Dear Evan Hansen Reminds […]

In the Broadway play “Dear Evan Hansen,” there’s a powerful scene at the end of the story that illustrate a deep human need. Evan, the main character, is an angsty teenager whose therapist gave him the assignment of writing a letter to himself outlining all his best features. When this letter, filled with praise, written […]

Several years ago I attended a conference to hear a talk from an artist I admire. His name is Makoto Fujimura. He had just illustrated a commemorative edition of the New Testament. His impressionistic art is placed throughout the gospels. I was able to get a signed copy of an oversized edition at the event, […]

We have meaning below because there is a God above. If there were no god above, we would have no meaning below. Trust me, this isn’t just some “Sunday School” idea. Even celebrity atheists will admit as much. The famed skeptic Richard Dawkins concedes that in a world without God there is no purpose, meaning, […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  CS Lewis’s Toxic Christian […]

Thomas Jefferson died on the fifty year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document for which he was the principle author. Many also remember him for his editing work of another document: the Bible. He ripped out all the passages from the gospels with supernatural claims leaving behind only the life […]

C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters tell us a lot about Heaven from a hellish point of view. With Valentine’s Day coming up I thought it might be fun to feature some of Lewis’s diabolical thoughts about love and family from “Letter 22,” in which Screwtape, a senior demon, berates his understudy. Hell is outraged at the […]

It always ends the same way. Either they kill us, or we kill them. All our hypotheticals about a future with AIs end in apocalypse. Terminator. iRobot. M3gan. Wally. They’re all the same. Only one of us makes it out alive. Okay, so my movie examples have exceptions. In a lot of these stories there’s […]

Was evil C.S. Lewis’s favorite apologetic? It was evil that led him into atheism, and, ironically, what led him out. How did a nun save Lewis’s demons? We talk about all that in this episode as we’re joined by the wonderful and ever cheerful Trillia Newbell. We’ve packed all that into this coffee-infused third episode […]

Santa is watching, the song tells us. So, you better be good for goodness sake. The favored children’s Christmas song sends a mixed message, doesn’t it? Which is it? Should we be good because Santa is watching or should we be good for goodness sake? Last night while traveling to St. Louis, MO, I had […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Be Good for Goodness Sake […]

The House of Christmas by G.K. Chesterton There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home. The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand Than the square stones […]

I love all the Christmassy stuff. The smell of indoor pine trees. The colors. The movies. The music. You can say I’ve got a soft spot for the season. Beyond all the fun stuff normal people enjoy about the best time of the year — and, trust me, when it comes this kind of stuff, […]

“If there were less good will,” C. S. Lewis often said in December correspondence, “then we might have more peace on earth.” Lewis found no pleasure in the giving of generic winter cards, gift guilting, and the overall hurried pace of the Christmas season. Lewis went from saying “I hope I am not a Scrooge” […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Preparing for the Blues […]

If you were of a PG-13 age in 2009—you likely saw first hand, or at least heard of—the hullabaloo surrounding the release of the movie Avatar. It was a cinematic sight to behold. It captured the imagination of the cultural moment. Everybody was talking about it. But the buzz took a turn for the worse […]

Over Thanksgiving break I tricked my family into watching a movie I hoped to skip. Maybe it was kind of a jerk thing to do. My nephew and his fiancé wanted to see Wakanda Forever. I wanted to see Devotion. For the record, I’ve already seen the Black Panther sequel and I loved it. But […]

Not long ago, I wrote a post about how a passionate speech by Hitler and boring Sunday sermon inspired C.S. Lewis’s demons. In writing the manuscript for the first episode for my podcast Mere Caffeination, I threw in a comment I hadn’t thought much about before. I compared C.S. Lewis’s diabolical Screwtape Letters to the […]

C.S. Lewis dedicated the Screwtape Letters to his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien, beloved author of the Middle Earth stories. But did Tolkien even like the Screwtape Letters? Unrelated, what was the cave where Tolkien and Lewis’s spent so much time together? Were these two authors into spelunking? And why didn’t Tolkien’s wife let him hang […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕ Theolatte Live ⊕  The Apologetics of […]

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold,” Tolkien wrote in the Hobbit, “it would be a merrier world.” You might not think of these simple pleasures of food and cheer as an evidence of God. But in Acts 14, the Apostle Paul uses them as an argument for God’s […]

Don’t be fooled. You can deny anything you want. That, of course, doesn’t change reality. Reality doesn’t care what you accept or deny. You can deny gravity, but you’re still going to hit the ground if you jump from a high point. All of this to say, my title of three “undeniable” facts requires some […]

Theolatte Live is a weekly streaming program on Friday mornings featuring caffeinated conversations about the convergence of theology and philosophy. The program consists of (1) a Psalm for the day, (2) an introduction to an old book out of my personal library, a (3) a highlight from R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Mere Caffeination: Episode One ⊕  Atheism […]

Nothing comes off more presumptuous than telling someone they don’t really believe what they claim they do. There was probably a time I would rush in with an atheist friend to tell them they really believe in God. I never found that to be an effective strategy at nurturing meaningful conversations, if I’m being honest. […]

G.K. CHESTERTON once said, “the tendency of recent culture has been to tolerate the smile but discourage the laugh.” It’s not that G.K.C didn’t like smiling, he simply didn’t prefer it over laughter. Here’s why. In his essay “Laughter,” Chesterton outlines three reasons why a laugh is better than a smile: 1. The smile can […]

It’s now live! After a whole lot of effort figuring out how a computer works with an external microphone, which evidently is more difficult than I realized, and tinkering around with audio production, the first episode of Mere Caffeination is now online wherever podcasts are found and streamed. Mere Caffeination is an Inklings-inspired podcasts about […]

Theolatte Live is a weekly streaming program on Friday mornings featuring caffeinated conversations about the convergence of theology and philosophy. The program consists of (1) a Psalm for the day, (2) an introduction to an old book out of my personal library, a (3) a highlight from R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  How Hitler and a Boring […]

It was a hot dry summer in 1940 in Oxford, England. That ended in July when the heavens opened up with deluge rainfalls. It must have been a wet Saturday evening when C.S. Lewis, the man who would take to speaking over the radio in the very near future, turned on his own radio on […]

This morning started with the kind of cold rain that tends to wash away the colors of Autumn. Winter seems to be slipping in earlier this year. I started my car to get it warmed up around 5:30AM. It’s my twins sweet-sixteenth, so I planned to take them to Cracker Barrel for some birthday pancakes. […]

In a recent visit to a bookstore one of my kids found a small hardback, filled with short, funny descriptions of several well-known stories. We all began laughing aloud when we discovered the spread in the book with a two-sentence summary of Narnia: “A lion eats a witch in a wardrobe. Some kids watch.” To […]

Theolatte Live is a weekly streaming program on Friday mornings featuring caffeinated conversations about the convergence of theology and philosophy. The program consists of (1) a Psalm for the day, (2) an introduction to an old book out of my personal library, a (3) a highlight from R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Theolatte Live ⊕  Don’t Talk […]

Theolatte Live is a weekly streaming program on Friday mornings featuring caffeinated conversations about the convergence of theology and philosophy. The program consists of (1) a Psalm for the day, (2) an introduction to an old book out of my personal library, a (3) a highlight from R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding […]

Imagine buying a pair of sunglasses on a summer vacation to the beach, but never wearing them. You find the perfect pair. You try them on to make sure they’re a good fit. You like the style. Then you set them on the edge of your bleach blanket and admire them as you listen to […]

I’ve heard it said that true friends don’t stab you in the back, they stab you in the chest. While this is turning out to be a rather violent sounding post, it’s not really meant to be. The point is true and sincere care results, not in gossip and slander, but in compassionate confrontation. That’s […]

Theolatte Live is a weekly streaming program on Friday mornings featuring caffeinated conversations about the convergence of theology and philosophy. The program consists of (1) a Psalm for the day, (2) an introduction to an old book out of my personal library, a (3) a highlight from R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Brewing Something New ⊕  Why C.S. […]

Everybody believes. So says the recent article “All Humans are Believers” at Big Think by Marcelo Gleiser, which describes belief as a universal human quality. He writes: The nature of that belief varies a lot these days, when secularism is so prominent. Belief is not just faith in a supernatural god or deity, or in […]

Many first came to meet C.S. Lewis through a magical wardrobe. They may have been surprised to discover there was something autobiographical about that fictional professor who welcomed children fleeing from London to Oxford during Hitler’s relentless bombing of England’s capital city. If it seems a bit odd for the real life Oxford University professor […]

In my new role as a Senior Fellow at Southwest Baptist University, I’m finding creative ways to connect with students while away from campus. I fly to Missouri once a month to speak in chapel, participate in several meetings, and host an evening seminar for the Center for Worldview and Culture. But I wanted to […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Once Upon a September ⊕  A […]

On a Sunday in September, over ninety-years ago, C.S. Lewis took a walk that forever changed his life. He was enjoying the fellowship of his friends J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. Their conversation turned to myth and reality. The wind picked up. Lewis tuned in. His restless atheism was giving way to belief in God. […]

Some country songs get it more right than others. In this case, it couldn’t get it more wrong. But I do understand the sentiment. “I’m only one drink away from the devil,” the lead singer of the band Jelly Roll sings, “I’m only one call away from home. Yeah, I’m somewhere in the middle. I […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  A Good Word for […]

George Bernard Shaw was a public intellectual who opposed Christianity yet was close friends with Christians of his day like G.K. Chesterton. He was the kind of atheist I think I’d like to be friends with, the kind you could really talk about things without it becoming a mere exchange of sound bytes and superficial […]

The second light in our little town tells the whole story. “Summer is over,” it reminds us when it turns from a flashing yellow light to its academic pattern that includes green and red. It’s the middle light in our town bordered on the one side by the local public school and on the other […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Narrative Universes and Pop […]

Some articles get you with the title. This one got me with the picture (above). The recent piece in the Wall Street Journal seems custom made for Theolatte, “The Power of Our New Pop Myths.” It chronicles the force of story through the centuries surveying those deep human questions beneath the surface of our favorite […]

You may have seen the new campaign featured recently by Christianity Today called “He Gets Us.” It’s a movement to reach those on the outs with organized religion. If you haven’t noticed, that’s a rapidly growing number here in America, what researchers call the “nones,” those with no religious affiliation. The campaign sets the sacrificial […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Debunking Christianity ⊕  Not Caring is […]

Is Christian belief mere wishful thinking? Is the faith of the New Testament based on blind allegiance to an irrational worldview? Must we — as followers of Jesus — turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to evidence and reasoned arguments? In his recent article “Biblical Theism and the Demise of Modern Christianity” skeptic Richard […]

When asked if he could preach only one sermon in life, G.K. Chesterton responded it would be one against pride. Pride is perhaps the most acceptable sin in church life today. When was the last time you saw an issue of church discipline related to arrogance? When was the last time you heard a sermon […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Don’t Be Tone Deaf […]

Our small group at church has been meeting outside in the morning shade of some large pine trees by the church parking lot on Sunday mornings. It’s been really nice for an informal time to share about life. On Sundays we’ve been in town this summer, we’ve really enjoyed it. A couple weeks ago someone […]

Dorothy Sayers’ prophetic speech “Creed or Chaos” offers a timely reminder. Sayers gave her to talk to a group in England, warning them of Hitler’s campaign and how it might, and ultimately and tragically did, affect them all. Surprisingly, Sayers didn’t focus on the wrongness of what Hitler was doing, but the rightness of it […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Some Big Thoughts on Twenty […]

I posted on social media a few years ago the following statement, “At school students study economics and trigonometry, but at church we’re like, ‘God told Noah there’s gonna be a floody, floody.” It was shared pretty widely and generated some interesting comments. My point wasn’t to bash local church student ministry, but to highlight […]

What would it look like if humility and grace sat down for a chat? Author Jason Gay gives life to a fictional conversation between the two virtues. It’s a short read in this previous weekend’s Wall Street Journal that’s worth your time. “It’s been a tough bunch of years,” Humility says. Grace responds, “Not a […]

My family and I absolutely love the students of Cedarville University. That’s what makes an announcement like this bittersweet. We’ve loved our time serving students at Cedarville over the last six years. Truth is, they’ve really ministered to us as much if not more than we have to them. After a lot of thought and […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Let Nature Do It’s […]

There’s nothing I enjoy more than getting my kayak into a stream before the sun comes up. It’s all therapy for me, the steam lofting off the water retaining the heat from the prior summer day and the birds welcoming the rising sun with their songs. It all baptizes my thoughts in gratitude. It make […]

Fire up the grill, don the swimsuit, get ready to vacay, but don’t waste your summer. The warm weather and renewed opportunities to grill meat always make me think of Fresh Prince and D.J. Jazzy Jeff’s classic song “Summertime.” June and July offer us a lot of chances to relax and reconnect. Just don’t waste […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  C.S. Lewis Led Us […]

C.S. Lewis has led generations through the wardrobe and into the magical land of talking Fauns, lampposts, and the benevolent lion. But Lewis led just as many—likely more—into a far more powerful place, a hallway. Yet Lewis made it clear, he didn’t desire for any of us to stay there. Before I give more details […]

What is the role of reason in the life of faith? Should a believer simply walk by faith and defy all rational concerns? Should Christians ever offer a coherent and compelling explanation for what they believe? How might we balance all the ways reason can both go right and wrong in the domain of spirituality? […]

This last Sunday I had the honor and joy of baptizing my son Josiah. He has been asking a lot of really insightful questions about faith for quite some time. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when I overheard he and my wife’s conversation a couple months ago after dinner. I could tell they were talking […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  If You Can’t Silence that […]

  Spring is in the air. There’s a pep in our proverbial step. But what if there’s not? What if the changing season, as full as it might seem on the outside, feels empty on the inside? We don’t need any reminders the world is tough. Anxiety, depression, grief, loss, separation, loneliness, disappointment, guilt, shame, […]

Over the weekend several Christian leaders decried the news of a church in Canada that hosted the euthanasia ceremony of one of its members, described as a “cross-over” service. It will be interesting to watch as Christian leaders seek to navigate issues related to MAiD (Medical Assistance in Death). Where might the line be drawn […]

Standing in the garden, tears streaming down her face, I imagine Eve let out a breathless scream when the Creator confronted their rebellion. Our ancestors were created in this glorious garden. And yet, for us, as it became for Adam and Eve on that fateful day of the fall, Eden is a million miles away. […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  An Easter Reflection on the […]

At the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, a large conference held in Australia in 2015, an audience member asked the question, “What is the most dangerous idea?” The panel gave diverse responses beginning with the first speaker suggesting population control. Other responses were less controversial, save for journalist Peter Hitchens who believes the resurrection of Jesus […]

Christians believe Jesus literally rose from the dead as a real event. They believe his crucified body began breathing air in that tomb two thousand years ago. Orthodox Christianity does not promote a spiritual resurrection where only some immaterial aspect of Jesus persisted after death. The interesting thing, what many might be surprised to learn, […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Jordan Peterson and Jesus […]

In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, the public intellectual and celebrity Jordan Peterson described an Old Testament story he believes points to Jesus. “This is weird. This is one of those impossibly weird stories . . . This is either insane or it’s true.” The Peterson family has faced a number of trials over […]

There’s an unbreakable link between the Christian belief in Easter and the Bible. “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,” the oldest creed states, “That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15). These are the words that were on the lips of […]

Sometimes the title of an article tells a story of its own. This last weekend the Wall Street Journal carried a story —  “An Aversion to Reality” —  a review of Fintan O’Toole’s book We Don’t Know Ourselves, part memoir and part cultural analysis. “Ireland could not bear too much reality,” O’Toole is quoted as […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Jesus is the Question ⊕  On […]

Jesus was an amazing story teller. He could turn something as simple as a fig tree into an pointed parable with layers of complexity, offering healing to some and rebuke to others. But none of his stories hit me with more force than the tale of two brothers in Luke’s gospel. The fifteenth chapter of […]

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  There’s No Faith Crisis on […]

There’s no faith crisis brewing on the college campus, at least not the type depicted movies like “God’s Not Dead,” argues Ryan Burge in the Wall Street Journal. The notion that education is correlated with a loss of faith is false, Burge demonstrates. He uses twelve years of research from Harvard University to make his […]

The Atlantic recently carried as story about a speech by the son of the most recent U.S. President “We’ve turned the other cheek,” Donlad Trump Jr. said, “and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference—I understand the mentality—but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution […]

The website “The Big Think” offers ideas about the everything. I call them ideas because, though they are offered alongside of scientific insights, they are interpretations of the way a person see the world. That’s what we might call a worldview. We must be cautious here not to assume we will ever encounter unbiased ideas. […]

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to learn a simple phrase that I think is helpful in apologetics. I recently noticed that I was beginning my responses during a Q&A time with expressions like “What makes sense to me” or “What I’ve found compelling is . . .” or “The way […]

The following video is a panel discusssion I moderated with three Christian artists on the topic of Christian faith and creativity. FLAME is a Grammy-nominated Christian hip hop artist. Sarah Sparks is a singer/songwriter from Hawaii. Andrew Peterson is an internationally known author and singer/songwriter. 

Here’s Your Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST). ⊕  Untroubled (a message on John […]

C.S. Lewis believed pastoral candidates should be required to translate a theological work into contemporary language before they could be ordained. Imagine how fewer ordained ministers there would be if this were enforced! “Until theology has been interpreted to ordinary people,” Roger Lloyd once wrote, “only half its work is done.” Translating theology requires a […]

The following video is from our recent conference on the witness of the Christian imagination. I was profoundly grateful for all who invested in the day from our staff members who helped run logistics, our faculty members who led breakout sessions, and our special guests Sarah Sparks, FLAME, and Andrew Peterson. The following video is […]

The following is a message I shared at Cedarville University. It’s a part of the series through the Gospel of John that several faculty members have participated in. I work through John 14 with an emphasis on a repeated theme in the chapter, Jesus’s words to his disciples for their hearts not to be troubled. […]

When I was a kid, people called me Danny. When I got to college I took the opportunity to upgrade to Dan. But for a long time now I’ve deep down wanted to go by my full name, Daniel. Several weeks ago I decided to make it public. I posted this on Twitter: For a […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Fight […]

The musician James Taylor once described a feeling like the clenching of a fist. Those words communicate because we immediately understand the sensation Taylor is describing. It comes from a place in us, deep down, when we sense injustice. I had the opportunity to do a media interview earlier today to discuss YouTube censorship. California […]

King Solomon once said there is more wisdom to be found at a funeral than a party. That seems to be playing out before our very eyes with an increase in religious themes in funeral services. According to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) of the United States, the number of those who say “religion […]

How does a student’s faith commitment affect her performance in the classroom? That’s the question addressed by the new book God, Grades, and Graduation by Ilana M. Horwitz. Focusing largely on research by the National Study of Youth and Religion by the University of Notre Dame, Horwitz describes the sort of student to succeed in […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  The […]

The year was 1965. Martin Luther was scheduled to speak at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the school his wife Coretta Scott King had attended. There was a plot to assassinate him while in town to speak at the event. It was called off due to a KKK rally in another Ohio town about […]

Last week Pope Francis addressed the governing body of the Catholic Church, called the Holy See. He spoke on a number of topics including immigration, global warming, the COVID pandemic, and concerns regarding cancel culture. His address sparked conversation across the news networks with some calling into question the relevance of the Catholic position. In […]

This weekend I made a sketch to illustrate one of my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes. King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” This powerful message reverberates the words of Jesus to love our enemies. If we applied this […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Between […]

On one occasion, G.K. Chesterton debated his atheist friend George Bernard Shaw. Chesterton’s paper, fittingly named G.K.’s Weekly, worked on a story covering the debate. To fit the allotted space, they needed to significantly edit comments from Shaw. Chesterton walked into the room and remarked, “And whose words are you so gaily murdering?” When he […]

Human values require faith. G.K. Chesterton described this sort of faith as “the superstitions of the sceptic.” Even those who deny God’s existence still retain certain moral intuitions about things—Chesterton cited wearing clothes in public as one example—such values aren’t grounded in a scientific or materialistic point of view. Chesterton quipped that the morality of […]

The fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel reads like a Q&A time at a Christian conference. John records Jesus responding to perennial questions offered by three seemingly insignificant disciples. Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot), all make cameos in the chapter. Each disciple has a burning question. Thomas asks “how can we know the way” (John […]

This last year we bought our youngest son and daughter hamsters for Christmas. They were thrilled. They had both been asking for rodents for months. Their dreams came true on Christmas morning when we brought the two hamsters, each in their own cages, out from our bedroom where we had been hiding them for days. […]

One of our family’s favorite animated Christmas movies is Arthur Christmas. It tells the funny tale of an inter-generational Santa Claus show down. There’s a great scene that illustrates the gospel. See if you can spot it in the clip below. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Was […]

Charles Dickens is an author who needs no introduction. Those who may not know him well likely still know of his more popular works, particularly A Christmas Carol. Even my children know him indirectly through the Disney character Scrooge McDuck. And something even those more familiar with Dickens might not realize is that he penned […]

“If there were less good will,” C. S. Lewis often said in December correspondence, “then we might have more peace on earth.” Lewis found no pleasure in the giving of generic winter cards, gift guilting, and the overall hurried pace of the Christmas season. Lewis went from saying “I hope I am not a Scrooge” […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Hanukkah […]

You’ve probably heard it said of someone acting like a Grinch or Scrooge that they don’t have a soul. There are few harsher criticisms. To not have a soul is to be something less than human. It used to be much more common for persons to be referred to as souls, like in tragic accidents […]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do an interview with a local Fox News station on the topic of Hanukkah. To be honest, I had to brush up on the history a bit. To exacerbate my lack of expertise on Jewish customs, my interviewer, a very nice young man, was, himself, Jewish. He was kind. […]

Thanksgiving is a blockbuster holiday. Producers aim to release around or on this important day of feasting. One of the highlights of this year’s installment was the reboot of Ghostbusters. As a bona fide child of the eighties, I couldn’t wait. I took my boys to a matinee this last weekend. It didn’t disappoint, as […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Church […]

“Does modern cosmology prove the existence of God?” is the title of an article on the website “The Big Think.” To answer this question, the author, Ethan Siegel, who holds a a PhD in theoretical astrophysics, challenges the premise that the universe had a beginning. If this cannot be established, then it doesn’t follow that […]

I’ve heard it multiple times now, “You know, once you start streaming worship services it just makes it easier to keep streaming them.” I get it. It’s far easier to do worship in your pajamas on a Sunday morning. It can be a massive job some Sundays to get all six people from our home […]

In the New Testament, Peter tells us to always be ready to answer questions. Paul, on the other hand, encourages us to inspire questions by our well worded responses. Both skill sets are important: providing good answers and eliciting good questions. Look at the differences in these two biblical commands: But in your hearts honor […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  The […]

I can’t think of a time when I felt underdressed at a movie theater. Nor do I remember the last time I teared up at the cinema. Yesterday I attended the opening night of the new C.S. Lewis movie. At first it felt like I was in a Wednesday evening church business meeting. By the […]

The following post is an old newspaper review of G.K. Chesterton from the “The Sun: Books and the Book World,” published on Sunday, August 11, 1913. I found it folded up in one of my old books and the aged paper is falling apart. I couldn’t find this article online, and, since I think it […]

I found this video helpful in considering how the current struggles over the role of politics in American Evangelicalism looks to a news source like CBS. It features a couple of my favorite people I know exclusively through Twitter, David French and Scott Sauls. It would be worth your time to watch, if for no […]

The following video is a conversation I had with the award-winning artist KB. This is our second seminar for the semester for the Center for Apologetics at Cedarville University. Enjoy! 

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Faith […]

Steven Pinker, Harvard University cognitive psychology professor and best selling author, beats a familiar drum in his most recent book “Rationality: What Is It, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.” The book continues many themes from Pinker’s last book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.” I would not for a […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  The […]

Okay, so I’m really talking about Walt Disney, the creator of the mousy spokesperson for the well-known, overpriced, theme park. There’s a story going on in social media lore that Walt, whose body many believe was frozen, and perhaps even buried beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, will be thawed out, and presumably “resurrected,” […]

Have you ever wondered what Bible Jesus used? Was Jesus’s Bible, the Jewish Scriptures, different from the Old Testament we use today? If so, how? These are all questions I ask my students to think about in my theology class at Cedarville University. The short answer is, “Yes.” It was different. The longer answer is, […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  What […]

Someone said it well on social media that keeping up with the Marvel Universe went from feeling like a treat to feeling like homework. They are pumping out a tidal wave of stories. Will they run out? No chance. They are now even retelling old stories with a twist. The “What If?” series plays on […]

This last weekend the world remembered the heroes and the victims of September 11, 2001. It’s been twenty-years. It’s hard to believe. Like most things, it seems like it was yesterday. It seems like it was an eternity ago. It’s been a few years since I watched a documentary about that fateful day, so it […]

A lot of people find our trust in the Bible misplaced. What should we think? Here’s a summary list I recently gave my students after they watched a couple videos regarding whether we can have confidence in the gospel accounts of the New Testament. First, there’s a ton of literary evidence for the New Testament. […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  Fundamentalism […]

Not long ago I tweeted the following, “Both liberalism and fundamentalism are never satisfied. They will always demand more. It will never e enough. If you live for them, prepare to be unhappy.” The tweet had a relatively good shelf life, being liked and shared nearly a thousand times. For what social media impressions are […]

Why would an atheist be chosen as the new president of chaplains at Harvard University? The school was founded for the training of pastors after all. And even though the school took the mission of training leaders for the church out of their motto, though truncated, it still reads “Veritas,” Latin for truth. What’s going […]

There’s a small country church I’ve preached at a lot over the last few years since we’ve lived in Ohio. It all began when the pastor reached out to me to fill in because his wife was fighting cancer and they needed to travel for treatment. It turned into me preaching there about anytime my […]

Arguments over the relationship between faith and science are as old as Galileo. Though he didn’t invent the telescope, he’s the one who made it cool. He’s one of the first to use it systematically to study the universe, and his observations of the constellations caused consternation among believers and unbelievers alike. It turns out, […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  The […]

I remember a friend in high school who nearly drove into one of those giant-yellow-flashing-arrow signs that tell you your lane is about to end and you had better merge. She was a bit distracted. And this was in an age long ago when nobody, except for Hollywood millionaires, had a cellphone, and even those […]

  Here’s Your Weekend Worldview Reader with links to articles, essays, reviews, & videos I consider to be interesting or important from a biblical worldview. Join me on the first & third Friday every month as I discuss topics from the post with Carmen LaBerge on My Faith Radio around 7:40AM (EST).     ⊕  The […]

How many Christians does it take to make a difference? You may have asked that before. Perhaps you’ve been the only Christian student who is serious about your faith on your sports team or at your school. Maybe you don’t know any other Christians at your workplace. Have you ever had real doubts about whether […]