How Do You Know You’ve Received the Holy Spirit–Not Necessarily Tongues How do you know if you’ve really received the Holy Spirit? Some in the more charismatic movement claim that the only way to know that you’ve actually truly received the Holy Spirit is if you speak in tongues (language that you do not know). […]
Category: Writings on Christianity
Idols in the Heart I like how Tim Keller describes idolatry as “turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.” Rather than bowing down to metal or wooden statues, we in the West usually commit idolatry when we take something good and make it into something that we can’t live without. This might happen with […]
How Reading the Bible Impacts My Life The Bible is where I hear God’s voice. God truly exists and He truly speaks to His creation. As Francis Schaeffer titled one of his books, ‘He is There and He is Not Silent.’ Reading the Bible allows me to hear from God and learn about who He […]
How To View the Bible: Part 1 (Theological Understanding) The Bible is God’s inspired revelation of Himself. This special revelation of God to the world is distinct from what we can learn about God through creation (general revelation). General revelation gives us enough information to know about God’s power, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and justice, as […]
My friend Dan has written a Bible study that helps us deal with lust and temptation. Here it is: Dealing with Lust and Temptation 1. Our first step is to desire holiness and purity in the area of sexual lust and temptation. If we don’t truly desire this, then we won’t experience true victory over […]
Here’s the theological influences and teachers who have had the biggest impact on me (after God and the Bible!): 1. Tim Keller (gospel centrality and preaching) 2. John Piper (reformed theology and Christian hedonism) 3. D.A. Carson (exegesis and biblical theology) 4. Mark Driscoll (reformed theology, cultural engagement, and ministry practice) 5. Joe Thorn/Martyn Lloyd […]
Church Plant Location: Naperville, IL. If you have been following our journey into church planting, you know that we have been wrestling with question of location. Where should we plant a church? Well, we have made a decision and believe that God is leading us to plant a church in Naperville, Illinois. Here’s why: Naperville […]
Some Thoughts on Predestination 1. The doctrine of predestination is the notion that God freely chooses particular individuals, before the world was created to come to faith in Christ. This is a decision that God makes based on His own free will, pleasure, and design and is not because of any foreseen future human actions […]
Why Pray If God Knows Everything? Some might ask the question, ‘If God is sovereign over everything and the only things that come to pass are those which are the result of His providence, why pray at all? What is the point of prayer when only what God has ordained will come to pass?’ It […]
Check out this funny and helpful satirical video, which shows how the analogies we use to try to explain the Trinity all fail:
