What about Family Planning?

The video in this blog, "How Should Christian Couples Approach Family Planning?" is part 5 of my interview with Mark Driscoll. (Watch all the interview videos.) You might like to check out my book I referenced in the video, Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?, which is also available for free as a PDF in its entirety.

In this blog I've included part of a conversation between two Christians who have different viewpoints on the issue of birth control, as well as a link to the complete article

What Bible version do you use?

I actually use a number of translations, including the English Standard Version (ESV). I also use the New International Version (NIV) and in the past I’ve used the New American Standard Version.

What do you think about "Christianese"?

Several weeks ago we asked blog readers to submit questions for me to answer. I’ll be posting the video answers to the questions as blogs over the course of the next few weeks. One of the questions asked was: What do you think about "Christianese"?

What Does a Cross Bearer Look Like?

A friend recently asked me, "What would be some of the characteristics of the life of a person who is bearing their cross? (Matthew 16) What does this cross-bearer look like?"

What does it mean to “love not the things of the world”?

1 John 2:15-16 reads, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh [the sin nature] and the desires of the eyes [which relates to the warped perspective we sometimes have] and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” 

What Happened to Hospitality?

I think some of it is a failure to understand the value of opening our homes to others. Beyond the service and the feeding of the meal, there’s something wonderful about the conversations that can come out of having people over.

What is your opinion of positive thinking?

Biblical thinking says, “I come to grips with the negatives in life, and not by denying them.” I don’t deny I have cancer if I have cancer. I don’t deny I have struggles in my marriage relationship if I do. I don’t deny that I’m really struggling in my walk with God. Positive thinking is not what I can grab onto that gets me through these difficult things.

What should I do to be successful in following Christ?

A. W. Tozer wrote "Every soul belongs to God, and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours."

Psalm 1 says this:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers [Paraphrase: Blessed is the man who does not so abide in his culture that the ways of his culture abide in him]

Who we WERE, who we ARE now in Christ

A blog reader posted a link to this video (thanks), which I found powerful. I think it’s worth every second of its 8 minutes. And it also may be a great idea for your church.

Wish You Could Do it Over Again?

My friend Todd Dubord passed on these insights from the book Celebrating Failure by Ralph Heath. I look back at the past year and see several things I would do differently, in relationship to my church, and other challenging things I faced. But the takeaway from this—whether we are marriage partners, parents, church leaders, parachurch workers, business people, or you name it—is that God keeps giving us opportunities to choose differently based on wisdom gained from our past, including the mistakes. But we need to take time to reflect in order to gain that wisdom.