How we think about suffering will radically affect how we see God and the world around us. If you believe God should always bless you and your loved ones with material abundance and good health, you are setting yourself up to lose your faith. 

Most readers have likely heard about individuals having a crisis of faith. We’ve learned terms such as “exvangelical” and “deconstruction.” We are sometimes familiar with entire churches, even denominations, who have lost their faith. But while it is not the first to do so, a poll released last week should serve as a dramatic wake up call to evangelical churches and their pastors.

I loved this post from author and pastor Ray Ortlund. It’s a great reminder that we need to examine ourselves and correct ourselves. We who are truth-oriented, or in Ray’s words, “all certainty,” when it comes to every area of theology, need to go out of our way to affirm grace and choose humility. We who are grace-oriented, or as Ray says, “all openness,” need to go out of our way to affirm God’s revealed truth and anchor ourselves to it.

I think Charles Spurgeon comes as close as anyone I’ve read to articulating what Scripture as a whole reveals. Sadly, though I attended both a good Bible college and a good seminary, I never read Spurgeon or learned anything about him. I’d been a pastor for ten years before I discovered him, and then I couldn’t get enough of him.

I am not a Star Wars naysayer, and it might seem self-evident that “these movies aren’t based on reality.” But I’ve found that while almost no one ends up believing that the particular aliens onscreen really exist, matters of worldview are much more subtly conveyed. So I encourage parents to talk with their children about this, since many of them don’t yet have the filters in place to screen out what’s false.

Theology, sadly, can also become an idol—as is everything that we put above God. Love theology, but be aware that if you care more about doctrine than about God, something is desperately wrong.

As a student of theology, writer, and occasional preacher, I loved reading Martin Luther talking about learning theology, and about the “little books” some of us write and the little sermons we preach. 

I love the redemptive message of Les Misérables, from book, to stage, to screen. It reminds me of the song “Amazing Grace,” because it is deeply loved even by those who don’t fully believe its message. 

For years I was asked to respond to The Shack, and though I didn’t do so publically, I did write an extensive review of it that I made available to a small number of people privately.