culture

Can God Redeem Our Crisis in Cultural Confidence?

Can God Redeem Our Crisis in Cultural Confidence?

How fully do you trust our political system, institutions, and leaders? How much do you trust what you see reported by the media? I often say that God redeems all he allows. How could he redeem our crisis in cultural confidence?

Is Serving Christ Enough for You?

Is Serving Christ Enough for You?

The good news of the gospel is still “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Billy Graham was right: “One of the Bible’s greatest truths is that our lives can be different. No matter what our past has been, Christ stands ready to forgive and cleanse us—and then to make us new.”

This is because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is not our work but God’s transforming miracle: “All this is from God, who through Christ has reconciled us to himself” (v. 18). Now we are “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (v. 20).

To this end, let’s close by making John White Chadwick’s hymn our prayer:

6 Good Questions to Use When Engaging on Hot Topics

6 Good Questions to Use When Engaging on Hot Topics

Here are six questions I’ve found extremely helpful to create the sort of dialogue we should desire about issues of faith and culture.

The Post-Christian Trajectory of Our Culture Does Not Have to Be Ours

The Post-Christian Trajectory of Our Culture Does Not Have to Be Ours

The Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson is right: “We cannot reach our destination if we are traveling in the wrong direction.” But the post-Christian, even anti-Christian trajectory of our culture does not have to be ours. Speaking in a very decadent age, Jesus nonetheless promised us: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

We Must Renew Our Commitment to Living Biblically in Our Post-Christian Culture

We Must Renew Our Commitment to Living Biblically in Our Post-Christian Culture

My call today is for us to renew our commitment to thinking and living biblically, whatever the consequences in our broken, post-Christian culture. To this end, let’s close with a reflection from Billy Graham: “Early in my life, I had some doubts about whether or not the Bible was really God’s word. But one night in 1949, I knelt before a stump in the woods of Forest Home, California, opened my Bible and said, ‘O God, there are many things in this book I do not understand. But by faith, I accept it—from Genesis to Revelation—as your word.’

Is It Biblical to Seek to Influence Culture?

Is It Biblical to Seek to Influence Culture?

God’s Word makes plain that His plan involves not just the saving of souls but the restoration of His creation. His efforts in various times and places in history are according to this redemptive plan. The final chapters of Revelation culminate in a New Heaven and a New Earth, a restored creation fully realized in the return of Christ. The garden home of Adam and Eve in Genesis is renewed in the garden city of Revelation, bringing to fruition Christ’s command for us to pray that God’s Kingdom come, “on Earth as it is in heaven.”

How the Cultural Events of Today Are Undermining the Foundations of Our Democracy

How the Cultural Events of Today Are Undermining the Foundations of Our Democracy

Every day’s news brings more examples of our society’s rejection of biblical morality. But like a river that erodes the shoreline we can see and the underwater banks we cannot, the cultural currents of our day are undermining our democracy in ways that are less apparent but no less foundation

The Gospel's Appeal in a Disenchanted Age

The Gospel's Appeal in a Disenchanted Age

In the words of 19th-century Scottish minister and author George MacDonald, To be right with God is to be right with the universe: one with the power, the love, the will of the mighty father, the cherisher of Joy, the Lord of laughter, whose are all glories, all hopes, who loves everything and hates nothing but selfishness.

What Our Cultural Artifacts Say to Us and About Us

What Our Cultural Artifacts Say to Us and About Us

Cultural artifacts are particularly effective in making ideas seem normal. Huge advertisements at cosmetics stores like Sephora portray young men dressed provocatively in women’s clothing and covered in makeup. Boarding most Delta flights requires walking past an image of a same-sex couple cuddled up in premium economy.

Without using a single word, cultural artifacts can communicate ideas not merely about what counts as normal behavior but about what it means to be human. In essence, Sephora is telling our sons and daughters that “the way we know a boy is a girl is that he is dressed provocatively and covered in makeup.” What message does that send if not to be a woman is to be like this

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