“The sins we do not forget, God does not remember.”
The church is not in the world to teach sinners how to straighten up and fly right. That’s the world’s business; and on the whole it does a fairly competent—even gleefully aggressive—job of it. The church is supposed to be in the forgiveness business. Its job in filling pulpits is to find derelict nobodies…
My wife and I recently got back from a trip to Pontiac, Michigan. I was invited to spend three days at Grace Center of Hope (formerly known as Pontiac Rescue Mission) and their associated church, Grace Gospel Fellowship. Pastor Kent Clark and his wife Pam have been there for over thirty years…
We are getting accustomed these days to turning on the news and seeing the sinful natures of celebrities and politicians exposed. Their power, wealth, and fame gives their sinful natures the opportunity to “go big” in all of their failures. But what is exposed in these celebrities and politicians…
I was sixteen when my parents kicked me out of the house. What started out as run-of-the-mill adolescent rebellion in my early teens had, over the course of a few short years, blossomed into a black hole of disrespect and self-centeredness that was consuming the entire family. I would lie when…
Growing up, I loved Christmas. It was, by far, my favorite time of year. I loved the presents and the music and the lights and the chaos and the traditions and the decorations and the shopping and the Christmas movies and the food. I loved it all. But more than anything, I loved being with my…
The primary purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and God’s hatred of it. The Law exposes our failure, and it diagnoses our disease. It reveals God’s perfect will and our inability to keep it. The Law is good, but it is ruthless. It demands everything but gives nothing. The Law cannot produce in us what…
Last weekend I had the privilege of spending a few days in Salt Lake City at the kind and gracious invitation of South Mountain Community Church. To celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, they asked me to come out and talk about grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone in light of…
Many of you already know this (though some of you may not), but I used to be a pastor. Some would even say a successful pastor. I was leading a large church that serves a college-prep school and a seminary, writing a book a year, traveling extensively all over the country to speak at conferences…
The great magician, Harry Houdini, was a famous escape artist. Known for his uncanny ability to free himself from: handcuffs, ropes, chains, straight jackets, locked trunks, and just about anything else. He often issued challenges for people to try to confine him, but he could always find a way…
If you’ve made a mess of your life (like I have), then you probably struggle with a lot of guilt, shame, and regret (like I do). And if you’re a parent (like I am) and the mess you’ve made has hurt your kids (like mine did), then the guilt, shame, and regret you probably feel is often paralyzing (like mine is)…
Want to do something that people really love? Commit an act of infamy. It doesn’t have to be a mind-boggling evil. Something run-of-the-mill will do. It just needs to be simple, scandalous, and public knowledge. Think Monica Lewinski. Why? Infamy allows us the opportunity to hone one of our favorite skills: to shrink a 343-page life story…
I’ve been mulling over 1 Timothy 1:15. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the chief of sinners.” If you are in the ministry and have watched colleague after colleague “bite the dust” for sins that may well have been of their own…
During a radio interview a few years ago, my interviewer told me the following story which gets to the heart of how love produces what the law demands, but cannot deliver. One summer this man (the interviewer) was a camp counselor, and one of his responsibilities was to go around with another counselor and check…
Whatever bad stuff you may have read or heard about me, whether it is true or false, this I can tell you for sure: I am way worse than anyone knows. In fact, I am certain that if all my sins (thoughts, words, and deeds) over the last four decades were broadcast universally, the only person who would still love…
Over the last two and half years, I’ve said to many people that best friends are made when you’re at the bottom, not the top. When you’re at the top, it’s hard to know who your true friends are because you have so much to offer. But when you’re at the bottom and have nothing to offer…
The world crucifies the church. The church crucifies its best. And all that’s left then, of the absolutely needed Gospel of Christ’s mercy, is dust. On January 6, 1961, an episode of “The Twilight Zone” was broadcast entitled—you guessed it—“Dust.” I wouldn’t talk about it if I hadn’t seen it myself…
A word from Tullian: Week after week our Pastor, Pat Thurmer, stands up during the Worship Service and leads the congregation in a Prayer of Confession. He will be allowing me to print them here weekly so that all of you who can’t be there with us on Sunday mornings can benefit from them as much as we do…
I first met Tullian back in 2012 at the first LIBERATE Conference he hosted in Fort Lauderdale. Each year we would bring a large group from our small church over from the southwest coast of Florida to the southeast coast of Florida to take in the Good News that was so effectively delivered there…
Growing up in the church around mostly “good” people and “good” families, broken families were seen as “less than.” Families with a track record of teenage pregnancies, multiple marriages and divorces, affairs, addiction issues, step children, half-siblings, and so on, were examples of what to spend your life avoiding…
Here’s a quote that both stings and sings from the brilliant mind and poetic pen of the late Robert Farrar Capon. It stings because it confronts our natural instinct to keep score. It sings because it reminds us that God has forever settled the score against us…
