What Happened to the Gospel?

Bonhoeffer studied for a year in New York City. He was uniformly disappointed with the preaching he heard there: "One may hear sermons in New York ...

Rescuing Those in Peril

Roger Storms, pastor of First Christian Church in Chandler, Arizona, tells this story: "One Sunday, a car had broken down in the alley behind our ...

Getting Into Heaven

In the late 1800s, Charles Berry, an English preacher, became the pastor of the great Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. One day Berry described how earlier ...

Slogan or Message?

We must be aware of trivializing the gospel, of presenting it in a form that compromises the radicality of its message. If someone is used to seeing or ...

The Hurt of Healing

The old original wounds must first be probed in their depth before there can be healing. The Scripture compares sin with the wound of the soul, and says ...

Herm Haakenson: Fisher of Men

Herm Haakenson: A salmon fisherman and "fisher of men"

During salmon season, he is permitted only one catch a week from his commercial fishing ...

Why Grace Is Amazing

Why do we call grace amazing? Grace is amazing because it works against the grain of common sense. Hard-nosed common sense will tell you that you are ...

The Blasphemy of Predestination

The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is free in all, and free for all. To this some have answer'd, "No: it is free only for ...

The Gospel Is a Risky Business

The story we're called to tell and live and die by is one of risk confronted, death embraced. What's more, Jesus calls us to walk the narrow way, ...

The Power of the Preaching of Christ

The preaching of Christ is the whip that flogs the devil. The preaching of Christ is the thunderbolt, the sound of which makes all hell shake.