All Resources

As you contemplate these words of Jesus He spoke while on the cross, and also the reflections from Christ-followers on His words, thank God for His willingness, in those three hours of unfathomable darkness, to make the ultimate sacrifice to purchase our place with Him forever.

At the beginning of this Passion Week, it’s fitting that we turn our eyes to the cross. No tragedy could be greater than God’s blameless Son being slaughtered without mercy in horrid crucifixion.

The Cross was no afterthought. God planned it from before the world’s beginning and foretold it centuries in advance. While we have no choice but to suffer in this life, Jesus did have a choice and elected to suffer for our sins so we don’t have to in eternity. Words cannot capture the shocking nature of Christ’s redemptive work.

“For a believer, nothing in his or her life is unchanged by the gospel. If you look at life from the vantage point of the present benefits of the person, work, presence, and promises of the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing in your life looks the same.”

Someone asked me if I could address the relationship between salvation and baptism in Scripture, because they have a friend who believes that you cannot be saved unless you are baptized.

The abortion industry’s role in empowering the abuse of women trapped in the sex-trafficking industry is often overlooked. One study of 66 human-trafficking survivors found that between them they had 114 abortions, with coercion playing a role in at least some of their abortions.

In this article, Daniel Darling addresses a temptation we as believers can often face on social media: “I’m a good person. I’m on the right side of all the right issues. And I’m here to publicly declare this to those not as good as me.”

If you asked any group of people what they want out of life, chances are that most, if not all, would give some form of the same answer: “To be happy.” This inborn longing for happiness has been observed for thousands of years by theologians, philosophers, atheists, and agnostics.

Many people have lost loved ones who didn’t know Christ. Some people argue that people in Heaven won’t know Hell exists. But this would make Heaven’s joy dependent on ignorance, which is nowhere taught in Scripture.

There is a difference between initial guilt feelings/shame that is the conviction of the Holy Spirit (who is the convicter and comforter) versus residual and accusatory guilt/shame after confession and forgiveness that’s from Satan, the accuser.

In February Nanci and I had to say goodbye to our beloved Golden Retriever Maggie, who had been diagnosed with cancer only six weeks earlier. I have tried to write this blog multiple times, but each time I’ve stopped. It will be long, even though I cut out a lot. I have too much to say.

Christ proclaims from his throne on the New Earth: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5, ESV). It’s not just people who will be renewed but also the earth and “all things” in it. Do “all things” include animals? Yes. Horses, cats, dogs, deer, dolphins, and squirrels—as well as the inanimate creation—will be beneficiaries of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In an age when people try to make doctrines more appealing by ignoring or twisting biblical truth, here’s the irony — the true biblical doctrine of Heaven is far more attractive than the dull, inhuman view of the afterlife that has long prevailed in evangelicalism.

Today's blog is a combination of answers to questions I’ve received lately on my Facebook page or through emails. Because I can't possibly respond to every question that comes in, our great EPM staff help me out with their responses to many of them. (I wish I could reply to more of the questions and letters I receive. Maybe on the New Earth!)