I delight in the children who sparkle in my city: children aflame with both trauma and triumph. In this story, I wanted to capture the vulnerability and celebrate the vibrancy of these children. If I had succeeded, fireworks would surely burst from each page. Lions for Ajax is joyfully set in a world where gender is a gift from a wise and loving God to be lived for His glory. I wrote it for children I love who struggle to accept and live their gender as a gift. Some of the characters in Lions for Ajax revel in the gift of their gender. Other characters live sham distortions of their gender but find the joy of repentance. Others wrestle with […]
Monthly Archives: June 2020
6 posts
To become a Christian is to be given a new nature, a new identity. You don’t lose the old identity (yet), but you do receive a down payment on who you will be. Therefore, while it is vital to accept your identity as a sinner, it is not sufficient. You must also live out of a sure grasp of your identity as a child of God’s freely given and personally transforming grace. These two identities must be held in a healthy tension and balance. It is only the person who is deeply aware of his sin who gets excited about grace, and it is only grace that can give you the courage to humbly face the enormity of your sin. […]
If you are going to live the productive life that God’s grace can enable you to live, you need to stay very clear about who you are. We all tend to be quite adept at ignoring our own sin while being highly sensitized to the sin of others. It is hard for us to receive the loving criticism, confrontation, and rebuke of others because we tend to think of ourselves as more sanctified than we actually are. As the Bible invites us to look intently into it, as into a mirror, it invites a humbling and accurate self-assessment. The biblical doctrine of sin confronts each of us with the reality that we are not as good as we imagine we […]
Great wickedness . . . only evil . . . no one who understands . . . worthless . . . open graves . . . deceit . . . poison . . . cursing and bitterness . . . swift to shed blood . . . ruin and misery . . . no fear of God . . . subjected to frustration . . . bondage to decay . . . groaning . . . struggle . . . this dark world . . . evil. (Genesis 6:5; Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 6:12) Perhaps you are so familiar with these verses that it is difficult to see their unflinching realism. But each of these passages is honest about what you […]
Let me be clear: being a nice, moral guy will not save you, nor will it save your family. God’s wrath against your sin is only satisfied by Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). But even though acts of kindness are not the root of our justification, they are certainly the fruit of our justification. After rejoicing over God’s sovereign grace toward sinners, Paul goes on: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Therefore, acts of kindness and love toward our spouses are not a works-based self-rescue plan; they are the overflow of our joy in Christ and the pursuit of joy in serving […]
There seems to be a renaissance of manliness in our day. Even Walmart and other major retailers have started capitalizing on the new interest in beard oil, mustache wax, and work boots. Although I am moderately encouraged by these recent developments, there is still a great deal of confusion to slice through when it comes to manhood in our culture. More alarming, there seems to be confusion about godly manhood among Christian husbands. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with beards, flannels, bonfires, work boots, pocket knives, pickup trucks, or hatchet throwing. In fact, it might do some of us a lot of good to put our phones down and spend some time in the woods. Nevertheless, God’s […]