Tim Keller’s preaching and writing deeply shaped my approach to ministry. While I don’t agree with him on everything, his impact on the church—and on me—is undeniable. His life offers lessons that continue to shape us today. To that end, I want to highlight four takeaways from a recent biography about Keller.

Hospitals, like many of society’s most vital institutions, have deep Christian roots that are often overlooked today. Guenter B. Risse’s Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals explores this history, and while it was a challenging read, it offered valuable insights into how Christians shaped medical care throughout the centuries.

At Christ Church Bellingham, we say Jesus “descended into the grave” rather than “hell” in the Apostles’ Creed. This change wasn’t arbitrary—it reflects careful theological and historical reasoning. We’ll explore why this wording matters and how it aligns with Scripture.

Is magic always evil, or is there more to consider? A question from a student got me thinking about how Scripture and Christian tradition approach this topic. Let’s take a closer look.

Have you ever felt unsettled by something—a conversation, a decision, or even a passage in the Bible? Intuition, our ability to quickly sense and assess, is a powerful gift. But as helpful as it can be, intuition can also mislead us, especially in our spiritual lives. What do we do when God’s word challenges our feelings or instincts? This article explores how progress in faith often means embracing discomfort, trusting God’s truth over our emotions, and growing through what doesn’t sit right.

Spanking is a challenging topic in today’s parenting landscape, and within our church, it’s sometimes seen as unusually emphasized. At last year’s Parenting Conference, we discussed spanking openly, as many parents struggle to talk about it yet are curious about its role in raising children. Reflecting on my own journey, I now see the value of addressing this practice clearly and without shame. Grounded in biblical wisdom and supported by recent studies, this article explores why many Christian parents view spanking as beneficial, emphasizing the need for it to be done with love, self-control, and a commitment to guiding children in truth.

These kinds of conversations happen regularly for every parent—from the time that their children start talking until they move out. One of the most important disciplines for Christian parents is to use these conversations as a time to lead children to Christ.

Are the “sons of God” worshipers of Yahweh who have intermarried with pagans, or are they angels who have gone into human women? How can we decide which interpretation is the right one?

Christians in the Reformed tradition have tended to have a culture of liberty around these substances, emphasizing how they are gifts from God that should be received with thanksgiving, rather than condemned because of legalism. How should we, as Christians, think about alcohol?

As Christianity has declined in our society, sports have taken on a more cultic quality in American life. One of the primary ways we see this is the increasing presence of sports on the Lord’s Day. The NFL, with its giant cathedrals of sport-worship, is the prime example. It is not uncommon for people to spend their entire Sunday not in worship, rest, or fellowship with God’s people.

Many in our church will want a clear set of rules about what is allowable and what is not. But we have to be careful about that kind of thing, because it is easy to create a kind of legalism around this topic, and we have to resist that. At the same time, parents need practical instruction.

Especially in a generation in which Christian faith is in decline and the world is becoming increasingly hostile to Christian faith, the members of our church need clarity on what Christians believe.

Revelation is filled with many patterns and deep meanings. It has cycles and imagery, double meanings and careful foreshadowing. It is Jesus’s book of the Bible. And it is the great masterpiece of literary history.

Revelation is highly dependent on the Old Testament and rarely uses new imagery that has not already been utilized in earlier Scriptures.

How is it that Jesus has only shed his blood for the elect, yet John says he takes away the sins of the world? How is it that God desires all to be saved yet doesn’t elect all to be saved?

How to pray and to think about God’s calling on our lives, and then we discuss how to best structure our schedule around those priorities.

In the Apostle Paul’s mind, the symbol of husbandhood is the cross.

For any Christian thinking through the submission of a wife, this picture of imitation is an important place to begin.

As we treat them like fellow adult Christians, we give them the chance to start acting like that as well.

Only the resurrected Son of God has the audacity to offer you the reversal of death itself.