He was a fixture in the church; most can’t remember a time when Bob wasn’t there, greeting each arrival in the lobby before service, inviting them to lunch afterward. His fellow seniors were happy to see him, and the kids felt welcome too. Bob had both veterinary and missionary stories to share (and eye-rolling jokes to go with them).

When the nation was shaken by the tragic death of Charlie Kirk last week, we posted several clips of the young man talking about the gospel, about Jesus, and about the veracity and trustworthiness of the Bible. I also asked the elder preaching that coming Sunday to include some words of instruction…

A young man recently reached out to me asking for some good reading material on dating, since he’d recently started exploring a relationship with a girl at church. Frankly, when he asked me for good books on the subject I came up completely blank. But even my elders had mostly blank stares and shrugs when it came to reading material on the subject. And so…

I’ve had that experience, sitting in a powerful message with a great preacher and thinking “my friend [INSERT] should hear that one.” Sometimes it answers a question or concept that I bungled or felt inadequate to impart to them in a previous conversation. I try to send those to them and say “here, this person said it WAY better than I did.”

It’s the time of year when leaves die and trees turn to skeletons. The garden stops providing. An evening stroll changes from bright sun and chirping birds to dark night and the howling wind. As Halloween approaches, the fact that we begin to consider death and ghost stories is not inherently pagan, it’s human.

I was born in 1973, in the wake and under the shadow of Roe v. Wade, to a mother who was informed I'd be deformed and told she could legally end my life in her womb. I've lived my entire life in light of this Supreme Court decision and could scarcely imagine a world where it wasn't the tragic ruling precedent.

G.K. Chesterton’s warnings on pride seems apt as we head into a month where it is celebrated and venerated in our country for any number of reasons and applications: “pride is the poison of every other vice.”