You may have thought I was overstating things in my recent article, "Will California Go from Banning Religious Books to Burning Them?" You may have thought I was exaggerating when I referenced LGBT activists who compared Christian conservatives to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Be assured that there was not a word of hyperbole in what I wrote. The truth is unsettling enough.

What is it that Christ has not touched for the better? What problems does his person or purpose not solve?

Someone asks "I have friends who are gay and planning a wedding. They know my beliefs on homosexuality — that it is not God's creative design. I'm expecting to receive a wedding invite anytime. What should I do?"

News has been spreading about the meeting of 50 ethnically and denominationally diverse evangelical leaders at Wheaton College earlier this week to discuss the current condition of the movement. Unfortunately, some sources and reporters who were not at the gathering have been framing it as a "crazy Trump bashing" spectacle (CBN News) that led some to "walk out of the meeting" in protest (Fox News).

Why should Christians care about cases such as Masterpiece Cakeshop? Do cases like this take us away from the centrality of gospel proclamation? Shouldn't Jack Phillips, Joanna Duka, and Breanna Koski just lay down their rights in the face of opposition for the sake of being like Jesus?

Into the fetid air of the great dismal that is today's selfie-celebrity cultural swamp comes the fresh breeze of a Tammie Jo Shults. Shults is a living example of the "remnant" described in both the Old and New Testaments. These are people of open, unwavering faith in God and His word expressed in the Bible, deeply committed to Christ, driven by a Holy Spirit-empowered passion that all people would know His love

Our commitment to the sanctity of life leads us to embrace racial and gender equality. But it also leads us to defend life from conception to natural death and to defend marriage and gender identity as intended by our Creator.

It happened again, another university professor was exposed as an unhinged liberal, filled with uncontrollable rage. Randa Jarrar tweeted that Mrs. Bush was a "racist" and that she was glad the "the witch is dead." Throughout the country, in far too many colleges and universities, administrators have hired nutcases like Jarrar to teach impressionable youngsters.

Comparing your church to another church can be one of the worst things you do as a church leader.

Sometimes we misinterpret Jesus' familiar call for us to abide in Him found in the 15th chapter of the Gospel according to John. Abiding seems like a tranquil, passive, resting sort of call. The world will hate the call to abide.

Many of the "worship wars" today are fueled by, I believe, differing views of the nature of worship itself. I believe that a fundamental step toward resolving these debates is to seek to understand how the Bible itself defines worship.

Entitlement always rises as pride rises. It is impossible to be filled with humility and a sense of entitlement at the same time. Whenever we feel we are owed something it is because we have forgotten that God is the One who gives all good things.

Solomon's legacy is quite full of contrary themes. King Solomon worshiped God almighty and established the temple, yet Solomon was later turned to foreign gods.

Are you in need of a comeback? Consider doing these things:

Imagine a crisp spring morning on the seashore when the risen Lord Jesus Christ invites you to his surprise charcoal-cooked breakfast!

How do you revitalize a dying downtown? Maybe it's the same way you save a dying marriage — one day at a time.

I'm not writing this to make you feel guilty for not serving. I'm writing this to those of you who have thought about serving in youth ministry, but have never really given it much thought for any number of reasons.

Porn star Stormy Daniels may be having the time of her life. She may be enjoying her newfound fame, at the expense of President Trump. She may be making boatloads of money with her "Make America Horny Again" tour and other endeavors. But at the end of the day, this is a sad story.

So, the New Yorker thinks Chick-fil-A doesn't belong in New York and a U.S. Senator thinks Mike Pompeo doesn't belong as the Secretary of State.

When I first became a part of the family of Christ I was pretty clueless. I had no idea how to study the Bible, and I didn't really know how to pray. Prayer is insanely important to the Christian life. If you aren't praying at least once a day it's hard to say that your even a Christian.

In life, it's not how you start, it's how you finish, and Mrs. Walker is well on her way to a strong finish, following a tumultuous beginning. Born to drug addicted parents, the life of addiction and destruction quickly became a part of her life story as well.

These are my five simple ideas to help improve your prayer life.

If segregating the congregation into special-interest services isn't the answer, how might we begin to change attitudes on the nature of church and worship?

Barbara Bush died Tuesday. Newsweek is describing her as "the no-nonsense first lady who ran the family that ran the country."

Isolation is often very attractive, and it is on the rise with no signs of slowing down. Nearly twenty years ago Robert Putnam issued his warning about isolation before restaurant booths would be filled with people staring at their iPhones instead of connecting with each other, before binge-watching Netflix would become common in our culture, and before social media was invented.

In the curiously seeking stage, one thinks there might be something to all this, but is not sure. One also struggles with old biased views of Christianity.