Last summer, during a 3-month sabbatical graciously granted by my church, I wrote a book. Its theme and contents had been welling up inside me for several years. In fact, I had tried to write the book on a previous sabbatical, but it wryly eluded me. This time I caught it and secured it to the parchment.

Since finishing the manuscript, I have deliberated about whether to pursue a traditional publisher or aim in another direction. After extensive research, prayer, and several discussions, I decided to publish it with Cross to Crown Ministries, a decision that excites me for two reasons. First, it is gratifying to bring this project near to completion. (Writing a book is pleasure; publishing it is satisfaction.) Second, since we began this ministry, publishing books has been a future desire. It appears that the future is now.

Soon, I'll give you more details on the book itself.

Christmas is not a family holiday. Think about it. The birth of our Savior and King, the advent of the promised Messiah, the incarnation of God's Son . . . these are not family-centered truths. Jesus did not come to save "the family." He came to save His people, the Church.

It is a fitting blessing that Christmas falls on the Lord's Day this year. (Maybe we should move it permanently to Sunday.) What better way to celebrate our hope of salvation than by gathering together as His people and proclaiming His glory and praise? For those who have removed Christ from Christmas, only tradition, family, and sentimentalism form an adequate explanation for participating in the holiday season. But for those redeemed from the eternal flames of Hell, Christmas is not about any of those things. It's about Jesus.

Other pastors have asked whether FRAC (my congregation) is having a Christmas Day service. My answer is, "Of course!" Worshipping Christ together in His congregation is no intrusion on my "family time." It is my family time. Christmas celebrates salvation, peace with God, forgiveness, eternal hope, and the lordship of Christ. Where else would I want to be to celebrate those things than with my brothers and sisters in Christ?

Linking does not constitute a wholesale endorsement. Some things are helpful, others interesting, thought-provoking, or worthy of response.

Seth Godin on decision-making

Those who live to make everyone happy or to avoid making anyone upset at them will be paralyzed when real decisions have to be made. Every day, Christians have to choose whether to please Jesus or man. Choose Jesus and celebrate the trade-offs.

Marriage blog makes a painful comparison to our jobs

It's a challenging question: If your marriage was a job, would you be fired or promoted? And then there's this: "Some of us wouldn’t be caught dead talking to our boss the way we talk to our spouse."

Dane Ortlund writes about Trinitarian vs Christ-centeredness

Is it possible to be "too Christ-centered"? Systematic Theology wants us to be preeminently Trinitarian. But the Triune God is unashamedly Christocentric. The Father gave the universe to His Son. The Spirit was sent to glorify the Son. Lovers of God will worship the Son.

John Owen on pondering Christ and thanksgiving

Thanksgiving must be daily, not yearly. And it will be, if we ponder the excellencies of Christ every day.

Communion and fellowship with our heavenly Father.

An expression of dependence on Christ.

A means of knowing Jesus more deeply.

The place to find comfort, hope, forgiveness, and rest for our souls.

A real conversation with a real Person.

Easily relegated to rote routine.

Inexplicably hard to maintain for many Christians.

...fail their congregations and their Lord (not to mention their wives).

If the body of Christ cannot look to the elders for models of something as important as marriage, how can they respect us in anything else? Managing the home well is one of the basic qualifications to lead.

Husbands are called to reflect Christ to their wives. Christ doesn't abandon, shun, or push us to the corner. His bride is way up on the priority list. And He never makes us wonder if His attention is elsewhere. Pastors, of all people, should be leading the way for other married men. Let's show our people a Christ-like romance.

And, our wives married men, not ministries. There was no fine print in our wedding vows that releases us from them if we get called to church leadership. Loving, cherishing, and spending time with our wives is not optional. If we cannot do that while serving the body, we should choose her and find a new job.

Pastors and elders, let's love our wife like Christ loves His.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation… (1 Peter 2:9)

The word “nation” is ethnos from which we get our term “ethnic” or “ethnicity.” The gospel redefines ethnicity. Instead of Asian or African or Indian, the cross has now divided the world into the holy and, by implication, the unholy/profane.

How about this answer to the problem of racism? When you walk into a room filled with strangers, do you identify with people based on their skin color, facial features, and hair? Or do you identify them by their status as members of this new “ethnic group” created by the cross—the elect, royal, holy people of God? It’s a family resemblance based on holiness rather than on bloodline.

So what does it mean to be a “holy nation”? The qualifier “holy” refers not so much to moral quality as it does uniqueness, devotedness, set-apart-ness to God.

We see this clearly in the book of Leviticus, a book obsessed with holiness: holy offerings, holy places, holy people. The Lord commands: “Be holy, for I am holy.” But if you read the book, you’ll notice that it contains a whole index of clean vs. unclean: animals, foods, health issues, building materials, etc. This pervasive concern for cleanness cultivated a whole lifestyle and mindset of separateness, distinction, uniqueness. Why? So they would remember who they were as a people: a nation separate from the other nations, uniquely devoted to the one, true God. Their worship, their diet, their clothing, even their farming practices demonstrated it. They were different, unique, holy.

So what happens to these practices after the cross? Suddenly, the ceremonies and practices which kept Israel separate from the other nations no longer apply. Remember Peter’s experience in Acts 10? God showed him a virtual buffet spread with all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. At first he resisted God’s invitation to eat, but the Lord explained: “What God has made clean, do not call common.” Peter was so confused by this radical reversal of OT laws of cleanness, God had to take him through the vision three times. But finally, he got the point: God was expanding and redefining the people of God. Previously, to be part of God’s holy group, one needed a blood connection to Abraham; now what was required was a faith connection to Jesus. The line of holiness is now drawn between believers and unbelievers, not between Jews and Gentiles.

So what practices make us holy, distinct, and separate now? Instead of ceremonial matters like diet and hygiene, what separates God’s people from others are Christ-resembling qualities like love, moral virtue, wisdom, humility, and patience in the face of suffering. This is how we are different, how we are holy. Whereas before God’s people had to avoidthe spread of corruption, now God’s people halt the spread of corruption by living as salt and light, bringing a stop to decay and darkness. It’s not what we eat that makes us different; it’s who we eat with, lovingly following our Savior by inviting sinners, outcasts, and the poor to our table. It’s not how we wash; it’s the One we trust to wash us. It’s not our prosperity that draws people in—the glitz and glamour of Solomon’s temple wowing the Queen of Sheba; it’s our joy and patience and graciousness in suffering. This is the new way we show ourselves to be God’s holy nation.