Ask Pastor John

Sometimes, busyness and stress are reasons to realign our priorities. Other times, they are invitations to pray that God would empower us to do the seemingly impossible.

God doesn’t give us a blueprint for our futures, but he does give us biblical trajectories by which we can discern his will and follow it with confidence.

How do “spiritual wisdom and understanding” fill us with the knowledge of God’s will for our daily lives? Pastor John explains from Colossians 1:9.

In our sin, we refuse to hear the truth, receive the truth, believe the truth — until God intervenes to give us a deep and abiding love for the truth.

When God puts us in the flames of suffering, he often intends to rescue us from self-sufficient comfort and awaken in us desperate, earnest prayer.

We need pastors who will regularly remind us that our greatest allegiance is not to any political party, ethnicity, or nation, but to King Jesus.

Paul teaches that Jesus will not return until “the man of lawlessness is revealed.” Who is this man of lawlessness?

The Christian pro-life cause goes far deeper than legislation. We aim not only to change laws and behavior, but to change hearts and eternities.

Satan will try to put us to sleep in prayer. And he does so, most commonly, by tricking us into staying up too late the night before.

Is God present in hell, as John seems to say in Revelation 14:10 — or is he absent, as Paul seems to say in 2 Thessalonians 1:9?

Scripture describes the process of sanctification in many different ways. How can we weave the various strands together into one coherent picture?

Because Jesus loved Lazarus, the Gospel of John tells us, he did not come to him right away, but lingered and let him die. How is that love?

When temptation strikes, we need more than a vague sense of God’s goodness — we need specific promises. Pastor John shares his favorite passages for fighting sin.

If God aims to be glorified in this world, why is human history and the daily news filled with so much that dishonors him?

The love of money often lives where others least suspect, like in the hearts of Pharisees, miracle workers, and those who seem most moral.

Paul speaks of wrestling in prayer, and many of us use his phrase. But what might our prayer lives actually feel like if we wrestled like the apostle?

“Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them,” Paul writes. But what can a wife do if she finds herself with a harsh man?

How does God bring us from the grace of new birth to the glory of heaven? Pastor John explains eight essentials for Christian living from 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12.

Jesus tells us to give to those who ask, but Paul warns the church against giving to the lazy. How might we apply these teachings when we meet a panhandler?

If there is no forgiveness without shed blood, how could Jesus forgive sins apart from the sacrificial system and prior to his own death?

In an age of hate, Christians testify to God’s grace by praying for all kinds of people: high and low, white and black, Democrat and Republican, friend and enemy.

When God grants us a ministry, does his leading come to us through internal impulses, external affirmation, or some combination of the two?

Does Scripture ever command us to pray for unbelievers, or does it only command us to pray for the evangelists who speak to them?

Prayer is the easiest step of love, and it is also the most powerful. God can do far more for others in response to our prayers than we could ever do on our own.

God is honored when we do our jobs with technical excellence, and he is also honored when we give ourselves to the kinds of excellence that cannot be measured.

How can we require obedience of our children without provoking and discouraging them? Pastor John offers eight pitfalls for fathers.

Throughout Scripture, God warns that he will not hear the prayers of the disobedient. So do answered prayers depend on our holiness?

We will never plumb the depths of sin and grace merely from past experience. Only God’s word can tell us how lost and dead we were, and how found and alive we are.

In the early twentieth century, many Christian leaders lent their approval to the cause of Prohibition. Would Pastor John have done the same if he lived back then?

In Christ, God has chosen us from eternity, and called us in time, so that we would boast no longer in ourselves, but only in him and his great love.

Some teachers influence us so deeply that we find ourselves imitating them without trying. So how can we move past imitation to make biblical truth our own?

Paul says we all were dead apart from Christ, but he also says we died when we were united to Christ. In what sense, then, do dead men die?

Nothing but God can forever satisfy hearts that are made for God. And so, in great mercy, God loves us in a way that makes much of himself.

Christians can disagree over many doctrines and stay friends. But what should we do when a friend rejects a doctrine central to the gospel?

How might Christians process feelings of guilt over the death of a loved one? Pastor John offers counsel to a new widow struggling not to blame herself.

In Christ, God makes more of us than we could ever imagine. And he will go on doing so forever.

Does faith bring about the new birth, or does the new birth bring about faith? Pastor John offers three reasons why getting the order right matters.

Does God delight in his people based on Christ’s work alone, or does his delight also depend on our own holiness?

When God makes much of us, he does it for his sake, not ours. And that makes his love far greater than we could have imagined.

Some shame condemns and destroys, and some shame heals and restores. So how can we tell the difference between misplaced and well-placed shame?

In his letters, Paul speaks not only of teachings he delivered to the churches, but also of traditions he passed on. What kind of traditions does he have in mind?

Many nominal Christians go to church, believe God loves them, and yet are on their way to hell. So what marks the born again from those who only think they are?

In America, there are hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos, left over from in vitro fertilization. How might Christians weigh the decision to adopt one of them?

What kind of person does Romans 7:14–25 describe? Pastor John offers nine reasons to read Paul’s description as part of the Christian experience.

The church of Acts often gathered together to praise God and intercede for his people. So what might we lose if we pray only by ourselves?

God gave us a book about Jesus, not a video. So how might Christians think about dramatic portrayals of Jesus’s life in television or movies?

If God’s wrath comes against evil desires, and not only evil behaviors, why will his wrath not come against Christians, who still battle evil desires?

A lack of love for other people doesn’t show that we’re trying too hard to please ourselves — it shows that we’re far too easily pleased.

How can we turn our attention away from regrets, dreams, and other consuming thoughts so that we can set our minds on things that are above?

If two spouses agree that they do not want to have more children, would it be sinful to pursue permanent forms of birth control?