Ask Pastor John

Singing to the Lord can enrich your devotions and enliven your soul, even if you aren’t a natural singer.

A final act of self-murder is not necessarily decisive in determining if someone was saved. God regards the whole life.

Talking to your children about their adoption requires timing and initiation.

Adoption is an eternal reality. God planned it before he founded the earth. Now, we have the chance to act it out.

Adoption is hard, and parenting often hurts, but God can create happy stories even in those difficulties.

Vacations are a time to rest and refresh. What does it look like for a dad to share the leadership of the family with his wife while on break?

For believers, both work and rest become redemptive tools in God’s hands to advance his kingdom.

Sincere belief cannot exist apart from salvation. Pastor John unpacks the implications of believing that the Bible — all of it — is true.

Holiness, news, risk, and suffering. Pastor John offers four words for four tests to determine whether you love God or just love loving God.

God has sufficient grace for our sins, our weaknesses, and our failures. He can turn even our failures into gospel successes.

If God is everywhere, is he also in hell? If so, in what sense is God present in hell? Pastor John answers.

True modesty is the fruit of joyfully submitting to Christ, saturating ourselves with the word of God, and considering the good of others.

God’s glory is the goal of all things, and his freedom and his sovereignty are essential to his deity — and our salvation.

We don’t know how much the saints in heaven know about the events on earth. But the Bible’s promises for the joy of the saints are glorious.

Desires for marriage, even very strong desires, are not necessarily at odds with contentment in Christ.

Pastor John explains why God withdraws from his people in light of his new-covenant promises to stay with them forever.

Our battles against sin are not meant to be easy or pain-free. But they can — and should — be marked by joy and filled with the promises of God.

There is hope for those who regret past sexual mistakes and their current consequences in the context of marriage and engagement.

Pastor John remembers a painful time in Bethlehem’s history and encourages pastors to stay with their churches through seasons of discipline and grief.

How can anything make God more or less joyful than he already is? Does the joy of God ever fluctuate?

On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. penned “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a vivid report of racial injustice and oppression.

The light will become lighter and the dark will become darker. The world is changing, but sin, Jesus, and the every-knee-will-bow reality will not.

We live in racial realities that 50 years ago would have been inconceivable. But our church and country continue to chart new multiethnic territories.

Jesus crossed painful racial lines at the well two thousand years ago. Pastor John recounts Tony Evans’s powerful message from John 4 at Kainos 2014.

Both premarital sex and pornography addiction harm men and women alike, but in different ways. So which sin is worse?

Pastor John shares six ways that Christians can begin to sever the cords of their addiction to entertainment.

Pastor John gives his take on whether or not Christians should feel obligated to read the holy books of other religions.

What kind of pitfalls exist in the “New Calvinism” movement? What do New Calvinists need to beware of?

Our sin, God’s holiness, and Jesus’s cross are the core truths around which saving faith is formed.

God elects unconditionally. But he glorifies us on the condition of our faithful obedience. Does that mean our glorification is not guaranteed?

The promises of God mark us as his children. They also keep us in the family when we walk through trials and persecution.

Going the speed limit is an act of faith in the God who controls your day and can maximize your minutes for his glory.

Pastor John shares five specific principles from the Bible relating to food. God created food good, but there is a right and wrong way to enjoy it.

How can Christians detect the beginnings of prosperity preaching? Pastor John shares six signs.

The five solas unite Reformed Christians past and present, but Pastor John notes how seven factors may be creating a new mold under the same banner.

If Jesus calls his followers to turn the other cheek, then can a Christian serve society as a cop or a soldier?

Self-sacrifice and just punishment under ruling authorities image God’s love and justice. Pastor John shares more thoughts on Christians’ use of force.

Reformed theology, as a biblical expression of the gospel, is relevant for every problem in every ethnicity of every stress and stripe.

Pastor John describes the growing need for a theology of race in reformed circles and for pastors’ to purposely pursue ethnic diversity in their churches.

Scripture tells us to test all things. But overanalyzing what the pastor is saying keeps us from being in awe of what God said.

Some of the most surprising challenges to effective ministry will stem from family and marriage. How has Pastor John experienced God’s grace in his?

How important is reformed doctrine for Christians who are seeking out a church home? Pastor John shares his thoughts.

Pastor John reflects on the staying power of Westminster Seminary and the inescapably Reformed theology of the Bible.

God calls his children to fear him with trembling, reverence, awe, and worship — but not with cowering.

When Christ frees a Christian, he frees her to love him. Only those who delight to obey God are truly free.

No human being has the power to conquer sin. Yet God righteously holds everyone responsible for their failure. How can both realities be true?

In our flesh, we walk morally ruined, spiritually blind, and broken-willed. But our salvation depends on God’s free grace, not on our free choice.

Given the Christian man’s duty to protect his family, self-defense may seem appropriate. But Scripture calls him to an even higher standard of love.

Believer’s baptism requires assent, so what about people who cannot give it? Pastor John explores baptism for people with mental disabilities.

For every lustful thought or nude picture that plagues the mind, a visualized image of the bloodied, crucified Jesus can turn a battle into victory.