Ask Pastor John

How can we not lose heart over children who wander from Christ? Pastor John opens the parable of the prodigal son to offer encouragement after encouragement.

Can Christians ask God to teach the unrepentant hard lessons? Pastor John helps us pray against others’ sins without presuming to be God.

Should a Christian construction worker help to build a casino — or any other building that facilitates sin? Pastor John offers principles for the Christian conscience.

Staying married is not first about staying in love. It’s about keeping a covenant that reflects Jesus’s own faithfulness to his bride, the church.

Where should an unmarried pastor look for a wife? Pastor John encourages single men in ministry to take practical steps while trusting God’s providence.

What makes for a true friend, according to God’s word? Pastor John sketches the nature and importance of friendship across the Scriptures.

God looks throughout the earth, eager to work for those whose hearts are whole toward him. Pastor John unfolds glory from a favorite verse.

Will God condemn someone for being born into another religion? Pastor John responds to a former Muslim deeply worried about her loved ones.

“For his steadfast love endures forever” appears 26 times in Psalm 136. What might we learn from this psalm about the right kind of repetition in worship?

If you want more of your thoughts to become captive to Christ, open the Bible and pray, “Anything in my thinking that needs to be destroyed, destroy it.”

American citizens enjoy lavish blessings of common grace. Pastor John calls us to give thanks without giving away our far deeper allegiance to God’s special grace.

If joy in God is a gift from God, why does he also command us to rejoice? Pastor John takes us into a paradox that lies at the heart of the God-glorifying life.

The local church’s task of sending and sustaining long-term missionaries rests on several deep biblical assumptions. Pastor John shares five.

At the root of our sin is not a mind ignorant of God’s ways, but a darkened love, a hardened heart, and a will bent away from God’s ways.

In this fallen age, resurrection power does not keep us from pain. Instead, it brings life to others as we keep loving Jesus in our pain.

Bible reading can bring comfort, but Bible reading can also bring fear. How can we rightly embrace both the comfort of God’s promises and the fear of his warnings?

Paul says that the renewed mind discerns God’s good will “by testing.” What does that testing look like in the thousands of everyday decisions we make?

Our boredom in this world is meant to point us to another world — a world where the infinitely interesting God will banish boredom forever.

No matter how comfortable our friends and neighbors may seem, they are headed for hell unless they repent. So, what words might break through their comfort?

Why does Paul call Satan “the prince of the power of the air”? Pastor John explores the extent of Satan’s authority and Christ’s decisive victory.

If God has not chosen to save me, then why would he condemn me for not believing? Pastor John explains the kind of inability that does not remove responsibility.

Is Shia LaBeouf right to say that Jesus experienced “maximum joy” as he died? Pastor John considers the joy set before Christ and the horrors of the cross.

“Cross,” “nails,” “spear,” and “thorns” are words that evoke images in our minds — images with tremendous power to dispel lustful thoughts.

How should Christians think about sexually explicit material on the page rather than the screen? Pastor John offers ten questions for readers of erotica.

Parents have the God-given duty to warn their children not to rebel against Christ, and some of the most powerful warnings come from stories of failed rebellions.

How can a mom raise boys to become strong and godly men? Pastor John offers counsel for training up the next generation.

Sometimes, God responds to our sinful requests with a merciful no. But other times, he gives what we ask, brings misery with it, and then amazingly works good through it.

How can Christians grow in expressing their deepest affections for God and others? Pastor John offers eight pieces of counsel for those who struggle to speak.

God could destroy Satan at any moment. So, why has God allowed Satan to blind the minds of unbelievers from seeing the glory of Christ?

Does Proverbs 22:6 promise that children raised by godly parents will become Christians? Pastor John explains the proverb and points parents to their ultimate hope.

What makes a good sentence? Good sentences are true, clear, authentic, thoughtful, creative, well-timed, clean, loving, and glorifying to God.

How can we walk through this world of sin, suffering, and futility with strength and joy? Psalm 90:14 holds the key.

In a society steeped in self-worth and self-esteem, how can Christians aim for significance in a way that glorifies Christ?

Should churches be willing to somehow “bless” same-sex relationships? Pastor John responds to Pope Francis’s concerning proposal.

God does everything he does for his glory, including answering our prayers. So, how can we align all our requests with this big, overarching purpose?

How can we tell if we’re abusing caffeine (or any food or drink)? Pastor John offers three questions to guide a Christian’s consumption.

If death belongs to the children of God, as the apostle Paul says, then death not only loses its sting, but it turns around and becomes our servant.

On September 22, 1967, V. Raymond Edman collapsed while delivering a chapel message at Wheaton. Pastor John reflects on his college chancellor’s final words.

Some Christians carry an ongoing sense of guilt for sins confessed long ago. What can we do with these stubborn guilt feelings?

If God is sovereign over our suffering, then we can trust him to strengthen us in suffering, sanctify us through suffering, and ultimately save us from suffering.

From eternity, God has been self-sufficiently happy in himself. And because he has no needs of his own, he is gloriously free to meet ours.

If our souls are deeply satisfied in God, what room is there for petitionary prayer? Pastor John reframes the question by clarifying the nature of prayer.

If God is sovereign over salvation, do the non-elect even have a chance to repent? Pastor John addresses Romans 9:22, your most-asked-about Bible verse.

Some biblical truths are essential to believe for salvation — but not all. So, how much error can someone hold and still be saved?

How can parents resist the despair that comes from feeling like failures? Pastor John offers ten words of hope for parents of prodigals.

After ten years and two thousand episodes, Tony Reinke has distilled the best of ‘Ask Pastor John’ in a remarkable new book.

If we obey God outwardly but feel no affection for him inwardly, is our obedience still love? Pastor John takes us to the heart beneath God-pleasing obedience.

How do preachers guard themselves from hypocrisy? Pastor John traces double-faced preaching to its deepest root: the love of human praise.

How did Paul endure such unimaginable sufferings without turning from Christ? Pastor John traces three threads of the apostle’s perseverance.

In Leviticus 21, God forbids men with physical defects from participating as full priests. How do we reconcile this prohibition with Jesus’s approach to the disabled?