The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
Over the past three articles, we have been studying the fruit of the Spirit. In this post, we come to the third item in Paul’s list: peace. For more than half a century, peace has been little …| The Cripplegate
The fruit of the Spirit of kindness is a distinctly Christian virtue. For example, the Greek word for kindness was often confused with the word for Christ and Christian. However, kindness is fraught with problems. There is the problem of definition – what is kindness? People often interchange kindness with niceness. Kindness and niceness, though, are not the same. Then, […]| The Cripplegate
We all love to experience patience from others, but patience can be so difficult to show. Patience is also widely misunderstood. Although people commonly say, “Patience is a virtue,” their idea of patience is shallow and superficial. It usually indicates merely an ability to wait. Moreover, we know that even this superficial patience is in […]| The Cripplegate
Over the past three articles, we have been studying the fruit of the Spirit. In this post, we come to the third item in Paul’s list: peace. For more than half a century, peace has been little …| The Cripplegate
On February 9, 1831, the Reverend Andrew Thomson suffered a stroke, collapsed in the street, and passed into glory. As Scotland’s preeminent evangelical preacher, the shock of his death shook the whole Kirk, and many mourned their loss at his funeral some days later. Thomas Chalmers, who would succeed Thomson as the chief evangelical herald […]| The Cripplegate
I’ll never forget the first time I heard John MacArthur preach. I was in long auditorium in Chianciano, Italy. With 500 other people. But I felt as though it was just me and him in that room. The night before that sermon I had done what I had done pretty much every night for the […]| The Cripplegate
I met John MacArthur in 2001 when I moved to Los Angeles to attend the Master’s Seminary. Soon after I joined Grace Community Church, and Dr. MacArthur became to me Pastor John. He was officially my pastor for the next 12 years, but in many ways has been my functional pastor ever since. John was, […]| The Cripplegate
People across the political spectrum were outraged this week when President Donald Trump dismissed the importance of the Epstein List. During his campaign, President Trump said, “Yeah, I’d do the Epstein thing. I’d have no problem with it.” Many people voted for President Trump, at least in part, because he promised to release the list. […]| The Cripplegate
We live in a world that is in a constant search for joy. This quest is so important and widespread that researchers often study what makes people happy, or what decreases happiness, identifying how men, women, and children can achieve happiness. One such study found that there are three significant factors to Americans’ happiness: health, marriage, […]| The Cripplegate
My wife and I are Americans who have now lived more of our lives on African soil than on American soil, for the past 27 years and counting. All five of our kids were born in Africa, and we ar…| The Cripplegate
for a new generation of non-conformists| The Cripplegate
In our introductory post for this series on the Fruit of the Spirit, we took a general look at the list to begin to uncover the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Galatians. Now we will examine each of these slices of the Spirit’s fruit, starting with love. What is this love produced […]| The Cripplegate
God doesn’t want you to be a man-pleaser. But he wants you to be a man-pleaser. Let me explain. In the New Testament, the word for “pleasing” another person means exactly what you’d think – doing w…| The Cripplegate
The fruit of the Holy Spirit addresses a critical concern in our day – the importance of cultivating virtue. Virtue is a word not often used, but it basically means moral excellency. It speaks…| The Cripplegate
The Corinthian church was riddled with conflict among its members – something that the Apostle Paul addressed early in his first letter to this congregation. After laying out the call for unity and…| The Cripplegate
Social media has been abuzz over an unbiblical and vulgar ad released recently by Doug Wilson’s Canon Press. In this ad, Canon Press seeks to recruit a particular kind of young man, who is not afra…| The Cripplegate
In the last post, we saw the Lord will bring devastating destruction upon anything that seeks to usurp His place as God. God sometimes destroys idolatry by the grace found in the gospel of Jes…| The Cripplegate
God designed the church to be a foretaste of the new creation, but sadly, the church can often look more like the old creation as Christians surrender to the desires of the flesh. These problems in…| The Cripplegate
Pope Francis is dead. He died by a suspected cerebral stroke Monday morning April 21, 2025. One day after Easter. World leaders are coming to Rome in the next few days for the Pope’s funeral. Every…| The Cripplegate
Every church faces the reality of conflict. Throughout the New Testament, we see that conflict was a constant problem the early church faced, and the nature of the conflict varied from church…| The Cripplegate
In the first major section of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul addresses the unfortunate, but inevitable, problem of conflict within the church. At the outset, we should recognize that conflict in t…| The Cripplegate
The first Shepherds Conference I attended as a pastor was in 2016. I had attended the conference in 2001 and 2002 while a student at The Master’s Seminary (in 2000 the conference was suspended whil…| The Cripplegate
In the year 841 BC, the prophet Elisha’s messenger came to Jehu’s house and anointed him the next king of Israel. According to the Lord’s purpose, Jehu was to destroy the house of Ahab so that God …| The Cripplegate
People don’t give much thought to the problem of idolatry, but since Scripture spends so much time addressing this issue, we should understand what the Bible says about it and how to obey God’s com…| The Cripplegate
We are beginning a new series entitled, “No Other Gods: Destroying the Idols of Our Hearts,” where we will consider the important biblical topic of idolatry. Idolatry is not spoken of much today, n…| The Cripplegate
How should Christians think about baptism? I recently ran across this post on X making a case for infant baptism: Although the argument is brief, it encapsulates well the thinking of thos…| The Cripplegate
Inside of American evangelicalism is a paradox: many of the most respected leaders use their influence to steer denominations and institutions in a direction that is significantly more liberal than the people those leaders ostensibly represent. There is no shortage of examples of this. Congregations who would reject critical race…| The Cripplegate
What does it mean that Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king? Like all theological questions, more is at stake than merely intellectual comprehension. The Gospel calls us to put our trust in Jesus for salvation. How, though, can we believe in Jesus if we do not know who He…| The Cripplegate
