Over the last couple weeks, as I've preached on Acts 2 and James 5, I've had opportunity to talk about the judgment Jesus brought on unbelieving Judaism in 70 AD when the city of Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Roman armies. This event is of great redemptive-historical significance, and while the entire New Testament had been completed before 70 AD, prophecies of and allusions to this great conflagration are all over the writings of the New Testament. Again and again, New Testament figures warn of a judgment that is near at hand and about to fall upon "this generation" of Jews who were then alive.

This essay was originally published in 2018 . It is republished on the blog, slightly edited. Re-Thinking “Revoice”: A Biblical Analysis of Same-Sex Attraction Scripture is clear that engaging in homosexual activity is contrary to God's created design and God's will for humanity. But what about same-sex attraction? Is sexual desire for someone of the same sex sinful, even if it is not acted upon? What if these desires seem to come without a person consciously choosing for them to be there? And if these desires persist over a long period of time, should a professing Christian label himself as a "gay Christian"?

Question: Suppose you did not know humans came in different skin colors. Could you figure out that fact just from reading your Bible?

The absurdist Albert Camus once wrote, "Death is philosophy's only problem." For Camus death is the ultimate problem because if every human story ends in death, it renders the rest of our lives meaningless. The wise man Solomon expressed a similar concern over death in Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 when he pondered the sobering fact that the wise man and the fool both come to the same end: If "the wise dies just like the fool," what good is wisdom? In chapter 3, Solomon extends this line of reasoning when he notes that what happens to beasts also happens to men -- "as one dies, so dies the other....They have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts."

I want to challenge an idea that is so common, it goes unnoticed and unchallenged much of the time. It is the idea that capitalism (aka, a free market economy) is built on greed. Many even of those who advocate for some form of capitalism concede this point. Some have even tried to argue that the free market can turn vice into virtue, e.g., the "greed is good" mantra that was so common in the 1980s. But I do not believe we should concede this point. Free markets are not based on greed. The profit motive is not greedy per se. Sure, participants in the free market can be driven by greed, but I am not convinced that the free market system is built on greed in any meaningful sense at all.

Many Christians today wonder what we can do to make a difference in our world. Of course, there are many good and biblical answers to that question, starting with faithfulness in worship and prayer, spilling over into fellowship/community and mercy ministry towards the poor. But nearly 100 years ago, J. Gresham Machen gave counsel to Christians focused on vocation, and his direction is entirely appropriate today. Here is a summary of his message in today's words:

Where is Mr. Knightley when you need him?

We are gathered here today to worship our Creator. God made each of us in his image. Psalm 139 describes him knitting us together in our mothers' wombs. That same psalm teaches that God knew us, and had a relationship with us, even before we were born.