Blog Archive
In this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we take a look at an old song by Hank Williams, “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” For many, this song represents exactly the caricature they envision country music to be: sad songs about failed love. But what this song actually reveals is a very sophisticated view of sin and the human heart. When Williams insists, “your cheatin’ heart will tell on you” he says something very true about the conscience that God has placed inside every human being. Part of the fabric that God has designed to point men and women to the gospel is this conscience, which testifies to the individual what they know to be true about God, about sin, about judgment and obedience. And while this conscience is individual, on the Last Day this same conscience will bear witness to every human being’s deeds in the flesh. If you have a conscience, one day at judgment your heart “will tell on you.” In terms of this song, Hank Williams may not be right in the short term. The cheatin’ heart of the woman he loved may not tell on her in this life. But ultimately, her heart will tell on her, and so will yours. So in this week’s episode we’ll talk about this conscience, and how Jesus answers the accusing heart.
“Your Cheatin’ Heart” by Hank Williams
— Friday, February 3rd, 2012 —
In this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we take a look at an old song by Hank Williams, “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” For many, this song represents exactly the caricature they envision country music to be: sad songs about failed love. But what this song actually reveals is a very [...]
Keep Reading...The Planet of the Apes and Christian Eschatology
— Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 —
Today I launched a new semester of my Doctrine of the Last Things class, with the showing of a clip from the movie The Planet of the Apes.
The clip my students watched was in the closing moments of the 1968 film, as Charlton Heston is [...]
Keep Reading...The Humanity of Christ Matters
— Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 —
Several years ago, a brutal stomach virus crept through the seminary community where I serve as dean. One day, knowing [...]
Keep Reading...Should I Marry a Man with Pornography Struggles? My Response
— Monday, January 23rd, 2012 —
A couple of months ago, I posted a question about an ethical dilemma a recently engaged woman is facing. She just found out that her spouse to-be has had “ongoing struggles with pornography.” She isn’t sure what to do, or how to make sure [...]
Keep Reading...The Evangelical Uneasy Conscience Faces the Future
— Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 —
It’s a little book by a dead man from the last generation, and it just might be the road-map for the future of American Christianity. I’m referring to the late theologian Carl F. H. Henry’s 1947 book “The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism.” [...]
Keep Reading...The Gospel in an Abortion Culture
— Thursday, January 19th, 2012 —
As the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision approaches, most Christians recognize, and rightly so, the loss of millions of unborn human lives. What we often forget is the second casualty of an abortion culture: the consciences of countless [...]
Keep Reading...The Next Billy Graham Might Be Drunk Right Now
— Monday, January 2nd, 2012 —
Whenever I start to get discouraged about the future of the church, I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry on what would turn out to be his last visit to Southern Seminary before his death.
Several [...]
Keep Reading...An Open Letter to a Newborn Son
— Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 —
To Taylor Eugene Moore,
You certainly made last Sunday memorable.
I was just about to preach when I noticed your mother wasn’t in her normal pew at our church. I slipped out during the offering and found her in the foyer. She told me she was in [...]
Keep Reading...Let’s Stop Ignoring Joseph
— Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 —
I played a cow in my first-grade Christmas pageant, and I had more lines than the kid who played Joseph. He was a prop, or so it seemed, for Mary, the plastic doll in the manger, and the rest of us. We were just following [...]
Keep Reading...“Merry Christmas from the Family,” by Montgomery Gentry
— Monday, December 19th, 2011 —
“Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk” is not the typical opening of a Christmas carol. But in this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we take a look at Montgomery Gentry’s version of the song, ”Merry Christmas from the Family,” a song that explores the darker side of [...]
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