A Review of
By Amy Mantravadi
07/21/25
12mins

A Review of "The Church: A Guide to the People of God" by Brad East

“The Church exists to tell anyone and everyone who knocks on her door wondering what’s inside: Come and see” (pg. 58). Such reminders make The Church a worthwhile read.
What Christ Gave Up for Us
John Bombaro
John Bombaro
07/18/25

What Christ Gave Up for Us

The way of the cross is the actual way of victory. Jesus absorbs the worst of what humanity and even the devil can do to him, and he spurns the shame of it all.
The Pulpit is No Place for Political Endorsements
Scott Keith
Scott Keith
07/16/25

The Pulpit is No Place for Political Endorsements

The IRS says churches can endorse candidates from the pulpit. But just because they can doesn’t mean they should.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/19/13

Enemies with Benefits

Indeed, our Lord pronounced no beatitude upon the man who is loved by his wife and cherished by his children, but He does say, "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me," (Mt 5:11).
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/11/13

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Lies

On that day the mourners were shocked to discover that behind the veneer of her bright smile lurked a fathomless darkness, whose depths she made manifest only when she despaired of life in this world.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/27/13

Praying in Tears, Snot, and Screams

I was full of pain and empty of speech, babbling like a baby who knows he hurts but can’t explain where or why or what he needs to assuage the anguish. Here was the sheer helplessness of being unable to communicate with God in this moment of deepest desperation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/16/13

When Fathers Are Failures

I lack the wisdom, and the experience, to counsel those who have been hurt so deeply. There is no pain like the pain of being mistreated by those who, above all others, you expect to love you unconditionally.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/15/13

Just a Little More and Then I'll Be Happy

Like me, like most Americans, the equation of wealth with happiness is so firmly rooted in her psyche that only a divine surgeon could dig it out.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/07/13

David, Bathsheba, and Jesus: Who Was the Greatest Sinner?

What kind of fool does what David did? What kind of fool ignores the riches spilling out of his pockets to steal the only penny a poor man has?
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/22/13

Call Me Lazarus

What I will tell you is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite what you think and feel and imagine, God is indeed in that dark place. You don’t know it, but he’s licking your wounds, too. And he’s keeping the deeper, blacker darkness at bay.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/21/13

Out of the Depths

For since it was not enough that the Lord of heaven and earth hung on your every word, his Word was made flesh and prayed among us, a priest in the order of Melchizedek, “offering up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save Him from death,” (Heb 5:7).
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/13/13

If Cows Had Gods

The second truth, however, is that just because God has become a man does not mean he thinks, desires, or speaks as man generally does.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/10/13

We Are All Beggars

We need not look the part to elicit divine compassion. We need not be on our knees, face downcast, eyes watery, voice quivering, to make sure we get heaven’s attention. We need not play the beggar before God.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
04/11/13

Let Him Who Is Without Sin

Let him feel the heft of stone cradled in his palm, and consider the gravity of guilt cast upon the hypocrite.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/23/13

“Still in the Loins of His Father”: Who Were You Before You Were Conceived?

If I am so bound up in the history of the first man, all the way back at the dawn of creation, how can I not also be bound up in the more recent history of my family?
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