Jojo Agot

Chronological Snobbery

John Piper:

“I have an abiding fear of what C. S. Lewis called chronological snobbery. Chronological snobbery is the arrogant notion that the ideas of our own day are better than the ideas of a bygone day just because the ideas are in our day. Chronological snobbery feels that things are truer because they are newer. And so it is both irrational and naïve.

Why It’s Good to Tremble Before God

Imagine a crisis like this: you are a king of a small kingdom and two bigger nations conspire to draw you into a losing battle. They wanted to remove you from the throne and replace you with a puppet king. The coalition was strong. All your political advisers say you are facing a major disaster. What do you do?

Takijiro Onishi and Atonement

Dale Ralph Davis:

Have you ever thought what life would be like without atonement?

In one of my previous books I told of Admiral Onishi, who tried to provide his own atonement. Takijiro Onishi was Commander of Japan’s First Air Fleet. It was October 1944 and the war was turning sour for Japan in the Pacific. Onishi therefore proposed desperate measures.

How to Pray for the Philippines

Let’s face it: for some of us, praying for the nation is hard. Sure, it’s a nice idea, and the Bible talks about here and there. But just what is it about the nation that you feel the need to single-handedly bring to the attention of the God of the universe? Maybe someone already beat you to it. And which of the thousands of problems of the nation should you be bringing to God in prayer?

Should We Sell Everything and Give to the Poor?

In Matthew 19, we see the story of the rich young ruler who came up to Jesus to ask what else he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ answer was nothing short of explosive. He told the guy to sell all his possessions, give away the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus.

When Bono Met Eugene Peterson

I was reading Scott Sauls’ book From Weakness to Strength few months ago and I came across this heartwarming story about the time Bono the rockstar met with the aging pastor and writer Eugene Peterson. Sauls wrote:

Why Study History

Studying the history of Christianity provides repeated, concrete demonstration concerning the irreducibly historical character of the Christian faith.

How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

This NYT post from 2015 tells the story of Justine Sacco, a senior director of corporate communications firm in New York, whose career was ruined after she posted a series of little jokes about the indignities of travel on her way to South Africa.

This is the dark side of social media.

We Are Pilgrims

Abraham’s life goes against our own culture today. Our dominant ideology today yearns for settlement, security, and placement. Everything around us tells us to hunker down, save everything, hedge ourselves about with every protection. Our natural desires are for more comforts. Our culture celebrates home and dynastic families. But God’s word says otherwise, instructing us to seek things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

In the Beginning There Was the Fruit

One of the most embarrassing prayers I ever uttered in my entire life was the one I made when I was in high school. I remember being so convinced that I was near perfect that I ended up telling God he should really be proud of me. At least he didn’t have to do much overhauling with my life. He can focus his redeeming work with someone else’s life. Me? I was fine, thank you very much.

The Works of the Holy Spirit

One common mistake many people make when they talk about the Holy Spirit is that they almost always only associate him with speaking in tongues and all the weird stuff that come with it. The extent of their knowledge revolves around a controversy and that’s about it.

Stop Giving God Your Leftovers

When God lambasted the Jews in Malachi 1-2 for offering defective animal sacrifices, many Christians raised their collective eyebrows and thought to themselves, “At least we’re not required to offer animal sacrifices in the New Testament. We’re fine, thank you very much.”