Columnists

Filter by:

3… 2… 1… Happy New Year!

On New Year’s Eve, 1 million visitors flooded into Time Square hotels, neighboring blocks, and the immediate area awaiting the iconic ball drop. When the gates opened at 10 a.m., they flooded into the square to wait for 14... Continue Reading »

Devotion and Discipline: Are You Resolved?

We can learn the largest and loudest of life’s lessons from the smallest and quietest of God’s creatures. As a wide-eyed kid, I wanted to roar like a lion, stomp like an elephant, and tower like a giraffe. But... Continue Reading »

More Than a ‘Program,’ It’s Personal

Thank you, South Carolina Baptists, for allowing me the privilege to serve as your president this year. The cooperative work we do together as Southern Baptists has been a part of my life from my earliest childhood memories. I... Continue Reading »

The Blessings of Pastoring a Rural Church

In August of last year, I packed up my belongings to move from Upstate South Carolina to a small rural town right along the S.C.-N.C. state line in Lancaster County. I had previously been working on the facilities team... Continue Reading »

Now Is the Time to Choose

Christmas is my favorite time of year … hands down. It’s the one season where we are encouraged to engage what Abraham Lincoln called our “better angels.” It is a season of love where we enter with awe into... Continue Reading »

Hell Is for Real

It was perhaps the most famous sermon in U.S. history, a sermon God used to bring many sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached in 1741 by the great... Continue Reading »

The Birth of Jesus Transcends Global Political Chaos

We live in a day of shifting global geopolitical alliances coupled with a changing and chaotic political atmosphere here in the United States. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to characterize all of Western civilization as enduring... Continue Reading »

Searching for a Superhero

“What do you want for Christmas?” I asked the young boy. “I probably won’t get gifts this year, but I want a superhero, a Power Ranger with the white outfit,” he said with longing in his eyes. When I... Continue Reading »

Porcelain Jesus

Next spring, Vanessa and I will have been married for 25 years. You accumulate a lot of stuff over 25 years. Some stuff breaks or fades. Some stuff outlives its usefulness. Some stuff gets buried in piles of other... Continue Reading »

What the Bible Says About … The Unpardonable Sin (Part 2)

To understand the nature of the unpardonable sin, one must consider both the passage’s broader biblical context and the immediate situation in which Jesus spoke. Jesus set the passage in its broader theological context when He affirmed a truth... Continue Reading »

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs Lodge Good (and Bad) Theology in Our Minds

“He who does not find the great and perfect wisdom of God in His wonderful work of music is truly a clod and is not worthy to be considered a man!” — Martin Luther Want to know a simple... Continue Reading »

Three Public Policy Priorities for the 2026 Legislative Session

Pushing Back Against Gambling Leading up to the 2025 legislative session, the legislative rumor mill focused on major gambling interests eyeing South Carolina. Based on our commitment to God’s Word, we affirm that God’s intended design is for humanity... Continue Reading »