For many months now, a good friend and I have been slowly working our way through the book of Proverbs together. One of the many things that has struck us is the book’s obsession with our words and our speech. But we aren’t just urged to say things that are true; we’re urged to say the right things at the right time and in the right way. “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Prov 15:23) “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” (Prov 25:11)

Perhaps building on Solomon’s wisdom, the apostle Paul wrote that one mark of a mature Christian is not just speaking the truth, but “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). Hopefully, your experience of life has already shown you that this is true. It’s simply not enough to go around saying true things; we also have to develop both the wisdom and the love to know how and when to say them—and, therefore, when not to say them. Continue reading →

How do we process the tragic events of March 15th? Will we find not just the common grace we know so well, but the saving grace we need?

New Zealand is a country saturated in God’s common grace. I sometimes feel that these islands are about as close to heaven on earth as you’ll find. We have our problems, but we’re served by stable and accountable government that has ensured religious freedom, prosperous without being ostentatious in our wealth, filled with astounding natural beauty, a place that people from all over the world choose as their home (48 cultures are represented at my son’s school alone). Christchurch, my home, is as friendly and tranquil as any small city on Earth, and New Zealanders are a people of quiet strength—not brash and self-seeking, but resolute and generous. Continue reading →

I really don’t expect that there will be anything profound in this post. It’s just an attempt to process what happened in our city yesterday. I don’t even know what I’m going to say yet. I’m just going to start writing.

Based on how we’re feeling as a family, and on those I’ve been able to contact so far, we’re all feeling shell-shocked and angry. We’re shell-shocked in the way that anyone would be after their city experiences a terror attack (let alone in Christchurch, a peaceful and friendly place if ever there was one), but perhaps even a tiny bit more shocked because we know what it is for sudden trauma to come upon our whole city and to make us feel like our lives have changed in an instant. It’s been eight years since the earthquake, and now this. What the heck? Continue reading →

Introduction
I had a strange experience a couple of weeks ago.

On May 9, stuff.co.nz and several of the nation’s major daily newspapers published an opinion piece that I wrote about Richard Dawkins’ visit to New Zealand. It was a rare chance to provide a Christian voice in the secular press, attempting to show that Christians aren’t content to believe things in the absence of evidence. Rather, I argued, our beliefs are based on solid historical evidence to support the claim that Jesus Christ rose bodily from death – verifying his outlandish claims to be the Son of God, and assuring us that he offers unique knowledge of and access to our Creator.

But while it was a special opportunity, that wasn’t the strange part. The strange part was what happened next.

Apparently, Richard Dawkins himself read my article and saw fit to comment on it publicly. Continue reading →