We're continuing the conversation about Jesus and religion. I said last week I don't think Jesus hated it, but to be sure he was wary of some aspects of it and we should be as well. I asked the group of Christian high school students in Panera I wrote about last week this question, "What bothers you most about religion?" Young adults will often describe a church where the congregation sang with gusto, "I surrender all…", but obviously didn't. "Take my silver and my gold, no

"Mr. De Graaf, do you think Jesus hates religion?" A decade ago I’d just spoken at a local Christian high school chapel and was now meeting after school hours at Panera with 16 kids who had questions about my talk, when this question was asked. There was a YouTube video by a young rapper Jefferson Bethke entitled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus", that has been viewed by over 19,000,000 people! If you have kids or grandchildren the chances are they've watched it too, and

I once heard Ken Davis, a Christian comedian tell this humorous story of a Christian who gets on an empty city bus, walks to the rear, and sits down. “Lord,” he prays, “if you want me to speak to someone about you please give me a sign. At the next stop another passenger gets on, goes all the way to the back and sits right down next to the Christian. "Do you know anything about Jesus?" the passenger asks. The Christian excuses himself for a moment and slowly bows his head onc

If you asked ten Christians, "Where should I give my financial gifts?" Almost all would tell you, "Give first to your local church." But after that you're likely to get ten different answers depending on each person's passion and giving history. Older Christians tend to lean heavily toward missions, Bible translation, large capital projects and Christian education while younger Christians generally favor clean water and social justice ministries. And if you look only to the N

There's almost no area of stewardship for Christians that has had more influence on inheritance than the Old Testament. Stories of leaving everything one owns to their children with the largest portion going to the oldest son are in many books of the Old Testament. God in Numbers 27:8-11 even laid out how an inheritance should be administered. If these Patriarchs of the Bible, loved by God passed their wealth on to their families, case closed! And Proverbs 13:22a says, "A goo

If you’ve heard, “I just don’t care” from your kids, or other young Christians about things you think Christians really ought to care about deeply, you’re not alone. A few years ago, I was having dinner with a few great young people – students at a local Christian college. We were talking about same-sex marriage and what the Bible says about same-sex, sex. At the end of our extensive discussion, one of the young men said, “I just don’t care – it’s just not a big deal to me, o

Decades ago my wife Susan and I began receiving phone calls from our married children who had recently had babies asking about baptism. Here was their dilemma: All three of our sons-in-laws were raised in covenantal, calvinistic churches where they were baptized as infants. Now their parents really wanted their grandchildren baptized as well. Similarly, our children were baptized as infants. However, we raised them from middle school on believing that baptism was only for old

A few years ago, I was asked by a man who was baptized as an infant if he should be baptized now as an adult. “It depends,” I said. Have you ever publicly pledged your allegiance to Jesus and meant it?” “No I’ve not. I mean as a high school kid I stood up with a whole group of kids from my church and confirmed I was a Christian, but I'm not sure if I even knew what that meant. And I attend church regular;y and call myself a Christian.” “Then I think you might want to consider

Who cares? Some of your children or grandchildren may be asking, “Who cares? What difference does it make that I know anything about the Reformation?” Good question actually. Here’s why. I grew up thinking that any church which believed things our church, or denomination didn’t was in error and may not even be Christians. I think it’s good for all Christians to understand that true Christians can disagree on many theological issues as long as they understand saving faith is