It can only happen once in a lifetime: you watch your Mom take her final breath.

Nine difficult days had passed since the car accident. Although she was still in the intensive care unit, there were reasons to hope my Mom would eventually recover.

It was Christmas Eve morning and I arrived at the hospital early in a cheerful mood, expecting to see her smile. I met the nurse in the hallway and she told me things were “the same.” Not a bad report, given all my Mom had suffered. I walked into the room and our eyes met. But instead of smiling, she started coughing. The nurse yelled for help and within seconds the room was full of people dressed in scrubs trying to save my Mom’s life. a few minutes later they stopped trying. The doctor looked at me and said, “She still has a pulse but it wouldn’t be long.”

So I stood there, by her bedside, dissolved into tears and whispering goodbyes into her ear.

I love you. You were the best Mom ever. And you have a great Savior. He is all you need right now. He’s waiting for you with open arms. I will see you again soon and everything will be better. Good bye Mom. I love you. You were the best Mom ever.

When I was a kid growing up all my friends wished they had a Mom like mine. She really was the best Mom ever–right up to her final breath. My 12-minute tribute to her is below [Read more...]

I recently had “The Talk” with my fifth-grade son. It was very brief and went something like this:

Son, I can pretty much tell you everything you’ll ever need to know about sex in one sentence: God made sex. And if you do sex God’s way, it will turn out good. But if you don’t do sex God’s way it will cause all kinds of problems.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth I realized it was actually three sentences. But he didn’t seem to notice. So I asked,

Any questions?

He didn’t have any so I figured I must have done a good enough job.

But then I came across this video of Tim Keller talking about sex. How Keller can pack so many profound insights into a 2-minute video amazes me. [Read more...]

Try to imagine 95-year-old Billy Graham sitting on a rocking chair in his log cabin tapping his foot while listening to rap music. It now appears this has actually happened.

Furthermore, Billy must have actually approved of at least one rapper, Lecrae, or else he wouldn’t have included him in his Final Sermon–one that has already reached tens of millions via video and is likely to become recognized as the powerful and complete gospel message of his long and famous life. It’s a must-see. It’s called, The Cross.

Does Billy Graham listen to rap? Yes. But this begs an even bigger question: Does God listen to rap?

Well. Does He? Because if He does, there are a lot of implications for those of us who tend to normalize Christianity into the limited range of categories with which we are personally familiar and comfortable.

Does God listen to rap? If you, like me, would be inclined to answer, No way! you’ll be challenged [Read more...]