Parchment & Pen Blog

One of the earliest signs of the healthy development of the mind of a child is that he or she starts responding to everything with a simple question: Why?  Every parent knows this and knows that it can drive you nuts, but it is a reassuring trademark of the kid’s normal intellectual growth.  To ask [...]

There are four different ways to define faith. It is incredibly important that we, as Christians, don’t go wrong here. 1. Blind Faith: Faith is a blind leap into the dark. “Faith is a blind leap into the dark. The blinder the leap, the greater the faith.” Have you ever heard this? In the 1989 film Indiana [...]

I recently came across these words written by John Piper 21 years ago regarding Psalm 126:5-6. Many a God-lover has paused over these two verses, chewing on the reality they represent. Piper’s comments are insightful and will hopefully be an encouragement to you. Psalm 126:5-6: May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of [...]

Of course Martin Luther could not be accused of hiding his real self. “I sit here at ease, hardened and unfeeling—alas! praying little, grieving little for the Church of God, burning rather in the fierce fires of my untamed flesh. It comes to this: I should be afire in the spirit; in reality I am afire in [...]

I often play a game with my kids that drives them crazy. Sitting in the room, with no one but us, while they are not looking I will slap them on the rear and act like I did not do it. They turn and say, “Daddy! I know you did that.” I say, “I did [...]

The other day I was asked by someone if I would try to raise a cat from the dead. After being asked, the look on my face told the story of my faith. If I could translate my face into words, it would be, “What in the heck? Are you serious?” My faith does not [...]

  Not too long ago I sat on an airplane waiting to fly out of Orlando back to Dallas. The plane was delayed for quite some time as, for some reason, the preflight checks were taking longer than normal. Unfortunately, it gave me time to think about all the things that could go wrong with [...]

The first thing you have to know about talking to most doubters is that they have a strong suspicion that you have never been there . . . that you just don’t understand. It is easy to find yourself in a position of illegitimacy. I’ll get back to this in a moment. Since I went through my [...]