Author: Jon Gauger

Scowls are in. Smiles are out. Have you noticed? Take a look at most any current Christian artist album cover or website with a photo. Chances are he or she isn’t smiling. As we have in so many other ways, the Christian subculture has mimicked secular culture.  Not many bother to ask why do the recording artists on secular albums scowl?  Sure, there’s a certain “coolness” factor.  It’s hip to look unhappy—go figure.  But there are other reasons as well.  Secular artists scowl because they have little to smile about.  It’s a culture of hopelessness and materialism that never satisfies. …

Time out for a confession.  I think iPads are incredibly cool.  So cool that I really want one.  Probably want one a little too much for Christ-like comfort.  But so far, I haven't bought one.  And I wish I could tell you it was for deeply spiritual reasons.   However, that would be a lie. I think iPads are incredibly functional—truly practical—graphically gorgeous.  But I don't own one.  And the high price tag isn't the real reason.  The truth is, though I'm definitely a techno fan, I haven't yet bought an iPad because I'm weary.  I'm weary of reaching out and…

For several years now, I've wondered about them—those bumpy little pads or tiles that cities across America have installed at nearly every intersection. .  Doesn't take a genius to figure that those bumpy tiles—usually a pinkish clay color–are being installed to help the visually impaired.  And it makes sense.  Walking more than three miles a day, my experience is that cars sometimes come dangerously close to sidewalk intersections. So I welcome this assistance for the visually impaired. Yet…the cynic in me asks, “Why all of a sudden have municipalities taken up this task?  Why the feverish pace?  Did city fathers…

For the past few months, my wife and I have made regular visits to an old man who is slowly dying.  He has a brilliant mind, has ministered to countless people.  Yet his deterioration is rapid and irreversible.  Some would say, “That’s to be expected.”  But the idealist in me asks, “Why?”  Why did it have to be this way?  And of course, the answer takes me back to the Garden of Eden. In my sanctified imagination, I envision a conversation with Adam and Eve. I see Adam, once a chiseled, muscular outdoorsman with big hands and barrel chest—now shriveled…

I see it all the time on the web. Usually off to the right hand side of the page is a list of stories labeled something like “Trending Now or “Most viewed.” It's usually a story about somebody in Hollywood I'm supposed to be interested in…but am not. Now here’s my question: Why can't heaven “go viral”?  Why can't it be an internet craze?  That's right, heaven. In a Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings world so intrigued with wonder…why does heaven get so little press? The easy answer is, “Well, we live in a post-Christian culture. But I'm not…

I am sitting on a train pondering.  Pondering a presentation I’ve just seen from an Israeli archaeologist with the City of David—a site currently under excavation in Ancient Jerusalem.  Over the course of 30 minutes, we were shown remarkably preserved artifacts discovered recently.  Among the colorful slide images, we saw a clay tablet referring to the House of David more than a hundred years after his death.   We saw steps from the Pool of Siloam …seals referring to kings and conflicts mentioned in Jeremiah 34-38. As a follower of Jesus and a lover of His Word, this visual evidence of…

As technology has rocketed us into the future, it has simultaneously, if not unintentionally spiraled us into a much lower orbit in our comprehension of basic human interaction.  The fact that we CAN   communicate with a code-like instant message…means that we now feel compelled to —as a baseline standard.  The fact that it’s easier to use abbreviations, abrupt expressions and short phrases means we do—to the point that an emerging generation understands this to be normative.  What was once the exception has become the rule. Complete sentences…basic grammar structure…and the most fundamental of language issues have been overtaken by blurts…

With Christmas safely in the rearview mirror, an unsettling thought has….settled upon me. Please don't write me off as a Christmas-hater…a sort of evangelical Ebenezer Scrooge. But as I look back upon our celebration of Christ's birth, I'm concerned. Let me express it in a sentence. As a Christian culture, it seems to me we have made so much out of having a Merry Christmas, we've forgotten that merriment was surely not the only thing on God's mind as that first Christmas story unfolded. The same passage in Isaiah 9 that brings us a picture of Jesus as the "Wonderful…

Quick question for you.   What Christmas Carol is placed as the concluding song on more albums than any other?  Answer: Silent Night. Okay, I don’t have statistical proof.  But I have looked at dozens and dozens of Christmas recordings.  With few exceptions, they end with Silent Night. But it’s the second phrase of that beloved Carol I want to look at today.  Silent Night…HOLY night.  The word, holy, of course means set apart.   That’s what you and I are supposed to be as followers of Christ: set apart.  But ARE we?  George Barna statistics would suggest otherwise.  We divorce like…

Recently, I stumbled on to the writings of the Puritans.  One of my first  books: Richard Baxter's work titled, “The Causes and Danger of Slighting Christ and His Gospel.”  Born in 1615, Baxter  was a a church leader, theologian and prolific writer.    For 25 years, he endured persecution and imprisonment for his stand on the gospel.   I figure a guy who endured all that he did for Christ deserves my attention when he cautions that you and I who claim to know Christ just might be guilty of slighting Him—and His gospel. Here's one example of what Richard Baxter means…