Summer 2024

Article

Do You Believe Hell Is Real?

In the teaching of Jesus the ultimate condemnation from the mouth of God is “depart from me.” That is remarkable—to simply be away from God is the worst thing that can happen to us! Why? We were originally created to walk in God’s immediate presence (Genesis 2). All the life, joy, love, strength, and meaning we have looked for and longed for is found in his face (Psalm 16:11)—that is, in his favor, presence, fellowship, and pleasure. That is why, for Paul, the everlasting fire and destruction of hell is “exclusion from the presence of the Lord.”

By Tim Keller
Article

All About Not Being a Superhero

He is a pastor and has been for more than a decade. He planted a church, ministered to people, gave advice and counseling to others, and helped many along their journey. Through the years rarely has someone done the same for him. And that came at a cost. “As a pastor, because I was constantly helping others resolve their issues and helping them solve their problems,” Ignacio says, “I began to focus on being self-sufficient.”

This past spring everything changed.

By Gospel in Life
Article

Christ Saved Me at My Lowest

One day my brother and I got into a bad fist fight, which resulted in me getting sent to Florida to live with my mom. My brother had found my mom! Apparently she was doing better. I lived with her for a few weeks, but it was obvious that my mother was still using drugs. My uncle lived one city over and came to our apartment. He told me, “Angel, either you come live with me or you stay here and your life spirals down the hole it’s been going down until you end up like your mom.”

By Angel Francis
Article

From Gangs to Serving Jesus

My run-ins with the police continued, and one night I found myself handcuffed after assaulting a rival gang member with a baseball bat. Sitting in the back of the police car, I realized I was about to enter the criminal justice system, and I prayed and promised God that if He rescued me from that situation, I would change my ways. The officers ended up letting me go home free that night. God had answered my prayer, but I did not keep my vow.

By CJ Francis
Article

Where’s the Good News?

And in that Last Supper of Jesus, in their sorrow and singing, we find the good news Cory referred to that day. Because it was the Last Supper for a world of nevermores, entropy, despair and death. Jesus was about to reverse that cosmic entropy through the most powerful energy in the world—divine love.

By David Bisgrove
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Cultivating a Healthy Marriage

Gospel in Life has made our most popular sermon series — Marriage — available as a stand-alone, short podcast series. We trust that it will be something you can share with friends, family and coworkers who want to learn how to be a better spouse or potential spouse.

By Gospel in Life
Article

The Bible and Race

Next to sex and gender, the subject of race is the most discussed topic in our culture today. Storms of rhetoric and conflict swirl around it every day in politics, the arts, business, the media, and especially social media. It is natural and right for Christians to speak in these conversations out of their personal experience, but since we believe that the Bible has the right to interpret our experience and to critique every culture, we must look to it as our final authority.

By Tim Keller
Article

Taste and See

How did you first become a follower of Christ or interested in Christianity? For most, if not all of us, someone said something, did something or brought us somewhere, and a process began.

By Susan Nacorda-Stang
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Facing the Death of a Spouse with the Hope of the Gospel

Dear Dr. Keller, In my husband’s passing, I have run into so many people that tell me they wished they would have told my husband what he meant to them. It has made me more aware of those who have had an impact on me. I wanted to reach out and let you know the…

By Ashley Stanley
Article

How God Is Making Me Into Who I’m Meant to Be

My story begins in the summer of 1975 when I was 22 years old. I had graduated from High School in southeastern Virginia four years earlier and since that time had been floundering, trying to figure out life. I wished I had gone to college. For three summers I had seen high school classmates come home for the summer and then go back to school in the fall. If I had gone to college right after graduation, I would almost be done, I reasoned.

By Graham Howell
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RTS NYC Is Training Women to Serve the Urban Church

Since 2015, Reformed Theological Seminary has partnered with Redeemer City to City to raise up leaders for ministry in New York City. Approximately 40% of those leaders are women whose lives and communities are being influenced by their theological education. Part of the vision of RTS New York City was to keep New Yorkers in…

By Jay Harvey
Article

Church Planting in China During the Coronavirus Outbreak

In an unassuming corner of one of China’s most important cities, 20 people, all wearing face masks, recently met for the first time in a rented room. In the corner an open laptop showed 30 faces calling in. This was the launch of Pastor Hu’s new church.

By Beth Gregory, Hannah Nation
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Interview: Rebecca McLaughlin

In this interview Rebecca McLaughlin talks about some of the inspiration for writing her book Confronting Christianity and some of the insight she’s gained in her life that led her to address the hardest questions that Christians face today. As she talks about her experiences you will learn how and why she believes that Christianity is objectively the best hope for the modern world.

By Gospel in Life
Article

The Sin of Racism

Biblically, sin is anything that falls short of God’s will and glory, that violates his law and his character (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:23). There are at least four ways in which what we will be calling racism is a violation of God’s glory and therefore is a sin. It is sin.

By Tim Keller
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Interview: Irwyn Ince, Jr. on Diversity in the Church that Stems from the Gospel

Irwyn Ince discusses his work with churches and their leaders to bring about multi ethnic gospel communities like we see in the Bible and how he is working to help bridge racial divides in the church. As he talks about his work, you will learn why he is hopeful that the gospel can bring unity to the Christian community and more ethnically diverse churches.

By Gospel in Life
Article

How God Works in a Data and Efficiency-Driven World

I’m a data and analytics consultant, involved in various types of work, most recently advising companies on what data to track and how to personalize people’s experiences with it. If anyone understands the gravity of privacy, it is the people who synthesize and use data in their line of work. The cultural mandate to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” has emphasized the responsibility I have to continually research, question and advise either for or against methods of tracking, technology and usability.

By Michelle Choi
Article

The Gospel Is Teaching Cuban Pastors How to Love the LGBTQ+ Community

Unfortunately, many churches did not voice their opinions in a respectful way, but instead became militant in their stance, insulting the dignity of anyone from the LGBTQ+ community. It was during this period that I received an invitation from Pachy Quesada, president of Los Pinos Nuevos association of churches, asking me to come to Cuba…

By Lois Kehlenbrink
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No Longer Wondering What It’s All For

Just one hour after I was dancing on stage in front of an audience of 2,400 with a live orchestra, I found myself alone, sitting on my bed in my apartment. I wanted to feel that after-performance high; I wanted to enjoy the fulfillment of something I had spent two decades training for. Securing an…

By Molly Yeo
Article

How God Gave Me a Home

In 2017, I became homeless, living in my car. I lived in my car up until the end of September, when I sold it for some money. I had lost everything—my family, my friends. When you’re homeless, you are a non-person. You’re invisible—people don’t see you.

By Neil Weiss
Article

A Marriage Renewed by the Gospel

A story of marriage renewal from Heather Bixler, a violinist and a neuroscience student at Columbia, and her husband David Bixler, a saxophonist.

By David Bixler, Heather Bixler

This Month's Featured Book

Seven Cultural Myths That Fail Us and the Story That Never Will

In this new book by Tim Keller and his son Michael Keller, you’ll discover what our culture's stories promise and whether they actually deliver. It will help you to see them through the lens of the gospel story—the only story where deep hope, true meaning and lasting joy can be found.

Donate now and get the book