Porchlight Studies are not discussion starters, but brief studies designed to give Biblical guidance and direction on topics of urgency to the Christian church. It is my hope that these can be used in Bible groups, sermons, Christian education and postsecondary courses.
Why Porchlight? The tagline of the Wittenberg Door blog is “Keeping the Porch Light on in a Dark World.” The idea for this comes from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. In the previous parables, the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and seeks the stray; similarly, the woman leaves off everything and searches for her lost coin. But in the parable of the prodigal, the father remains at home and waits for the son “to come to himself.” (Luke 15:17).. Had the father left to seek the son, the son may have returned to an empty house, or to a very hostile elder brother. This is a clear picture of God and His lost children.
I am applying this to the church. As many leave the faith, perhaps taking with them some of the Father’s benefits, but squandering them on sinful abandonment of Christian morality, it is more necessary than ever to remain in the house of God, to keep the porchlight on, and to be ready to receive a repentant sinner or a repentant culture back to the faith.
Many Christians, in their eagerness to “reach out” to the backsliding culture, have followed it straight into the pigpen. When someone in this place “comes to himself,” how can we guide him out if we are there too? What help can we be if we are they?
These studies will be about matters of Christian orthodoxy and ethics that are under the most attack today–those instances where it is actually demanded that we leave home and join the younger son..But we know that we have an assignment to be faithful.
Topics will include: gender and sexuality, Biblical inerrancy, evolution and creation, socialism and communism, atheism, religious pluralism, multiculturalism, Bible doctrine and philosophy. I do not expect to break much new ground, although to some of what is offered here will sound new. What was old is new again.
Please email me with suggested topics