Author: Heath Lambert

Chaos, Correction, and Confrontation We are living in times of unsustainable chaos and pain. You see it in the wicked incompetence of elected officials, the moral confusion and corruption from cultural influencers, the convictional weakness of our religious leaders, and even in the spiking cost of eggs, milk, and rent. Everything is in a chaotic mess. Unfortunately, chaos is not the kind of thing you can drift out of. You have to bust out. It is a fact of history that a disruptive confrontation is required in order to correct chaos. Let me explain the way this works. Three Kinds of Actors In times of chaos and confrontation, at least three different kinds of actors exist. The first kind of actors are the aggressors. These are the bad guys who create the chaos through evil actions,...

The Best and Worst of Times One of the very best Christmases of my life started out as one of the worst. It happened when I was in the fifth grade. Back then, my mother was depressed, completely enslaved to alcohol, and was violently abusive to me and my twin brother. Things always got worse in the lead-up to Christmas, and that year was no exception. Mom was so consistently drunk and disoriented that she was not going to work, was not sending us to school, and was not even trying to care for us. We had not had a regular meal in days. My oldest brother was serving in the military at that time and called to check on us. He listened to all that was going on and immediately called our dad to tell him we needed help very badly. This was important because my mom had moved us away from our...

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Proverbs 24:11 Life in a Dobbs World On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Just like that, a half-century of court-imposed abortion ended, and we went from living in a world defined by Roe to one defined by Dobbs. As grateful as all Christians are for the decision, we also must admit that life in a Dobbs world has been more dangerous for unborn babies than many anticipated. In this Dobbs world, we face three emergencies that require the best of us. The Political Emergency Dobbs directed the fight for life back to the states with mixed results. Since Dobbs, the number of abortions has increased,...

When Gospel Ministry Makes a Mess . . . I am writing to encourage ministers of the gospel who feel overwhelmed. I want to do that by thinking about the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Paul had one of the most effective ministries in human history, but his reputation in the city of Ephesus was complete trash. As Paul preached the Word of God, he received numerous unpleasant responses. For starters, he developed a determined enemy named Demetrius, who was committed to opposing his work (Acts 19:24-25). In response to the pot-stirring of Demetrius, a riot broke out full of people who were confused about most things except how much they hated Paul (Acts 19:28-29). This ruckus placed Paul’s companions in jeopardy simply because they were his friends (Acts 19:29). The riotous crowd placed Paul...

The 2024 election is over. After years of campaigning, two assassination attempts, a change at the top of the Democrat party ticket, endless fact-checking, countless polls, and spending almost $16 Billion, Americans finally made their choice. That choice was to remove political power from the Biden-Harris administration and to return it to former president Donald Trump. That decision will create joy for some, and despair for others. Here are five ways every Christian can respond regardless of how you feel about the results. 1. Pray One of the few explicit commands in the Bible about political engagement is the demand to pray for our leaders. “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we...

Voting and Christian Morality One week away from an election of tremendous consequence, Christians face three logical options. First, they could vote for Kamala Harris. Some Christian leaders have encouraged this, with one stating in a now-deleted post, “Never Trump. This time Harris. Always Jesus.” Most Christians are unlikely to follow this advice, but some will. Second, they could disengage from the political process in some way. A number of ways exist to do this, which include abstaining from voting, refusing to cast any ballot for president, or selecting a third-party candidate. This option marginalizes your political voice but is an option for those with problems of conscience. Because it is a sin to violate your conscience, Christians must have great patience with their brothers...

Communication Quarrels Christians fight about everything these days. Christian parents argue about how to raise the kids and spend money. Church members bicker about how to vote in the presidential election. Denominational leaders fight about the best way to pursue abuse reform. Even biblical counselors debate which practitioners are most infected with worldly thinking. All communication has at least two sides: the speaker and the listener. My words here are about the responsibility we all have to listen well. The Bible says we must “Be quick to hear and slow to speak” (James 1:19). This passage requires all Christians to slow down and truly understand what someone is saying before we respond and make matters worse. Here are five personal questions to help all of us be better...

Last week, thousands of biblical counselors gathered in Fort Worth, Texas, for the annual meeting of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). I was honored to be a speaker for this event, and First Counseling, the counseling ministry of First Baptist Church, hosted a booth in the exhibitor hall. Representatives from First Baptist gave away anti-zombie stickers to anyone who visited the booth. We gave away many hundreds of these stickers which were a tremendous hit. When I returned home from the conference, I received a very kind and thoughtful email from a brother in Christ who, though not at the conference, heard about the stickers, was concerned about them, and encouraged me to address the matter publicly. After thinking carefully about this, I have decided to heed...

[Heath Lambert recently edited a collection of biblical counseling essays that will be released in October as A Call to Clarity. This article is an adapted version of his introduction to that book.] Wishing Wells and the Word of God One of the most famous and funny accounts from the lore of the Lambert Family involved a debate over the existence of a wishing well. The conflict began when my daughter was just old enough to speak in choppy sentences. She insisted that there was a wishing well by the long, winding road that led to our house in those days. Her older brother thought she was full of beans and was bold enough to say so. He reasoned to his younger sister that he had been driving down that road longer than she, and he had never seen one. Furthermore, he assured her that wishing...

Disappointment and Disgust I learned of Steve Lawson’s “inappropriate relationship” the way I usually learn of news in evangelicalism: through text message. I was in a meeting when my phone started shaking with texts from friends all over the country. Those messages fit into the broad categories of disappointment and disgust. Some were heartbroken by the news of disqualifying sin in the life of a man who had meant so much to them. They know this creates pain in the lives of everyone involved and feel overwhelmed by it all. Others were angered by the latest black mark on the reputation of the church from a man who was not what he appeared to be. The nature of Lawson’s sin is unclear, but for many of us, these problems are starting to feel like an epidemic destroying individuals,...