The Foot of the Table
Our Lord highlights two things for our kingdom conduct in this world.
Jesus lays out the pattern for greatness in the kingdom. “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is... Continue Reading
God’s Gift to You Is Real Life
"For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building."
This cultural moment has conditioned us to want tangible rewards. But raising children, loving our spouses, and serving our local church—none of these provide a linear view of progress or accomplishment. Yet God has promised that He is doing His eternal work in and through us (Phil. 2:12–13). The unrecognized spheres in which we serve... Continue Reading
Live Not by Lies
Individual conscience and objective truth.
We must again reckon with our consciences—with the inescapable conviction that certain things are real, and therefore universally true, regardless of how we feel about them. If they’re true for everyone, then the loving thing is to have the courage to seek them, live according to them, and call everyone to do the same, especially... Continue Reading
Waiting on God
Are you looking elsewhere? The secret of every great spiritual movement is not moving. It is setting our eyes upon Him, our hearts in a determined trust, and moving only as He directs.
We want to be noticed for what we have done, but impatient faith that is not focused on God is no faith at all. It can only yield humanistic fruit, the fruit of the flesh that Paul describes. To wait is to understand your place. To wait is to realize who the great God of... Continue Reading
The Perfect Man
His life, death, and resurrection are the only works I’m trusting in.
When He was tempted, He never faltered. He never gave in. When He was tired, and hungry, the devil came and tried to turn His head. But Christ was victorious. When He dealt with His mother and unbelieving brothers, He was without sin. When He flipped tables and cracked the whip, He never sinned. The... Continue Reading
How Do we Know That we Are Not Deceived?
"Truth of the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ--all revealed in and by the Holy Scriptures."
You may have asked yourself at some time: “If all the unbelieving world is deceived, how may I know that I am not?” That is a good question; and you have several very strong “pillars” to support you. Principal among them is your Christ, the One who has united your humanity to His divinity, and... Continue Reading
Precious Affections
When God creates better loves in us.
There is only one escape—to ask God to fill you with new affections, his loves. For forever joy and peace, it’s wise to nurture new and better loves in the here and now. God alone is the source of all that is true, good and beautiful, and as fallen creatures, we need his loving hands... Continue Reading
An Eleven-Year Assault on Children’s Rights and Needs
Obergefell was a disaster, but the American conscience may be starting to take notice.
At its core, the natural family recognizes that the husband of a woman who gives birth is the father of the child. Thus the presumption of paternity, which stretches back to pre-colonial times, has allowed the spouse of a woman to be listed on the child’s birth certificate, uniting children to both biological parents in... Continue Reading
The Christian Position on Race Will Offend Almost Everyone
To despise a person because of his body is to swing at the God who made it.
Racial pride insults creation and racial hatred denies the gospel. A faithful church welcomes, disciples, loves and evangelizes without sorting souls by skin. America cannot stop talking about race because America has never known how to tell the truth about it. Race, as a God-created rank of human beings, is a lie. Racism, as... Continue Reading
Principled Polytheism and the PCA
A view on the Westminster Larger Catechism Questions 108 and 109
My position is derived from understanding the reason for the change to WLC 109 and the omitting of any change whatsoever to WLC 108. In WLC 109 regarding what sins are forbidden in the second commandment, the original version (1646) said that “tolerating a false religion” is breaking the second commandment. Our American forefathers removed... Continue Reading
Men With Chests
Where there are no men, destruction comes.
The promise stands: the gates of hell cannot withstand the advance of holy, righteous, dangerous men. The only question is whether we’ll rise up and take what’s been promised, or continue sitting while everything burns around us. There is a passage in the book of Ezekiel that should make our generation shake in its... Continue Reading
Newlyweds, Tend the Garden
A good marriage doesn’t grow just because we want it to. It has to be cultivated.
The most important thing in your marriage is not your marriage. It is your relationship with God. All of your marriage flows out of your relationship with him. God doesn’t merely hand you a shovel and tell you to try harder. He teaches husbands and wives to love with a love they first received from... Continue Reading
The Hammer and the Scimitar
History shows the dangers of the alliance between socialists and Islamists.
Loving God and our neighbor means restraining evil and promoting good, not standing aside while the hammer and the scimitar take turns chipping away the Christian foundations of our society. Tuesday night, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani saw three of his preferred congressional candidates defeat establishment-backed Democrats in New York primaries. Mamdani, who... Continue Reading
The Divine Goal: Theology Leads to God (Ad Deum Ducit)
We are preparing our eyes for the blinding, beautiful light of the face of God.
We study the attributes of God now so that we will not be total strangers to His beauty when we see Him on His throne. We study the person and work of Christ now so that we can begin to learn the language of the country we are marching toward. We live in an... Continue Reading
How Did Noah Point to Christ?
In response to the curse foisted upon creation by the first Adam, one now arises who will begin the process of deliverance from this curse.
While baptism threatens with the floodwaters of judgment those who would apostatize against His covenant, it marks off Christ’s own as those who have indeed passed through the judgment waters safely in the “ark” of His own person and work. Noah stands at a watershed moment in history (2 Peter 3:5–7). In doing so,... Continue Reading
The Value of Hardship
When we are able to lose everything because we know that we get to keep Jesus, this makes God look great to the world.
Anything that hardship can take or prosperity can give pales in comparison to the One with everlasting treasures at His right hand. He is infinitely valuable. Christian suffering proves to the world that God is great. Think about it. Everyone experiences suffering. Hardships and trials mark the human race. We all experience loss, adversity,... Continue Reading
Four Problems with Believing Faith Is a Matter of Free Will
If God cannot compel our will, God has no control and cannot fulfil any of His plans.
If God is not in control of the human will, if He is not sovereign over that, we are saying that we are sovereign. Not only are we sovereign, but God is impotent. We are in control and there’s nothing God can do about it. There’s nothing He can do to change it. This is... Continue Reading
PCA Minister Paul D. Kooistra Called Home to Glory
Dr. Paul D. Kooistra, 83, has entered the presence of his Savior after a year-long battle with cancer.
On July 1, 2026, Dr. Paul D. Kooistra, 83, entered the presence of his Savior after a year-long battle with cancer. A beloved preacher and writer, Dr. Kooistra served as coordinator of Mission to the World from 1994–2014. He is remembered for his strong leadership, passion for global missions, and commitment to teaching about the... Continue Reading
Presbyterian Polity and the American Revolution
By describing the American Revolution as a “Presbyterian rebellion,” the king [George III) was closer to the truth than anyone giving credit to Thomas Paine or John Locke.
Critiques of political rulers based on Presbyterianism was nowhere more pronounced in the case of English and Scottish exiles who brought the ideals of Geneva home to their respective realms. Among the first advocates of Presbyterianism, such as Knox in Scotland and Thomas Cartwright in England, this new church government not only questioned the rule... Continue Reading
Jubilee Celebration of American Independence, July 4, 1826
“The Great American Experiment” had proven itself and the nation had a promising future.
As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, recall the 50th Jubilee of July 4, 1826—when Americans gathered in Washington to mark the Founders’ “Great American Experiment” as a proven success. That same day, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each other, their passing on the Declaration’s golden anniversary seen by many as... Continue Reading
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Generosity?
It is not good to waste the resources that God has given you by using them foolishly.
Let us give generously and seek to help our brothers and sisters in need but let us also make sure that our generosity isn’t actually harming those we’re intending to help with it. Read: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 Christ commands us to be generous and charitable, particularly toward our brothers and sisters in Christ (Rom.... Continue Reading
She Kept Saying, “Quality of Life”
Best quality of life is radically different for the Christian and the non-Christian—God is in one and not the other.
For you and me as Christians, the best quality of life will have as its foundation our faith in Jesus Christ as our substitute, dying for our sins on the cross, and Him as our righteousness, our only way of acceptance before God. Recently, my wife and I were on an international flight. Sitting... Continue Reading
Asbury Theological Seminary Cut by United Methodist Church over Same-Sex Marriage Issue
The decision was attributed to Asbury’s objections to the new version of the denomination’s social principles that no longer solely affirm heterosexual marriage.
The denomination’s social principles were revised during its quadrennial 2024 General Conference, when delegates voted to remove from the UMC’s rule book a statement added in 1972 that called homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” (RNS)—Asbury Theological Seminary, a 103-year-old Kentucky evangelical seminary, is no longer approved as a school for United Methodist candidates for... Continue Reading
Who Was the Real Muhammad, and How Ought Christians Talk About Him?
Considering the Muhammad of tradition, the Muhammad of legend, and the Muhammad of history.
Muslims are present in our cities and neighborhoods in growing numbers, and the opportunity for gospel witness is real. Even the sensitive subject of Muhammad is not off-limits—it simply requires wisdom. Muslims today are questioning their faith at an unprecedented rate, in part because information once accessible only to specialists is now available to anyone... Continue Reading
When Civilization Forgets Genesis
The Moral Chaos of Rejecting the Creation Order
The answer to civilizational confusion is not retreat. It is faithful obedience.…Live like reality is real. Because it is. Live under Christ’s authority in ordinary ways. Be faithful in a world that is forgetting what faithfulness even looks like. Christians must remember that the hard soil is still God’s field. There are ideas so... Continue Reading
Don’t Let the Algorithm Win
Rejoicing in the reign of God.
In an age when rage-baiting, shrieking, and childish whining passes for public discourse, we must remain composed and stable. Not because we are aloof, but because we are controlled by the deep and pervasive conviction that God has installed His King on Zion (Psalm 2:6). There is no doubt that saints ought to rejoice.... Continue Reading
From President Jefferson’s Letter to the Chowan Baptists, June 1806
A letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Chowan Baptist Association in North Carolina on religious liberty.
“The happiness which our country enjoys in the pursuits of peace and industry ought to endear that cause to all its citizens, and to kindle their hearts with gratitude to the Being under whose providence these blessings are held. We owe to him especial thanks for the right we enjoy to worship him, every one... Continue Reading
Three Lies Fear Whispers in the Storm
The phrase "do not fear" is the most repeated command in Scripture.
When the storms of life expose misplaced faith and fear arises, encouragement can be found when, with each passing storm, we marvel a bit more at the power and authority of Christ. I love God’s word because it shows me the failures of God’s people. It does not give examples of those who had... Continue Reading
Matthew’s Unique Approach to Forgiveness
Matthew holds together cross and resurrection, suffering and joy, in a complex singularity.
Even though forgiveness of sin is not explicit throughout Matthew’s Gospel…we can see that it is indeed pervasively implicit through the use of many other metaphors, concepts, and actions. Jesus’s constant healings, cleansings, and blessings should be understood as manifestations of this same rescuing and forgiving. Forgiveness of Sins Through Death and Resurrection Several... Continue Reading
What About Bob?
There are real people all around you that you should love, and bear with, and encourage.
Don’t let the devil consume your mind with loving people in theory, and don’t let him drive you to despise the people that you actually know. Let’s be a people that love one another, not in word only, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). I’ve heard it said before that the reason... Continue Reading