What My 10 Year Old Son Taught Me At a Funeral
I thought I had brought him to the funeral. But God used him to minister to us.
Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Children often believe what adults complicate. They trust where we hesitate. They speak with a simple confidence that reminds us of truths we’ve allowed grief, fear, or busyness to cloud. Birthdays are supposed to be filled with... Continue Reading
Great Expectations
God sovereignly determines the times and places in which each man lives, to the end that they might find Him and make Him known.
Consider the Lord’s response to the man as He and His disciples make their way back into the boat: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). Bold of the Lord to assume the poor man had... Continue Reading
We Need a Thicker View of God’s Love
Union with Christ puts us into union with his people.
Since Christian life is a response to the love of God, and Jesus is the One who leads that response, from first to last we encounter love and grace in him. As those united to our Messiah, we’re also recipients of his life and activity. We can be so familiar with the central doctrines of... Continue Reading
Doctrines of Demons
The Bible tells us that Satan parades as an "angel of light."
We must stay alert and sober to this demonic invasion through solid Biblical teaching and living according to the grace of God and the power of His Spirit. Be careful. A demonic spirit with their demonic doctrines will come in many forms—teaching, literature, movies, art, social media, etc., seeking to capture our minds and hearts,... Continue Reading
Sleepless Nights and What God Has to Say About Them
“The keeper of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4).
Jesus came offering rest to weary sinners. And the book of Hebrews tells us that a greater Sabbath rest still awaits the people of God. Every sleepless night reminds us that we still live in a fallen world. We are not yet home. Fear remains. Sorrow remains. Death remains. Anxiety remains. But these things are... Continue Reading
Dear Pastor, You Must Prioritize Godliness over Giftedness
Through his word, God nourishes us, strengthens us, and helps us to grow in godliness so that we can be better pastors/preachers.
We must teach and preach, but our primary influence is through our lives and the example they set. Leadership is influence, and there is no greater influence than our lives. It doesn’t matter how dynamic a preacher may be, example is more powerful than precept. Precept riding on the back of example is more powerful... Continue Reading
Amy Carmichael’s Common Work for the Lord
The servant is not above his master, and it is not the concern of the servant to decide which work is great and important, and which is small and unimportant.
“If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider ‘not spiritual work’ I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) is well known as the... Continue Reading
The Shield That Puts Out the Fire
Faith is the shield that catches what the enemy throws before it ever reaches you.
A shield is only as strong as what it’s made of, and faith gets its strength from knowing God’s word. You can’t hold up a promise you don’t know. The woman who’s spent time in Scripture has a shield ready when the fire comes, because she knows what God said and she can raise it... Continue Reading
The Mother of All Heresies
How pastoral shipwreck starts long before the scandal goes public.
It is not uncommon for a young man to suddenly get interested in postmillennialism and start pontificating about Christianity and politics while his own life is riddled with sin and falling apart. It’s easier to have convictions about politicians should do in Washington, DC than to fight and kill sin in your own heart. A... Continue Reading
PCA Minister and RTS Professor, James Hurley, Called Home to Glory
Reformed Theological Seminary Mourns the Loss of Professor Emeritus Dr. James “Jim” Hurley
Dr. Hurley joined the faculty of RTS Jackson in 1985 and became the longest-serving residential faculty member in the seminary’s history. Throughout nearly four decades of teaching, he faithfully prepared students for ministry by helping them think deeply about the integration of theology, Scripture, and counseling. JACKSON, Miss. — Reformed Theological Seminary mourns the passing... Continue Reading
PCA Minister and Covenant Seminary Professor, Dr. Robert I. Vasholz, Called Home to Glory
as Dr. Robert I. Vasholz, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, went to be with the Lord on July 16, 2026.
In 1972, he came back to Covenant Seminary to serve as Director of Admissions, Assistant Dean of Students, and Instructor of Hebrew. He was appointed to the Seminary’s full-time faculty in 1975. In 1976, he received a Master of Arts degree from St. Louis University and, in 1977, a Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree from... Continue Reading
Learning the Logic of Leviticus 16
The day of all days.
Leviticus 16 is the center of the Pentateuch, and so the foundation of the whole Bible. It began recalling the sober scene of the death of the disobedient sons of Aaron. The whole Bible has to do with this Day, because the center of the Bible is Jesus Christ. The death of Christ wasn’t out... Continue Reading
Megaphones, Not Magic Words
Trading the empty promises of the prosperity gospel for the true glory of our Rock and Redeemer.
We were made to declare much about God. We were not made to declare health and wealth; instead, we must be like David, asking God for the meditation of our hearts and the words of our mouths to be acceptable to Him. If we only meditate on the sickness that has not been healed, if... Continue Reading
The Importance of Studying the Westminster Standards on the Sacraments
Studying the Westminster Standards on Sacraments will help us understand them as Christ intended, as gracious signs and seals through which the Holy Spirit strengthens, nourishes, and comforts the faith of God’s people.
The sacraments do not merely tell us something. God uses them to promise, confirm, strengthen, and nourish faith. Their efficacy rests upon the work of the Spirit joined to Christ’s word of institution and promise, not upon the elements themselves or the intentions of the administrator. One thing I would encourage PCA teaching and... Continue Reading
A Pocket Guide to Picking a Fight with Sin, the Flesh, the Devil
To laugh as you face trouble and battle with the Evil One and his minions is quite fitting in response to the command of James in James 1:2–4.
Holy laughter. This is not often included the list of tools, nevertheless the Bible is full of references to joy. In Nehemiah 8:10, Nehemiah tells the people “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Our Lord demonstrates His joy by rejoicing over His people with song (Zeph. 3:17), but also laughing at the vain... Continue Reading
J. Gresham Machen: Where He Died Is Important
“So grateful for active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”
As it happened, Machen succumbed to pneumonia in Bismarck, North Dakota, on January 1, 1937. Not only how he died but where he died is significant. Machen gave up not just the wealth and opportunity his elite family afforded but the privileged life of a Princeton scholar. The mission is driven by the message, not... Continue Reading
Maybe Your Friends Are Why You’re Not Having Kids
Two sides of the same social collapse.
Having supportive friends raised the share of couples intending to have another child from around 30 percent to about 45 percent. Put simply: ambient culture sets the aspiration, but real-world friends lead to actual births. A society can be awash in pro-family influencers and still be barren if nobody is willing to babysit. Friendship, though,... Continue Reading
Why Christians Should Create and Enjoy Art
As image bearers of the ultimate Artist, let us reclaim and give this gift for His glory.
Art is not something just to be analyzed, but also to be enjoyed. The late 20th-century philosopher Frederick Buechner said, “Beauty is to the spirit what food is to the flesh.” Art raises our imagination and ennobles what it touches. Think of the great art you’ve seen that communicated so much more than words. Yet... Continue Reading
Who Was Mary Slessor?
Her memorials stand as a reminder for the church not to rely on comfortable arrangements.
As James Luke wrote in The Record in 1904, “Where the church has failed, a single woman has stepped into the breach.” But Slessor would have put it in simpler terms: “After all, it comes back to this: Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and he will look after the results.” There is something... Continue Reading
Are You Tired of Injustice in the World?
God’s born-again family will forever “marvel and glorify Him” for His glorious justice.
They will pay the penalty of “eternal destruction away from the Lord’s presence.” What greater judgment could there be than to be eternally and irrevocably separated from the presence of God? To live separated from His presence eternally will be the greatest judgment possible. But remember, it is a judgment that those who ignore and... Continue Reading
God’s Grace When We Stray
Return to God. Stop the straying. Exchange the restlessness of being a wanderer on the road with the rest of being at home with the Father.
For whatever reason, your heart and thoughts shifted, and it led you down a path that you’re not proud of or that seems so foolish looking back. And like David, you know the grace and kindness of the God who did not forsake you there or give up on you. Even in ordinary and small... Continue Reading
When Life Gets Busy, Keep Abiding
We can pursue holy leisure and then undertake righteous activity for his name’s sake.
Holy leisure sounds lovely, but what does it look like in the middle of ordinary life? Many associate a contemplative life with a monastic one — long, uninterrupted hours in study and prayer. While that may be desirable to some, it’s unattainable for most. In our busy modern lives, is it possible to be both... Continue Reading
Dialogue 52 — Tomorrow
If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience’ sake. But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.” (NKJV)
Ignorance of the law is never an excuse in court. We’re expected to know what the speed limit is, or the catch limit on a fishing license, or which species are protected, or whatever. Right, but with sin, knowledge matters. This is because sin is fundamentally rebellion against God. It’s all about what’s in the... Continue Reading
Removing the Masks
Do we bring it to the cross and there behold our precious Savior bearing our many sins, specifically our sin of hypocrisy? Do we long to remove the masks?
The hypocrite will desist from drunkenness, deceit, theft, idolatry, immorality, and a host of other sins while secretly holding tight to the sin of hypocrisy. The reason is simple: Hypocrisy is rooted in pride, which births an insatiable desire for praise and esteem. How do we deal with a sin so deeply embedded in the... Continue Reading
Reconciliation
For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, bearing the punishment (taking the thrashing), not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word, the ministry, the preaching, the sounding out of the good news of reconciliation.
Where the word ‘reconciliation’ or ‘reconciled’ is, you usually find the word ‘enemy’ or ‘enemies’ too. What is in view is the reconciliation of enmity. But by Christ’s cross he has not only reconciled men but also ‘things’. What does that mean? Are things, natural things, worlds, reconciled with God through the death of Christ?... Continue Reading
Contend In The Courts Of The Church
Contend in the courts of the church, for you are contending for the peace and purity of the people for whom Christ died.
I have seen instances where a matter was before the Presbytery, discussion ensued, and a decision was reached. Afterwards, I have talked to men who admitted they wished they had stood and spoke for or against the matter. They regretted not standing and speaking. There are some who are vague and unclear in their arguments... Continue Reading
The Secret of a Happy Life
I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Psalm 16:8
If the Lord Jesus, the man of grief, a mourner all his days, yet said the lines had fallen unto him in pleasant places, and he had a goodly heritage, it must be the more possible for us to rise to the like content, if we follow his rule and live according to his example.... Continue Reading
Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy."John 16:20
There are times when we can say, “Now, Lord, we can sympathize with you better than we ever did before, for we have felt somewhat as you did in your agony here below.” We have sometimes felt as though that prophecy had been fulfilled to us, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized... Continue Reading
The Room I Can’t Name
Find out what your children are being taught this year, then teach them something truer before the world gets the first word.
A generation inherits the word “Christian” with none of the weight, catechized by the feed instead of the faith, because we assumed one hour on Sunday could hold its own against ten thousand hours of formation pointed the other way. The culture is not waiting for our permission to disciple our children. It is already... Continue Reading
Why Comfort Is Spiritually More Dangerous than Suffering
If eternity is real, comfort is not the highest good. And if the spirit matters more than the body, then the greatest danger may not be pain. The greatest danger may be never needing God badly enough to seek Him.
The wisest man who ever lived still fell when there was too little back pressure and too few consequences. Suffering, by contrast, often breaks the illusion. It reminds us that we are fragile. It exposes false gods. It strips away pride. It teaches compassion. It forces questions we would rather avoid: Who am I? Why... Continue Reading