So Heavenly Minded That You’re No Earthly Good
When we are heavenly-minded, we are free to store up treasures in heaven. Conversely, we are also free to turn loose of all the earthly things we might hold onto.
Apart from God’s intervention, we would never have known how empty, lost, and dead we were in sin. But now our eyes have been opened. And now we can not only see the goodness of Jesus; looking back, we can see the truly desperate need. We are compelled, then, to be of earthly good in... Continue Reading
Providence Christian College Board Calls Dr. Steven B. Kortenhoeven As President
The Pasadena, California based college called Dr. Kortenhoeven to serve as the 4th president of Providence.
Promoting the importance of Reformed, Christian education has been a life-long passion of Dr. Kortenhoeven. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Dordt University and his doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Azusa Pacific University. He has served schools and colleges for 33 years in Florida, California, and Colorado, with the last 20 years... Continue Reading
The Light Shines in the Darkness and Is Not Apprehended (Part Two)
John’s Gospel tells us that God’s redemptive purpose in his Son was assured even before he fully entered his passion.
By hiding, Jesus, who is the Light, publicly dramatizes the truths John succinctly captures in the prologue: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not apprehend it” and “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:5, 11). Herein is his prophetic pronouncement of impending judgment.... Continue Reading
Biden’s New Regulation Reinforces Transgender ‘Orthodoxy’
Biden’s Department of Education has signaled the new transgender orthodoxy will now be legally enforced in the sphere of publicly financed education.
Truth-as-identity is not appealable beyond the assertion of identity. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to change this trajectory in the short term. Both Biden and his Education Department deserve condemnation for federalizing the issue. Yet as Trump’s Education Department made clear in 2017, they believe the issue of whether schools should accept the claim... Continue Reading
What Did Jesus Teach about Total Depravity?
The effects of sin are so prevalent that John the Baptist, Jesus, and his disciples preached a universal call for repentance in light of universal judgment.
It is clear that even God’s covenant people are sinners. For example, in Jesus’s answer to the Canaanite woman’s plea (“Have mercy . . . my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon”; Matt. 15:22) and the disciples’ strong suggestion (“Send her away . . .”; Matt. 15:23), he speaks of being “sent . . . to the... Continue Reading
Helping Teens Navigate a Sexualized Culture
We not only want our kids to know where babies come from, but we want them to know the Divine Designer of sex and sexuality.
We must understand that “the talk” is never going to be enough. Rather, we need to engage in “the talking.” Helping kids navigate the sexualized culture is an ongoing activity rather than a once-and-done endeavor to simply check off our parenting list. And like anything else in life, the more we talk, the easier it... Continue Reading
What Does It Mean to Bear Fruit?
Part of the result of our faith is that we will now accomplish the will of God by fulfilling the works He prepared for us before the beginning of time.
There is an interesting mention of fruit in Romans 1. Verse 13 says, “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.”... Continue Reading
Jesus And The Woman Caught In Adultery
The Lord acknowledged both justice and the unworthiness of anyone within the mob that day to carry out God’s law as God required.
Given the circumstances of no witness-accuser who possessed a desire for righteous judgment – the only one who could have put the woman to death and satisfied the intention of the law both in letter and spirit would have been God himself. Accordingly, one without sin may have thrown the first stone! By handling the difficult... Continue Reading
Stonewall Jackson: Saved by Providence
While Christians should never idolize any man, we can learn from and appreciate those who walked before us.
My story on researching Stonewall started in 2013 when I proposed a graduate-level research paper on the Civil War, proposing a paper titled God’s Friend or Foe: The Confederate Army. Being a Yankee, I aimed to prove how wrong the Confederates were. My professor kindly informed me I would be shocked by the Christianity found... Continue Reading
Do Egalitarians Need Safe Spaces?
The big question is whether egalitarianism is true in the first place.
Theology drives practice and culture, yet Viesca recommends downplaying theology in favor of pragmatic transformation. Again, she does not make a substantive case for the egalitarian position but rather assumes it to be true, while warning leaders against focusing too much on persuasion through Scripture. Rather, she argues that church leaders should focus their efforts... Continue Reading
Our Merciful High Priest
Jesus Christ, as the High Priest of the Church, was reliable before God and can be relied upon.
Never for a moment did his unspotted, perfect, obedience, hesitate or halt: from the heart, for the entirety of His life, His will and mind were aligned and allied sinlessly to God. Both tablets of the LORD, were harmoniously and persistently observed, even when facing the most extreme and difficult circumstances – from birth to... Continue Reading
3 Things You Should Know about Amos
Amos teaches us that covenantal privilege cannot be separated from the demands of obedience to God’s commands.
The role of the prophet was to mediate between God and His covenant people by declaring God’s word and encouraging obedience to His requirements. They were guardians of the kingdom, seeking to hold kings and other leaders accountable to God for their actions. They can be regarded as enforcement mediators of the covenant, dedicated to... Continue Reading
A Review: ‘A Christian Guide to Mental Illness’ by David Murray and Tom Karel Jr
The church should never “underestimate the power of including those suffering with mental illness and welcoming them in the church family.”
“The purpose of this book is to help the reader understand how the broken brain does not work, (analogy to a broken arm) to set the broken brain in the context of the gospel, and to discover how the church can bring comfort to the mentally ill and their families by watching for a Galatians... Continue Reading
Why Daily Bread Is Better
God wants us to trust his loving care, and he wants us to trust him daily.
Moment by moment, God answers. This is his daily bread. God shows us the next step, the next right thing to do. He gives us what we need for each conversation, for each moment of suffering, for each anxious thought, for each difficulty that feels overwhelming and beyond what we can bear. I know God... Continue Reading
The Rock
He is mighty, unchanging, immoveable, and faithful.
He is the One who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). He is the One who says, “”For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6). He is the One who, “does according to his will among the host of heaven... Continue Reading
What I Wish the Church would Understand about Disability
A supportive community makes all the difference for a child to thrive.
Disability often makes people uncomfortable, but that doesn’t need to be the case! Disability isn’t a dirty word! Don’t shy away but engage with disabled people and their families. Accessibility sometimes means doing things differently to how they’ve been done in the past. Change can be hard, but not being welcomed in the church is harder.... Continue Reading
Three Ways God Is Working Through Your Suffering
God is with us in our suffering.
When suffering comes, God doesn’t leave us to cope with it in our own strength. He is with us in our suffering just as he was with Peter, James, and John. You can be sure God is with you through all your ups and downs, good days and bad. There is no struggle that will... Continue Reading
Seeing Yourself Rightly
Self-Awareness
A man or woman with the proper view of themselves can be a strong yet humble force for the kingdom of God. What a mighty creature we can become when we realize who we are in Christ … and that all the glory goes to Him! Bill Wellons, one of the finest leaders and... Continue Reading
Knowing Whom We Have Believed
Calling Evangelicals to Repentance
Paul encourages Timothy, primarily, in two ways. First, he reminds Timothy that God has not given His ministers a spirit of timidity or cowardice (v. 7), but rather has furnished them with the potent and effective tools of power, love, and self-discipline. Timothy, therefore, should be unashamed of the “witness about our Lord,” or of... Continue Reading
The Story of Creation Gives Us Purpose
New book on creation theology orients readers beautifully to who God is and why we are his image bearers.
In his book, The Beginning and End of All Things, Dr. Klink attempted to point Christians to the other important questions that are being asked and answered in the first few chapters of Genesis and how they connect to the rest of Holy Scripture. “But I would like to argue that the biblical text is not... Continue Reading
It’s Not Always an Affection Problem
Affection Problem Verses Personality Trait
Not having his excellence spill out of us in the form of verbiage may not be a sign that we have an affection problem. It may just be evidence of a particular personality. It may be evidence of other perfectly innocent and ordinary things too. We shouldn’t be too quick to assume a lack of... Continue Reading
Mere Men
The worst evaluation that could be given of true believers is that they are “walking like mere men.” True believers are Spirit-men.
We were made for so much more. Fearfully and wonderfully made, we were created a little lower than the angels in the image of God. God has gone to extraordinary lengths—even the death of His Son—to conform you to His image. And there is much to do. The great tragedy of life would be... Continue Reading
Life and Death are in the Power of the Fingers
Why is it Hard to Tame our Fingers?
When we are ready to post on social media, He sees our motives, He sees our content, and He sees the way we communicate this content. If we are true believers, this awesome awareness will make it our chief concern to please Him in all that we do (2 Cor. 5:9), knowing that we will... Continue Reading
God has Your Good Graces in Mind
Resting in His Sacramental Love in Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper work together, as the catechism notes, to each in their own way testify to the one covenant of grace made in Genesis 3:15 and reconfirmed in circumcision and Passover, and then in the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 and stated by Christ in Mark 14 and Peter in Acts 2.... Continue Reading
The Law’s End and Application
A firm grasp on the goal of God’s law will take your application skills to the next level.
Sometimes, robust reflection on the end or purpose of God’s law will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: politics, leadership, authority, liberty, influence—to name just a few. Deepen your grasp of the proper purpose of the law, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level. The End... Continue Reading
Read John Calvin’s Mail to Discover His Theological Development
Calvin didn’t practice letter writing absent from theological implications. These implications can be identified in three particular contours—Calvin’s views on friendship, the church, and the unifying power of faith.
Letter writing as a discipline helped Calvin consider his words and his calling, preserved his connection to the ministry in Geneva, and kept his friendships flourishing both in Strasbourg and beyond. While he remained in Strasbourg for a short time, it was because of his correspondences that his return to Geneva was smooth and his... Continue Reading
What Is God’s Plan for Your Life Here and Now?
We need to be faithfully and patiently present to all of those who are near us as we settle in for the long haul.
Though our true hope and eternal future do not rest on temporal things, such as plans for political power or an ultimate cultural transformation, we are not to neglect this creation that God has so graciously and providentially provided to us. As he is patient, so we ought also to be patient, living in the... Continue Reading
Failing Hurts Most When Success Defines Us
Where Do You Find Your Worth?
Failure is a reality of life just as success is a reality of life. Those failures don’t define us. We should allow the scriptures to shape our priorities and our view of ourselves. We should also forge real relationships with each other so that we provide support and guidance to those of us who need... Continue Reading
Entertainment and the Death of a Culture
The iron grip of endless entertainment impacts everything, even the churches.
I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of... Continue Reading
Review of John Gerstner by Jeffrey S. McDonald
Dr. McDonald shows that Gerstner was influential from the lectern, in the pulpit, and through writing for a variety of publications.
Jeffrey McDonald has provided a thought-provoking biography supported by over a thousand footnotes that document sources including Gerstner’s writings, reviews of his writings, recordings, judicatory records, letters, web material, and interviews of his students and colleagues. The nineteen-page bibliography shows a wide variety of sources accessed by McDonald. The book provides another angle on the... Continue Reading