Knowing God’s Beauty Through Correspondent Love
The perception of God’s beauty is an experience known through participative love.
Correspondent love pursues the good of all that God is; it pursues the pleasure of God himself. Christians love God because of what God is for them, and because of what God is. They love his need-meeting ability, and they love his excellence. What can we conclude about God’s beauty and how to perceive... Continue Reading
World
Worldliness, however, is not something we do, but rather it is something we believe.
This domination of the world over man is seen today in every area of life. The popular phrase, “I am my own person,” is false and foolish, because every person is dominated by the world. For example, most people just “follow the trends,” the trends of dress, hair style, morality, and countless other things. Most... Continue Reading
Looking To God
The Lord rules this world.
This truth seems simplistic. God is in control. While we want more answers to questions about the hows and whys of God’s plan, this is enough to give us peace and strengthen our faith. This basic and simple truth of the Scripture puts us on solid ground so we can stand in a world turned... Continue Reading
Christian, Do You Love God’s Law?
God’s law provides security and direction for the whole of life.
“You’ve got to love the law” has a double meaning. You’ve got to love it—it is a command. But at the same time, “you’ve got to love it” because it is so good. Of course it is. It is a gift from your heavenly Father. At a PGA Tour tournament in October 2015, Ben Crane disqualified... Continue Reading
The Ethics of the COVID Vaccine
Worries about the safety and the ethics of the various COVID-19 vaccines are understandable.
The unprecedented speed at which the various vaccines were developed, reducing a process that often takes years to mere months, is an extraordinary accomplishment. Still, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder if ethical and safety corners were cut to bring the vaccine to market so fast. Recently, a Wisconsin pharmacist was arrested for attempting to... Continue Reading
Wonderfully Made
Marvel over God’s forming you the way you would regard any work of engineering and art.
How awesome it is to look out and up to God’s majestically created world and universe for a transcendent feeling that speaks to our own smallness. But we are also to look down and within ourselves and even to our mother’s womb and feel so intimately and intricately significant. For God made us, and wonderfully.... Continue Reading
The Deadly Sins of Proverbs 6:16-19: The Twisted Heart
Remember the LORD’s response to wicked hearts: He hates them.
In the midst of the confusion and chaos, recognize that you don’t need to know everything that is going on in the culture, nor can you control it. Remember however, that God knows, sees, and hates all that is an affront to His holiness. I doubt that many readers will have any difficulty accepting... Continue Reading
Unprecedented
To think that because we haven’t seen an event before that that event is without precedent is not only to be ignorant of history
There have been—and continue to be—much harder experiences for Christians than anything we’ve seen yet. Those Christians thought and wrote about their circumstances, and we should seek their wisdom. We don’t need to start from scratch on these topics. We’re just not that special. These are not unprecedented days. That’s important to say, because unprecedented has... Continue Reading
Spurgeon, Atonement, and Your Life in Christ
“Christ is our life.”
For Spurgeon, the atoning work of Jesus illuminated and enlivened his piety towards a faith marked by good works, and he emphasized the centrality of the cross in our union with Christ, union with one another, and our mission in this life. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892), the famed “prince of preachers,” navigated his life... Continue Reading
When the Wicked Prosper: A Biblical Perspective
Live by faith, not by sight, as you experience the harsh realities of life in a fallen world.
I can’t think of a greater book to turn to in troubling times than I Peter. This epistle was written to encourage believers who are being persecuted for their faith. In this book, Peter exhorts suffering saints to passionately pursue a life of holiness in light of the hope that we have in Christ (I... Continue Reading