Christmas Day Worship in America
The culture celebration has become a hindrance to the very response demanded of the incarnation.
When Christmas lands on a Sunday, I often think that a great test is set before those who claim to follow Christ. Who and what are they really worshipping? Family? Sentimentality? People need to think beyond the mere fact of the birth of Christ to what his work accomplishes and where we are led in... Continue Reading
7 Encouragements in the Christian Struggle for Perseverance
Christians have a duty to endure. But how do we ready ourselves for it?
God has not called us to endure for nothing. There are eternal rewards which accrue to our accounts based on our perseverance. “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). One moment in glory there will make up for the hardship we endure here. ... Continue Reading
Celebrate Christmas with Your Kids, Because They Already Believe in God
If we want them to celebrate Jesus, we need to help them see that the Christian worldview is reasonable and evidentially true.
Jesus matters so much to the history of humans, that the truth about Jesus can be reconstructed from the books and writings of authors, the historic paintings, etchings, and sculptures of artists, the lyrics of classic and contemporary songwriters, the campus buildings and founding charters of the world’s most prestigious universities, the writings of the... Continue Reading
A World Awash in Sheer Monkery
The modern world and its new forms of works righteousness.
While our modern world may not speak with the same theological vocabulary, modern people face just as much pressure to prove that we are right with ourselves and right with the world. We may not ascend a holy staircase on our knees, but many of us daily count our steps and count our calories. We... Continue Reading
Pastor, Preach Christology at Christmas
There are few times in the year that invite such concentrated Christological meditation like Christmas.
The Christmas season does more than just rehearse the birth story of Jesus. It also calls pastors to ponder the mysteries of the eternal Son become flesh. To celebrate the birth of Christ this year, our church is a reading through Isaiah, and in seven sermons I am preaching the whole book to show... Continue Reading
Any Unchecked Sin Is Ruinous
There is not a human alive who does not struggle every day with some sin that, if left unchecked, will bring him or her to spiritual ruin.
The reality is we are all daily in need of confession and repentance, daily in need of counsel and accountability within the body of Christ, and daily in need of longsuffering grace in order to strive together as Christians. Do not put off this vital warning until tomorrow. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us,... Continue Reading
Allow Me to Vent: How Not to Be a Grumbling Israelite
The danger with grumbling is that it comes naturally to us all as well as being so easy to excuse and even justify.
If we simply want a guilt-free moment to complain, then we are guilty of the sin of grumbling and also guilty of attempting to justify our sin rather than stomping on its head. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not justify or excuse our sins, even the seemingly little ones, but let us put... Continue Reading
The Darkness Does Not Win
The True Light, which gives light to everyone, has come into the world.
If God can summon light into existence when there was only darkness, surely He can send His light into the world with assurance of complete success, no matter how impossible the odds. For this is the miracle and the wonder of Christmas: The Light of the world was born in the darkness of night, as... Continue Reading
How Is Jesus “‘Everlasting Father”?
How do we make sense of this unusual title for the Messiah?
Isaiah’s basic meaning is that the Messiah will be fatherly in his love and concern for the people of God. He will care for the household of God just as a righteous and devoted Israelite dad would look after his children. There is one passage that each of us will hear a dozen times over Christmas:... Continue Reading
Emmanuel (God with Us), Even Now
For Christ to be God in human flesh he must also be God beyond human flesh.
Today, we stand on the other side of Christ’s first coming and long for his ultimate return. As we live in this time between Christ’s first advent and his second, the interadventum, we live in faith that although he is bodily absent from us, the ascended Emmanuel has not abandoned us. In John‘s prologue... Continue Reading
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