The Underappreciated Blessing of Duty
The Bible gives a standard of duty that promises a joyful life.
Your personal hopes and dreams are always changing and burden you by their shifting goals. Duty, on the other hand, is constant and gives the peaceful rest of knowing what is required of you. When you hear the word “duty” what do you think of? A soldier? A parent? Someone doing something they don’t... Continue Reading
We Probably Need to Stop Saying “Prayer Works”
It’s interesting that we only seem to say "prayer works" when God happens to have done what we asked.
If prayer works, I want some of this prayer stuff. But the moment prayer appears to stop working—my illness didn’t disappear, my bank balance seems to be depleting, the things I keep asking God for don’t seem to be happening—well, prayer has lost its appeal. Prayer doesn’t seem to be working anymore. Of course,... Continue Reading
Evangelism, The Church, and Early Christian Ethics
The early church was so effective because they focused their time and energy on the renovation of hearts, which then bore fruit as they shone brightly in the world.
When preaching and teaching in the local church we frequently focus our moral instruction on the clear imperatives in the New Testament. We begin, and often limit, our assessment of a given situation by asking, “Does God allow it or prohibit it?” While the commands of the New Testament give us important guidance for developing... Continue Reading
Theology Learned in the Flames of Adversity
In hard times, when Luther often found himself terribly discouraged and downcast, he would turn to Melanchthon and say, “Come, Philipp, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm.”
Out of Luther’s dark distress shined this brightest light of confidence in God. Philip Schaff marvels that this monumental hymn could issue from such deep travails, saying, “The deepest griefs and highest faith often meet.” This was the case with Luther, as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was “born of deep tribulation and conquering... Continue Reading
Good Faith Subscription? (Part 2) Confessional Integrity in the PCA
There is a great deal of confusion about the role a healthy and functional confessionalism ought to play in the life and ministry of pastors, elders, and congregations.
If we are to recover our confessional integrity, brothers and sisters, we must do more than analyze what is wrong. We must take our own responsibility seriously to love and defend and promote a healthy adherence to the Westminster Standards, in the firm conviction that the theology, piety, and practice expressed and promoted in them... Continue Reading
You Can’t Have a Casual Relationship with Sin
Don’t believe the lies from outside or inside yourself telling you that you can have this kind of casual, occasional, relationship with sin.
Here is the creep of sin. Sin starts small – just a little compromise. But it never stays that way. We walk with it, then stand with it, then sit down right in the middle of it. And the most frightening part is that we never really intended to. It just sort of happened. Like... Continue Reading
Book Review of When Disability Hits Home by Paul Tautges with Joni Eareckson Tada
Tautges challenges able-bodied readers to consider the allegory of physical disability and the truths it communicates about our spiritual disability.
This book is not the work of a man who has analyzed the topic of disability from an ivory tower, but the work of one who has wrestled with the pressing realities and daily battles of living with the presence of a disability. If that person is you, maybe you too will read this book... Continue Reading
Why You Can’t Love Jesus and Condone Immorality
Much confusion about this issue arises from a misunderstanding of the gospel’s dividing line.
Based on Jesus’s words, we cannot love him and say it is “morally acceptable” to commit sexual immorality. We cannot love Jesus and say committing adultery, consuming pornography, engaging in homosexual relations, or engaging in sex as an unmarried person (whether adult or teen) is “morally acceptable.” Jesus doesn’t give us the option of loving... Continue Reading
Dealing with Decay, Dying and Death
Death stinks, as does suffering and decay. But it will not always be with us.
While many believers do tire of sin and self and this world and do long to depart and be with the Lord, the main way we should look at death and all that goes with it is with dislike, even disgust. As I see what happened to B. B. King, and is now happening to... Continue Reading
God Loves LGBTQ People More Than We Do
God isn’t tempted to lie about pornography, fornication, adultery—and especially, homosexuality and transgenderism. He loves sinners too much for that.
The Bible doesn’t whisper about sexual sin. God doesn’t whisper about his hatred for homosexuality and transgenderism—because he doesn’t whisper about his love and grace for repentant LGBTQ people. God loves LGBTQ people more than we do. So let’s believe what he says in the Bible. After all, if we do not believe what... Continue Reading
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