The Sweet Unity of Psalm 133
This sweet unity can only be ours through the one who was cut off in order that we might be forever grafted in to the fellowship that will never fail.
This Psalm is forward looking. As with many of the Ascent Songs, it is focused on Zion. Not merely as an earthly location, but something that pointed to the greater reality it was designed to represent. It was a tangible replica of the invisible reality of the new order of world to come – presented... Continue Reading
‘Whoever Is Ashamed of Me’: A Call to the Quietly Christian
Live like you know Christ, like you love Christ, like you are waiting unashamedly for Christ to return.
Indistinct and worldly “Christianity” is worthless. Salt that is no longer salty is not “good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13). Roads must part, decisions must be made: Christ or this world? The narrow path leads away from the broad, Lot cannot remain always in Sodom, the... Continue Reading
Building and Destroying, Transforming and Terrifying – All with a Word
This news of a thing done two thousand years ago is power today straight from another world.
Some seek wisdom and others seek signs. But we preach Christ crucified. Foolishness. Scandalizing. Where the magnificent gears of religious machinations turn, while the scrolls of philosophy endlessly unfurl, while the cult of spiritual thuggery keeps up its march of bloodshed and tyranny, we sing “Jesus loves me, this is I know. For the Bible... Continue Reading
Knowing… And Not Knowing God’s Will
We live in the balance of knowing God, and yet not knowing all the particulars of His will, and in that balance we find the essence of true faith.
There is an essential humility that comes in walking with the Lord. It’s the humility born of knowing that we can know the Lord, and yet not know the Lord. And that a claim to fully know and understand the will and ways of God is the height of hubris and presumption. Perhaps the tension of knowing, and yet... Continue Reading
Do Not Despise the Gentle Nudge
We should not despise the small and seemingly insignificant activities that keep us on the path of life.
Most preachers get into a deadly theological pit not with a backhoe, but with a spoon, one little scoop at a time. Paul wants his son in the faith to make a habit of ladling grace into his life rather than sin because even small consistent scoops of grace will keep him away from danger.... Continue Reading
Know the Truth then Contend for the Faith
In order to know the truth we should aim towards three disciplines:
Elisha was able to help his servant and contend for the faith because he knew God and knew His Word. Do you know God and His Word? The Lord calls us to meditate on His Word every day (Psalm 119:97), to rejoice in the Word (Psalm 119:162), and to value the Word more than gold... Continue Reading
What the Gospel is and What it is Not
Examine yourselves! If you have doubts about your salvation then now is the time to settle it with God.
If a professing Christian is unholy in their heart and actions then he or she has no hope of being counted among God’s people. On the other hand, the true Christian will be washed clean through regeneration and changed forever with a heart that loves God and His holiness while abhorring sin and evil. He... Continue Reading
God’s Providence Revealed in Scripture
God’s providence is very much an everyday reality
The Bible doesn’t reveal the god of Deism, who is mostly unconcerned and uninvolved with his creation. Scripture presents us with the one true God, who is close at hand (Jer. 23:23–24) not just in the sense that He is everywhere present with His creation but that He is present in and through the events of creation... Continue Reading
The Divine Mandate for Parents
I don’t think there’s a mandate to be found in sacred Scripture that is more solemn than this one.
That we are to teach our children the truth of God’s Word is a sacred, holy responsibility that God gives to His people. And it’s not something that is to be done only one day a week That we are to teach our children the truth of God’s Word is a sacred, holy responsibility that... Continue Reading
‘This Is My Beloved Son’: A Father’s Glimpse into the Heart of God
The transfiguration may give us as profound a peek into a father’s love for his son as we can find.
A father loves a daughter — and oh, do fathers love their daughters — as someone who is not like me but rather like the most important person on earth to me: my wife… A father looks at his son as one who will become what he is — a father — and so needs to learn... Continue Reading
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