32 Random Thoughts about the Local Church
If you want to get the greatest benefit from the worship services, you need to plan ahead.
It is far better to arrive at church each week as a worshipper than a critic. It is far better to determine you will seek out and enjoy whatever good you can find in the church than to identify and nitpick every weakness. It will be better for you and better for everyone else if... Continue Reading
“God Gave Daniel Favor and Compassion”: Daniel 1:8-21, Part Two
Daniel’s Prophecy Is about Much More than Resisting Temptation
For Christians, Daniel’s obedience points ahead to Jesus’s perfect obedience.[12] As Daniel resisted Nebuchadnezzar’s food and devotion to Babylonian deities, Christians see in this a small foreshadowing of Jesus resisting the temptation to bow to Satan but one time in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world (cf. Matthew 4:1-11). As God gave Daniel... Continue Reading
Sanctification and the Holy Spirit: Theme #7 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism
Our sanctification also brings God glory—for at least two key reasons.
We rely on the Spirit to apply to us all the blessings of Jesus. Jesus accomplishes redemption and the Spirit applies it to us. Christ’s death purchased life, and that life is manifested in us by the power of the Spirit, who is a person, who will do what He wills, not just a power... Continue Reading
Concupiscence. It’s Not Just About Sex.
What are the implications of the Reformation understanding of concupiscence for believers today?
By teaching us to name our sin, this doctrine gives us hope for growth in Christ. Paul wants Christians to be aware of their remaining sin, but he doesn’t want us to think we’re trapped. He calls us to mortify our sinful nature again and again until we reach glory (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:5ff.). How do we do this?... Continue Reading
American Idolatry: The Golden Calves and High Places of the American Church
We commit idolatry when we put anyone or anything in place of God, including a mental image of God that does not align with Scripture.
When we imagine God differently than how Scripture describes Him, we are actually forging an idol in our minds. Idolatry begins in our minds when we exchange the truth of God for our own “truth”: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man... Continue Reading
How to Love People Who Feel Impossible to Love
Love that stretches beyond what’s possible displays the glory of God.
Brother or sister, if you are to love the “unlovables” in your church, you must begin to grasp how unlovable you were when Christ chose to put his love on you, and how unlovable you remain today even as you are secure in his love. “But That’s Impossible” Is the Whole Point God often... Continue Reading
Grace, Grace, All the Way Down
Or, how to not be an ungrateful whiner.
The sum of our complaints is neatly captured in God’s challenge to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Here then is what all our murmuring amounts to: not justified expressions of displeasure, but rank rebellion against the King of heaven; clay daring to find... Continue Reading
When Grief Like Sea Billows Roll through Your Holidays
I learned how to mourn when my mom lost her mind, and then her life, to dementia.
Losing my mom has made me recognize afresh that I am a child of weakness. My strength indeed is small. The loss of a loved one removes our veneer of self-confidence, our masks of self-sufficiency. C. S. Lewis said that the death of a loved one is like an amputation. So, until we meet again in that... Continue Reading
Can’t We All Just Get Along in the SBC?
The SBC has no official power over any congregation, for better or for worse.
A church not in friendly cooperation with the SBC cannot seat messengers. What must a church do in order to be in “friendly cooperation” and thereby to seat messengers? Among other things, such a church must have “a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith.” I just read... Continue Reading
WCF Chapter 17: Of the Perseverance of the Saints—John 10:22–30
God’s decree of election is fixed.
You must persevere. To be sure that you will never fall “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10). But the way saints persevere is not in their own strength. We fall and we fail. But we keep coming back to the cross. Many people suppose that “true... Continue Reading
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