12 Books I Wish I Had Read as a New Christian
Help for the new believer to better understand the Bible.
After attending a wonderful seminary later in life and reflecting back on my early years as a believer, here are twelve books I wish I had read as a new Christian (some of the below books were available at the time and some have been published more recently). There are a lot of books... Continue Reading
Religious Leaders Bless Child Sacrifices Sites
God’s name and reputation is being maligned with the murder of unborn babies.
Any modern-day religious leaders thinking they are doing God a service by blessing what he hates are as good as an example as any of rank apostasy and moral depravity in our churches. A new religious development to be aware of: The headline goes like this: “Priests hold ceremony to bless child offerings to... Continue Reading
The Goodness of Prosperity
On the Connection between Obedience and Earthly Blessing
In the end, even wealth and prosperity itself is worthless if it is not enjoyed with gratitude and in humble service to the Lord, as well as open-handed generosity to the saints: “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it” (Proverbs 15:16). At the same time,... Continue Reading
Dawkins’s Gender Dilemma
The concepts of maleness and femaleness typically do a lot more than refer to biological differences.
Gender theory may seem far-fetched, but if the body has no intrinsic telos and evolution grants authority only to efficient causality, it is hard to understand why an evolutionary scientist would necessarily regard it as problematic. On December 30, Richard Dawkins resigned from the honorary board of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) after... Continue Reading
The Heart of Jesus Reveals the Father of Mercies
The Father’s heart is just as filled up with love for you as the Son’s.
As you consider the Father’s heart for your own life, let him be the Father of mercies to you. He is not cautious in his tenderness toward you. He multiplies mercies for your every need, and there is nothing he would rather do. “Remember,” said the Puritan John Flavel, “that this God is your Father,... Continue Reading
California Fires: A Warning from God
When terrible disasters strike a nation, the people should turn to the Lord in fear and repentance.
The world is focused on fire. Let that focus be the means God gives you to plead with the dying. Can you imagine the Judgment arriving and your mother, father, child, or church member being with the tares? Worse yet, can you imagine in those final moments them turning to you and asking, “Why didn’t... Continue Reading
Critical Race Theory Is an Inversion of History
Tribalism and racism were universal until Britons and Americans developed a new way of thinking.
There’s a simple explanation for what critical race theory calls “white privilege.” Because the Anglosphere developed prosperous modernity and gave it to the world, English-speakers were naturally the first to enjoy it. People initially outside that culture of innovation are still catching up. It’s a tribute of sorts to critical race theory’s success that... Continue Reading
What Is a Man? What Is a Woman?
Though the culture is confused, there is no reason for Christians to be confused.
Our careful scientific assessment of basic human sexual physiology—an evaluation completely consistent with our commonsense understanding of human sexual development—clears up the confusion that many experience regarding sex and gender. On August 9, 2024, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won the gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics. The celebration was clouded, though,... Continue Reading
Approaching the King
It is a profound revelation that the God to whom we are praying is enthroned in glory and wants to be approached with reverent awe.
God in his glory is exalted above the highest heights of creation, beyond even the farthest reaches of the universe. From his heavenly throne the Lord rules all things according to his wise purpose. Years ago, one of the young women in the church that I was pastoring was given the opportunity to meet... Continue Reading
The Debasement of Tolerance
Tolerance becomes a vice if it ceases to care for truth, ignores what is good, and disdains the values that uphold a community.
It is not a “given” today that all views will be tolerated in the public sphere. Can claims to normative truth and ultimate reality —claims that offend ancient, modern, and ultra-modern sensibilities alike—still be made? To deny that there is an objective moral reality to which our social and political life must align is to... Continue Reading
Biblical Optimism for the New Year
Because of the reality of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and His promises, biblical realism is, ultimately, optimism.
Don’t place your hope in favorable circumstances, which cannot last. Place your hope in Christ and His promises. Jesus promised He will return, raise us, and live with us on a new, Redeemed Earth, where we’ll behold God’s face and joyfully serve Him forever (Revelation 22:3-4). Regardless of our expectations or resolutions, this new... Continue Reading
How the Spiral of Silence is Broken
The simple act of speaking up can change a culture.
Cancel culture and social censorship only work as long as people are willing to go along with it and too afraid to challenge it. Truth is a wonderful gift to a world that has been deceived. A few days after the election, a CNN panelist Shermichael Singleton caused a minor stir on set by... Continue Reading
How These Seven Developments Shaped the Modern World
1776 was a remarkable year.
The last 250 years is a story of increasing globalization, as the world gets smaller and technology joins up more and more parts of the world. Seven Key Historical Moments What happens in 1776—this one remarkable year—is that there are seven key developments that you can see in a particularly intense form. You have... Continue Reading
The Irreplaceable Cornerstone of Marriage
We need to “show” and “tell” the next generation about the truth and beauty of matrimony.
Can you imagine if every husband and wife vowed and delivered on the promise to “with my body I thee serve” and “of all my worldly goods, I thee endow…so long as we both shall live”? Every mini-society would be fused by iron bonds. Our macro society would be unassailably strong. My daughter was... Continue Reading
Was Machen a Martyr?
His colleague Kuiper said no...and yes.
According to worldly wisdom, [Machen’s] struggle in the massive mainline northern Presbyterian church was quixotic, but he never manifested a savior complex or fancied himself to be an Old Testament-type prophet, though their examples clearly inspired him. J. Gresham Machen died 88 years and two days ago. His Westminster Seminary colleague, Dr. R. B.... Continue Reading
God: The Fountain of All Blessing
Looking to a New Year in Faith
As we, by God’s grace, go into another new year that we do not deserve, let’s remember to do so by faith. Let’s remember, with God’s help, that at the best of times we are only bruised reeds and smouldering wicks (Isaiah 42:3), and that God in His goodness has given a Saviour-King who will... Continue Reading
A Life of Worship to God (Romans 12:1–2)
It is a text that captures the essence of the Christian life.
As we are transformed by the renewal of our mind (informed by Scripture and illuminated by the Spirit), we will be better able to discern and choose what God wants us to do and how to obey the instructions that follow this passage in Romans. Romans 12:1–2 is a fun text to study. It’s... Continue Reading
What I Like About My Church
Why not be positive at the start of the year?
I am grateful to be in a church that values the Word. I am encouraged that, even when we disagree with one another (as we inevitably do sometimes), the question always boils back to this: what does the Word say? As we are in New Year mode, I thought it might be nice to... Continue Reading
Biblical Characters: Josiah, the Boy King
God raised up a young boy, zealous for His house, whose heart is tender and humble, and who trembles at His Word.
The account of Josiah points us directly to another boy king who would come 500 years later, a coming not in a royal palace with a royal audience, but in a stable with farm animals and shepherds as an audience. Josiah is introduced in 2 Kings 22 as the new king of Judah who... Continue Reading
Joy in His Presence
We fail to know the joy of the Lord and to enjoy Him above all else because of our unbelief.
If we believed in the Presence of God, we would seek Him more earnestly. If we sought Him—sought Him earnestly, patiently, and persistently with all our heart—we would know His Presence more continually and enjoy Him more fully (Jeremiah 29:13). With us, with Him. You will show me the path of life; In Your... Continue Reading
Biblical Marriage—Relational and Legal
The special union a married couple has is an earthly, temporal representation of the surpassing intimacy and love all believers have in their eternal union with Christ.
The legal and relational nature of earthly marriage points us to our security in Christ, as he will will always love his bride, the church, with a steadfast love. The union between Christ and the church is indissoluble—believers are beloved by Christ and forever belong to him. Why is there both a relational and... Continue Reading
Pursuing Godliness in 2025
The Bible does not advocate a sit-back-and-wait model of godliness.
The Pharisees famously attempted to carry out some of the practices of those who follow the Lord. Yet, while they honored God with their lips (and some actions), their hearts were far from God…When we engage in the externals of devoting ourselves to God, but we don’t actually love Him with our heart, soul, mind,... Continue Reading
Four Remembrances for the New Year
Whoever you are, wherever you are, God has gifted you and called you to live for Him and His glory.
When life gets hard, when you get discouraged, remember God has called you to great works. He has placed you in a community of believers who are meant to encourage one another along this journey. He has given each of us the power to accomplish our purpose with His Holy Spirit dwelling in us. He... Continue Reading
A Prayer for a New Beginning
In Christ, we have hope for abundant life, for light amid darkness.
“Here I am, Father, laying my fragmented heart before your throne of grace because I have nowhere else to turn. You promised that you would not leave me as an orphan, so I draw near to you as your adopted child to whom belongs an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven.” Do you long for a... Continue Reading
Divine Simplicity and the Death of All Other Gods
There can only be one God that is the source of all things: the God of scripture—the Great I Am.
In his book ‘None Greater’, Matthew Barret tells us that God is not a mere instance of divinity. He does not measure up to some standard of divinity that exists apart from him. This is not so for us humans and our human-ness. There is a category of being called human, and you and I... Continue Reading
A Century After Hubble’s Discovery, Our Neighbor Galaxies Suggest a Creator’s Mind
His discoveries and the wonder that they evoke, have prompted others to reconsider “the God hypothesis.”
According to George Ellis, one of the world’s leading cosmologists, is that the multiverse hypothesis is itself a metaphysical explanation that cannot be tested. As he writes in “Cosmology: The Untestable Multiverse,” “The multiverse argument is a well-founded philosophical proposal but, as it cannot be tested, it does not belong fully in the scientific fold.”... Continue Reading
What Is the Meaning of Pain?
The opioid crisis underlines the scale of our challenge.
“Health is not the absence of disease.” It cannot be identified as the total absence of pain either. As those who exist in a fallen world, the frailty of the body and mind will never be completely cured on this side of eternity. Pain reminds image-bearers that their embodied selves are made for more than... Continue Reading
Where Hope Comes From
Hope is a strong preservative against the power and force of temptations. It guards the main part of a Christian, and keeps resolutions after God untouched and unmaimed.
Now, my beloved, would you know the fountain and origin of these sweet and pleasant streams? It is the God of hope, and the power of the Holy Ghost. There is no doubt of power in God, to make us happy and give us peace. God is the chief object of hope, and the chief... Continue Reading
How Can Christ Be the Redeemer and the World So Unredeemed?
Satan has been defeated, but not destroyed.
Sanctification is the result of loving Jesus more than I love sin. Godliness is not behavior modification, but heart transformation. I cannot take three steps to overcome lust forever next Thursday at 3 PM and be forever, sexually pure. The problem is my heart desires, which are not easily changed. Channeling and protecting the desires... Continue Reading
Resolutions for Whose Glory?
Prior to setting resolutions for the New Year, take the time to read through the resolutions of Edwards and Mather.
In his thirteenth resolution, Mather states, “When the children are of a fit age for it, I will sometimes closet them; have them with me alone; talk with them about the state of their souls; their experiences, their proficiencies, their temptations; obtain their declared consent unto every jot and tittle of the gospel; and then... Continue Reading