God Wants Us for Himself (Ephesians 1)
We as Saints as God’s Glorious Inheritance
Holy and blameless before Him; adopted now and fully in the future; allotted as an inheritance for Him; redeemed now and fully one day as God’s own possession…what a day it will be when God has us perfectly unto Himself and what it will mean for us! The riches that we have in Christ... Continue Reading
Scotland and the Birth of the United States
Fighting for religious liberty is about as quintessentially Scottish and American as it gets.
In our time, when this liberty appears to be threatened again by politicians imposing policies that churches deem immoral, a good dose of the old Scots-Irish spirit may again be in order. Scottish Presbyterianism, with its robust theology, disciplined government by elders, and strict piety, would significantly influence America through the waves of Scots-Irish... Continue Reading
Fool #3: The Sower of Discord
He doesn’t think of what he does as “evil.” He just has “concerns.”
This fool is worthless. He is wicked (Proverbs 6:12a). Nothing good will come of your friendship with him. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but it’s what Proverbs teaches. The Sower of Discord is the third of Solomon’s three fools in Prov 6:1-19. This person knows what’s good for God’s people better than God himself does.... Continue Reading
PCUSA Votes Clergy Monogamy Overture out of Order, Refers for Further Study: ‘Moral Chaos’
Part of the strategy behind the overture was to expose how radically liberal some elements within the PCUSA have become.
The overture and the pushback it received within the increasingly liberal PCUSA prompted national headlines. Three committees in the denomination—the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice, the Advocacy Committee on LGBTQIA+ Equity and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy—appended “advice and counsel” against the overture after it was introduced. A committee of... Continue Reading
Presbyterian Letter to Churches on Ministry & Missions, 1791
Exhortation to make use of every providential means of God for the prosperity and increase of His church.
“A spirit of union, piety, and discipline is particularly necessary for this purpose. By this our church was revived, and became flourishing in our fathers’ days; by this it hath been cherished to our own times, and by this it must be secured.” As the United States remembers the 250th anniversary of political independence... Continue Reading
The Family Ties That Bind: How Muslim Families Impact Christian Witness and Political Discernment
If present trends continue in our nation, we will find it increasingly difficult to share Christ with Muslims and oppose their demographic takeover.
As we see the effects of the mass migration in Europe, there is a growing urgency for Christians in America to build things that last and protect what is good. And to do so with bold evangelism and wise engagement in the public square. As we have seen over the years, negative words directed... Continue Reading
PAiSTOR
The Exorbitant Cost of Easy Answers...
Pastors, do the reading first. Do the struggling first. Bring your confusion and partial understanding to the text before you bring your question to any resource, digital or otherwise. Arrive at your study having already sat with the passage long enough to know what you do not yet understand. Then, if you reach for AI... Continue Reading
Genesis 1–11 as Introduction and Paradigm
The logic of these chapters is foundational to understanding all of Scripture.
Starting at the beginning to recognize features of God’s and the serpent’s work can invigorate our study of Scripture, clarify difficult passages, and help us recognize God’s character in his repeated actions. The early chapters of the Bible present stories that seem distant from our experiences, difficult to comprehend, even disturbing. Yet in them... Continue Reading
3 Neglected Aspects of Spiritual Formation That Destroy Us
The work of David Powlison and J.I. Packer remind us of three pivotal themes in our spiritual life. We neglect these to our detriment.
Spirituality is an area of ongoing interest to those outside the Christian faith, and so our neglect of these themes—motivation, repentance, and holiness—does more damage to our witness than we realize. If someone can look at your life and not see differences in your motive, a daily practice of repentance when that motive is off,... Continue Reading
The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching and the Unity of Scripture
The recovery of Irenaeus’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching reminds us that Christianity did not emerge as a corruption of apostolic faith, but as its continuation.
To read Scripture apostolically, then, is not merely to extract moral principles, distill doctrine in abstraction, or isolate proof-texts. It is to perceive the coherence of God’s saving work in his ordained story from creation to new creation, centred upon the person of Jesus Christ. This may be one of the most important lessons the... Continue Reading
True Knowledge Leads to Worthy Walking
We are Christians. And we must live in a manner consistent with that name.
We might be tempted to think that living “worthy” means garnering enough merit to deserve respect. And we know there are at least two problems with that. First of all, we know that we will never be worthy of the Lord, no matter how hard we try. But secondly, we know that as Christians, we... Continue Reading
Gyros, Lamb Chops, and the Church: A Warning Against Doing Christianity Alone
The Good Shepherd never intended His sheep to live outside the flock He gathers and sustains. You need the Shepherd, and you need His herd.
Perhaps you have a good reason for being unchurched. Maybe pain or disappointment from the family of God has left you with a bad taste in your mouth. If that’s your story, that pain matters, and it shouldn’t be minimized. Just “going back to church” may not be reasonable. I instead challenge you to take... Continue Reading
The Bible Verses Dividing Washington: How Matthew 25 Became a Political Litmus Test
'He told me that Matthew 25 was about individuals, and not nations,' Sen. Raphael Warnock said, referring to Speaker Mike Johnson. 'The text actually says nations.'
At a congressional hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s Minnesota deportation efforts, the Rev. Mariah Tollgaard, a United Methodist minister in St. Paul, read a statement criticizing the president’s immigration policies and mentioned Matthew 25. In response, GOP Rep. Michael Cloud, a former communications director at an evangelical megachurch, brandished a Bible and argued... Continue Reading
Taught in the Valley: Why God Often Uses Suffering to Make Us Depend on Him
Suffering trains us. Slowly. Painfully. Often invisibly. But God uses it to produce fruit that ease rarely grows.
Suffering can reveal impatience, anger, self-pity, pride, envy and unbelief. It can show us how much we crave ease, recognition, productivity and control. But this exposure is not God’s cruelty. It is part of his fatherly care. There are lessons God teaches us in the valley that we rarely learn on the mountain top.... Continue Reading
The Case Against Paedocommunion (WLC 171–177)
The Lord’s Supper is the family feast, reserved for those who have grown to the point where they can knowingly sit at the table.
Baptism is the sacrament of birth into the visible church; it can be passively received. The Lord’s Supper is the sacrament of growth and nourishment; it must be actively received by faith. You can bathe an infant who does nothing but cry, but you cannot feed a steak to a newborn. Because the Reformed... Continue Reading
God’s Purpose Develops a Discerning Mind
God’s mercy deserves everything you have, and God’s will demands everything you are. Give Him everything, and you will find His will to be good, pleasing, and perfect.
The consecrated life and the discerning life turn out to be one and the same, and this is where every Christian should rest. God pours out His pleasure on the child who is given over to His will and able to discern it. The renewed mind is given for a purpose, and the close... Continue Reading
No Faith Worth Defending
England has no significant institutions by which Christianity can leaven the broader culture.
Public Christianity in England has long since been evacuated of any doctrinal content or counter-cultural pungency. The fact that the Church of England remains established and yet only a fraction of the country bothers to attend even once a year means that it is in a permanent state of having to justify its own existence... Continue Reading
The Science of Unbelief: The Religious Nature of Unbelief
Why there are no neutral worldviews.
The biblical worldview recognizes no such category. Scripture does not divide humanity into religious and non-religious people. Rather, it divides humanity into those who worship the Creator and those who worship the creature (Rom. 1:25). The fundamental distinction is not between worship and non-worship but between true worship and false worship. The Bible assumes that... Continue Reading
The Value of Spiritual Disciplines
Jesus himself spent a lifetime obeying the Father, attending the synagogue, and reciting Scripture.
We don’t naturally develop speed and endurance while sitting on the couch and scrolling our phones. And we don’t develop speed and endurance because we went for a run one time. In the same way, we don’t naturally develop Christlikeness by living in this world. And we don’t get to know the Lord deeply because... Continue Reading
” . . . To Forgive Is Divine”
The humble sinner who receives God's forgiveness in Christ, and who grants it to other sinners, makes himself "like" his Great God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear, that those who do not forgive other sinners, are not (themselves) forgiven their sins (by God Himself). And, to not be forgiven one’s sins, is to be abiding in sin, death, condemnation, judgment, and (impending) hell. Our Savior could have said a lot about His “Lord’s Prayer,”... Continue Reading
Colorado Couldn’t Ban Christian Counseling — So It Did This Instead
Just as in the days of Jesus, scoffing and retaliation over Christian principles are increasing.
The First Amendment protects free speech. But financial terror accomplishes what a legal ban cannot. When a counselor faces the prospect of unlimited liability for simply having a conversation, they go silent. And when counselors go silent, the silencing of the Gospel is accomplished. This is not a hypothetical threat. It is already happening. ... Continue Reading
Conscience – Minister’s Letter June 26
God has gone to enormous lengths to speak to us in ways that are designed to get through to even the most damaged conscience.
Dear all at IPC, What is it that makes the difference between hearing God’s words, even listening to God’s words, and then responding to him in the way that we should? What is it that makes the difference between the days when we are actually arrested, grabbed by the word of God and have to... Continue Reading
How to Live Simply and Give Generously
When we live on less than we make, we create margin to help others.
Choosing a smaller house, selling expensive jewelry, or skipping the latest tech gadget may seem like a sacrifice. But if those choices free up funds for God’s work, the return is eternal. Jesus promised that we are storing up treasures in Heaven when we invest in His kingdom. Every time we say “no” to materialism,... Continue Reading
Spur One Another On (pt 4)
Church that gathers to one another one another for the glory of God as we live for his kingdom that is both here and approaching.
Inviting you to commit to gathering with God’s people, to recognise the drift into apathy, and change your habit. If that’s you this morning, will you share that with someone, so they can pray for you and encourage you to come along Sunday by Sunday?And it’s not just Sunday. We need to be meeting with... Continue Reading
I May Not Be the Best, But I Choose to Be My Best-Maxim # 60
If we all gave up everything we weren’t the best in, we’d end up doing nothing except being the best at giving up and quitting.
Should I have given up real estate because there may have been a few better real estate agents than me? No, I should have fulfilled the place I had, giving excellent service, along with my wife, and help the people we helped. There will always be people smarter and more talented than me. I... Continue Reading
Pastor’s Job Description
Four essential responsibilities of a shepherd.
Sheep are defenseless and vulnerable. They are not predators but prey. Therefore, they need shepherds to protect them, particularly when it comes to false teachers who prey on the flock (Acts 20:29; Eph. 4:14). These teachers make lies sound like truth; they make slavery look like freedom; they offer poison as candy. They present the pathway to... Continue Reading
Would You Attend Your Son’s Execution?
The day will come when the crosses that stand before us will be seen to have achieved God’s purpose just as much as the one that stood before her.
I can barely bring myself to picture Mary as she stood before the cross, but I love to picture Mary just a short time later. Her grief must have been intense in the day that elapsed between what we now call Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Her senses must have been overwhelmed, her body exhausted... Continue Reading
Is There Anything Else you Would Rather Do?
Virtually nothing can compare with this joy, this contentment, this pleasure, this freedom. And all of it is found in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who, by grace alone, have “seen” the “face” of Jesus Christ by faith, are so-enrapt by this visage that they earnestly and sincerely *want* to meet with their God every day. In fact, this fellowship with The Holy Trinity becomes *so* special to them, that nothing else can replace it/replicate it/or (even) compete with... Continue Reading
God’s Mercy Deserves Sacrifice and Worship
Give us a church wholly committed to Jesus, with nothing held back. For when you lay yourself on the altar, everything changes.
You take your ordinariness, your ‘nothing special,’ and you give it wholly to God for Him to use as He wills. There is nothing in you of value in itself, and yet you may set yourself apart and place yourself entirely in His hands. If the mercies of God are the reason we respond, what... Continue Reading
Ordinary People
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
I have marked the words “ordinary” and “insignificant” because it is clear from the records that this is not how Jesus regarded such people. Again and again he gave them his attention. He listened to them. He helped them. Mind you, my category of powerless and low-status people is problematic. Jesus was not a social... Continue Reading