Are You Abiding in Christ?
There are three proofs that we can look at that show if we are truly abiding in Him.
Those who believe confess that Jesus is the Son of God. This is more than just saying one believes it. This is actually believing and confessing it, which is a product of abiding in Christ through the supernatural work of the living faith given to us at salvation. 4 Abide in Me, and I... Continue Reading
When Fear Assails…
Fear rises in my heart and uncertainty clogs my ability to see with the eyes of faith. But, isn’t God just as faithful with me as he was to the children of Israel?
God continues to show his faithfulness even though I certainly don’t deserve it. He continues to provide, he continues to bless, and he continues to reveal his goodness to me. Yet, fear still works in my thoughts. Though I’m safe in his hands, I still wonder how things will work out. I know that in this... Continue Reading
10 Facts about Sarah from the Book of Genesis That Will Encourage Your Faith
Scripture’s judgment of Sarah is one of charity, and we should do the same.
Even though she made a mistake, God had a judgment of charity for Sarah. We too can say, “Lord, please bless this mess I made.” Sarah had her bad moments—don’t we all? Perhaps you have been hurt by the church or individual Christians in some way. It is good to have a judgment of charity in... Continue Reading
On the Pedagogical Superiority of the Second Commandment
Daddy, is all your knowing Jesus from the Bible?
I only know Jesus because God wrote it in the book. But, Jesus is not a book, daddy. The book describes Jesus as 100% man like any man and 100% God like the only God. And that 200% is a funny number. You said 100% truthful is like a cup all the way up. All... Continue Reading
How Do You Value Your Worth?
Measuring a Successful Life
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that God is the One True Owner who owns everything. All blessings flow from him. As believers, that means we are stewards of whatever God blesses us with, including financial resources. The Bible is full of financial advice. I used to call my former financial advisor every... Continue Reading
Characteristics of a True Church
Working through a landmark Machen article, part 11.
The freedom of the church is the freedom to demand that its members and ministers adhere to its own biblical standards. The church is not the state (nor is it backed by the state’s power) and has no power of enforcement or compulsion except to declare truth and declare who is a member. 1 “It would,... Continue Reading
The Remarkable Story of Delhi’s First Indian Christian
How a self-taught mathematician became Delhi's first Indian Christian and played a vital role in the growth of the church in our nation's capital.
Over the years, Ramchandra led dozens of others to Christ, including future church leader Tara Chand. It is said that even the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar summoned Ramchandra to dissuade him from becoming a Christian. However, this only led to one of the Emperor’s servants coming to faith in Christ. Ramchandra eventually became the... Continue Reading
Looking in all the Right Places
Deliberately, daily, through the means God has given, turn your eyes to God.
Satan will try intensely to divert your gaze. He will make you feel there’s no time to do such nonsense as to “meditate” on God when all the problems are so pressing. When there are so many “interesting and important” things to look at. So many things more “entertaining.” But refuse his demonic temptations. Mature,... Continue Reading
After the Dark Night of A Lost Ministry, Bring Light to Others
My life and ministry, which had been for the most part vibrant, blew up in a matter of three weeks.
During this time, as far as my presbytery was concerned, I was not seen as a brother in crisis; I was just a problem. I suspect in many other presbyteries ministers are going through rough times. These brothers are experiencing a crisis in their lives. Please do not look at them as a problem, but... Continue Reading
American Flags
Churches are embassies of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. They are not the property of any one country.
The only symbols that should be present are those that belong to Christ—word, sacrament, and prayer. I used to hide the American flag, therefore, so that my congregation knew that as a congregation we belong to Christ and no one else. I’m sure that the idea of removing the American flag from the sanctuary might fray... Continue Reading
Faith with a Backbone
Faith with a backbone comes from the word of God, and faith with a backbone is centered on the word about Christ!
God has gifted you with faith in the Captain of your salvation, Jesus Christ (Heb 2:10). His sinless life, His death on the cross, and His glorious resurrection are the only things that can uphold you on that day of dread and gladness. A faith in anything else has no backbone and is empty. Only... Continue Reading
Who Was Herman Bavinck?
He was a theologian or dogmatician—one who thinks and writes about God and all things in His light according to God’s own revelation in the Bible.
The most important label—one that cries out for acknowledgment from the thousands of pages of his mighty corpus—is follower of Jesus. Bavinck loved the God who saved him by grace, and amid the complexity and brilliance of his thought, there is always a doxological current. As Bavinck put it: A theologian is a person who... Continue Reading
You’re Romantic Whether You Know It or Not
How and When We Became Romantic
One of the finest expressions of Romanticism today is Donna Tartt’s prize-winning novel The Goldfinch. Published in 2013 to critical acclaim and commercial success, it is a classic Bildungsroman in which a teenage boy, grief-stricken by the death of his mother, follows his emotions into a series of increasingly unwise decisions, complex relationships, and the criminal underworld.... Continue Reading
Christian Vocation Disrupts the Culture
Vocation as exiles calls Christians to disrupt a culture of self-interest with sacrificial, self-giving love by leveraging skills and resources in partnership with others, for God’s glory and the good of all.
Navigating the tension of vocation in exile involves a loving sensitivity and some amount of nuance but must always remain anchored in God’s vision for human flourishing, unswayed by cultural tides. Embodying and expressing this vision requires courageous, loving resistance. And part of resisting is remaining rather than retreating. This has been God’s plan for... Continue Reading
A Counter Catechism: What the Apostles’ Creed Denies
“Counter-Catechesis” is important to equip Christians to know what they ought not believe, given their Christian convictions in a hostile world.
[Christ] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell. Because we believe that Jesus was a personal actor in space-time history, we deny that his death was merely symbolic. He suffered an unjust conviction and was crucified by the Roman authorities, who knew how to execute people effectively. We... Continue Reading
The Exultant Nature of Today’s Abortion Advocacy
The glee with which abortion is advocated and the anger that any restrictions upon it provoke indicate that we need a different category to capture our current cultural ethos.
When abortion advocates dehumanize the baby in the womb, they dehumanize themselves too. Ours is an age when so much of our culture encourages us to treat others made in God’s image as less than human. This is true, from the comparatively trivial trashing of others that is the favored idiom of those who seem... Continue Reading
Serial Killing Christians?
Murder begins with disordered passions.
A Christian repents murdering others with their attitude and sass and picks up the cleaver to begin murdering the sin that caused it. A Christian is the one who picks up the bayonet and goes to war, as Romans 8:13 says, not one who continually succumbs to their hostilities and rage. Here is what I... Continue Reading
20 Biblical Motivations for Pursuing Holiness
We pursue godliness because Jesus is coming back again in great power.
We must take Christlikeness seriously right now because we do not know when the Lord will return (2 Pet. 3:10). We pursue holiness because all our works will be exposed on the last day (2 Pet. 3:10). We pursue holiness because whatever we live for in this life will be burned up and dissolved (2... Continue Reading
In the ARP: Crisis of Conscience, Not Constitution
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest Presbyterian denominations in the U.S. At its June meeting the General Synod voted overwhelmingly to dissolve Second Presbytery, effective September 1, 2024.
We remain firmly Presbyterian in polity, with the highest court being the General Synod. What seems to be at the center of this confusion is a short phrase in the new FOG “in order to:” That phrase indicates that the synod has the authority to do those things (organize, receive, divide, dissolve, etc.). And that... Continue Reading
When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong
The greater our awareness of our own weakness, the greater opportunity we have to lean on Christ.
For in the world, strength is measured by our ability to do things on our own. By ourselves. By our own intelligence or ingenuity or physical presence. Those are the truly strong people in the world. But here again we find another irony, because even those considered, in the eyes of the world, to be... Continue Reading
4 Reasons Possessions Do Not Lead to Contentment
The reason we cannot be merry now is not because we do not possess something we need. We cannot rest because we lack contentment, and whatever we pursue will not provide it.
If you were to attain your worldly desire, you might find yourself in a better position amongst your peers, but your soul would not have improved. Possessing things does nothing to improve the inner man, but possessing contentment does. Finding contentment in God conforms us closer to the image of Christ—something possessions cannot do. ... Continue Reading
How the Evangelical Elite Failed Their Flock
Book Review: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda by Megan Basham
In the end, Basham desires not to tear the church down but to build it up. She desires to see the pure gospel truth that saved her soul taken up and preached without compromise, without apology. It is that saving gospel, undiluted by political pandering and corporate double-speak, that “still brings dead girls to life.”... Continue Reading
The Sorrowful Soul of Jesus
Glimpsing Psalm 42 in the Garden of Gethsemane
In Psalms 42–43, the same psalmist who spoke of his inner turmoil and downcast soul also prayed, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” (Ps. 43:1). This prayer of vindication is for Christ’s lips as well. Though sorrowful in Gethsemane, he would be... Continue Reading
There is No “Just” in the Body of Christ
Be encouraged. Know that you are as essential in the body of Christ as anyone else.
No one is “just” a Sunday school teacher. No one is “just” an offering taker. No one is “just” a bringer of meals to the sick. No one is “just” a deacon. There is no “just.” This is what Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 12 where he describes the essential nature of every... Continue Reading
6 Practical Steps to Help Grow Your Confidence in God’s Word
When we have our doubts, we need to study the Bible more, not less. We need to open it up, not set it aside.
We can pray for the help of the Holy Spirit. We need God’s help to believe God’s word. One of the most important claims the Bible makes about itself is that it was “breathed out” by God the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; cf. 2 Pet. 1:21). The Spirit of God is not a subjective feeling... Continue Reading
No Country for Truth-Tellers
A father exposing gender ideology runs into state censorship.
After four years, Elston has become an internet sensation. This real-world hero now travels the globe to win hearts and minds, expose the lies of gender ideology, and galvanize others to protect children. And he’s had an effect—such an effect that Australian authorities decided to weaponize a government bureaucracy to censor him on the social... Continue Reading
A Drop from the Ocean
God is the ocean from which all goodness flows.
All goodness that has ever existed among angels and men has all come from the same source. And the whole is so much greater than the sum. Add all of the goodness together from all time, from all men, from the whole globe, and what you get is just a drop from the ocean that... Continue Reading
Second Presbytery and the ARP Constitution: A Response to Reverend Seth Yi
In his several articles, Rev. Yi has apparently misread our governing documents, leading to incorrect assessments of how ARP courts operate.
I do not believe that the current situation in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church should be characterized as an ongoing constitutional crisis. My belief is based on my reading of our ARP Standards, which are, of course, subordinate to the Holy Scriptures. Since reading is the art of noticing details and understanding them in context,... Continue Reading
Righteous Adornment: A Biblical Approach to Modesty
Bringing our wardrobes under the lordship of Christ.
There is a need for enterprising Christians to create clothing that is both biblically modest and elegant. Christ is Lord of our lives and our wardrobes, so let us joyfully submit to that lordship. We belong to Christ as His precious Bride, which our clothing should reflect. For in this tent we groan, longing... Continue Reading
The Life and Faith of Blaise Pascal
Wagering on God without hesitation.
The fallout of the French Revolution would prove that Pascal’s arguments about God…and his observations about the human condition, were right….Even today, Pascal’s writing has lost none of its fire, nor has the fruits of his intellect, passion, and eloquence dedicated to God diminished. On August 19, 1662, French philosopher, mathematician, and apologist Blaise Pascal died at... Continue Reading