Many refer to baptism as “an outward sign of an inward profession of faith.” While professing believers and their children certainly receive baptism as a mark of discipleship (Matt. 28:18–20; 1 Cor. 7:14) in obedience to Jesus, the covenant sign is not first and foremost pointing to something we have done. Rather, it is the... Continue Reading

Life gets in the way. Good intentions don’t always lead to good, godly practices. The things we ideally should be doing don’t get done and we cultivate weeds and not valuable plants. Busyness is not a mark of importance.   Weeds have been dominating my garden lately. I have all kinds of beautiful plants I... Continue Reading

To be a parent is to be a teacher. Have times of both organized and organic Biblical learning in your home. This isn’t novel stuff, but simple steps in accomplishing a miraculous source in the life of our children, cultivating the Word of God to keep them walking in the wisdom of God.   One... Continue Reading

The Wailes and Roller families recently joined with another family to enlist the legal help of Alliance Defending Freedom. They filed a lawsuit against JeffCo for refusing to give parents truthful, pertinent information about their children’s overnight accommodations, thus hampering the rights of parents to make informed decisions about their children’s upbringing, education, and privacy.... Continue Reading

The point is clear: the single, perfect, pure communion of love between the persons is poured out on us, as we are loved by the Father because of our union with the Son, whom the Father loves. The love of God is poured out on us by the inseparable work of Father, Son, and Holy... Continue Reading

Jews to work His glorious purposes to ensure that “all Israel will be saved” and the “fullness of the Gentiles” will come in to the Kingdom of God (cf. Rom. 11). All the unlawful disregard of process inflicted upon our King by the Jews was according to what God’s hand had “predestined to take place”... Continue Reading

Early on in serving the Lord by preaching (almost 25 years ago) I wrote full manuscripts and stuck to them rigorously. Then I’ve used various tools, manuscripts, outlines, passage overviews, 4-part-paper-fold, PowerPoint slides, and a few others to support the work of preaching. However, I’ve never found anything to replace or replicate the importance of... Continue Reading

Of course, those with power oppress those with less. That is an obvious conclusion from biblical teaching about how the fall corrupted human nature. But the radical fall of Adam’s race transmitted his sinful nature to all humans, not just the rich. Using the oppressor/oppressed lens of Marx to interpret all of history and explain... Continue Reading

The five major characters of “All Creatures” are each a finely-honed individual. None of them are perfect; all of them have flaws; they all fight realistic battles. Though the show is not a Christian show in explicit form, it overlaps significantly with a Christian vision of life in a fallen world. In fact, I think... Continue Reading

In the New Testament the house church was common. Judging from Paul’s references in Romans 16:5,10,11,14 & 15, there were at least five house churches in Rome, a city commonly estimated to have a population of a million. Links between these gatherings would have been close. But generally we do not find the infant churches... Continue Reading