All of our physical, emotional, spiritual suffering is welcome in the practice of the great physician—even the seemingly-small stuff. He will not despise us if we come or send us away. He won’t sigh and help us reluctantly. He’ll take our hand, and sooner or later, help us to rise up, well again, and able... Continue Reading

We must train Christians and even ourselves to know—and to defend—the law of God in all its fullness. But we must also understand how the indicatives of God’s Word ground and inform those imperatives, lest the message that we bring to a dying world not be as compelling or beautiful as it ought to be.... Continue Reading

Beware of attempts to normalize sexual promiscuity that elevate human capacities to the level of deity. Watch out for linguistic sleights of hand that smuggle in destructive ideas through virtuous terms.    Slogans are the battle cry of the LGBTQ+ movement. Banners and flags, hoisted high, proudly proclaim these all-too-familiar statements: “Love is love,” “Born... Continue Reading

The Reformers…believed the truth of Scripture could be ascertained, by the help of the Holy Spirit, from the Scriptures themselves.  This is what they meant when they said the Scriptures were self-authenticating. Such a reality should come as no surprise. After all Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they... Continue Reading

The whole reason to call out church abuse wherever it happens is because the church is beautiful and valuable and immortal, and Satan, the master abuser, wants church to look more like him instead. To the degree that abuse awareness hands people a mirror and tells them they can only be truly safe at home,... Continue Reading

Matthew 18 is not speaking of abusers and oppressors. Jesus is speaking of “brothers,” not wolves. Would we ask Christ’s most tender and trodden upon lambs to go alone, and speak alone, with a predator before we can properly confront his sin?   A strange thing happens from time to time when speaking to someone... Continue Reading

Jesus calls us to learn about our enemies and about ourselves—and to spread the aroma of Christ through the world by the ministry of the word for the salvation of the elect. To this end, he bids us understand that we are like sheep in the midst of wolves, so that we will seek to be wise as serpents and... Continue Reading

Don’t assume that because you don’t see it right now that God is inactive. At the right time, every knee will bow before God’s king. Sometimes we see glimpses of God working, and at other times we don’t see it. God’s ways are bigger than ours. Have confidence; God works, even on the days we... Continue Reading

With this enduring Word, unmatched in any other book in any other place, is it any wonder that as Jesus was transfigured on that mountain with Peter, James, and John standing by to witness, and Moses and Elijah, recipients of that living Word, standing and talking with Jesus, that the voice of God spoke from... Continue Reading

The Law itself, rightly read, clarifies who Abraham’s heirs are and also prescribes the rejection of their persecutors, particularly false teachers. The Law, then, was never put in place to dispense the eschatological blessings of Abraham, and so it has never been the way to obtain them. As it was at that time, so it... Continue Reading