If you think cutting off an arm or plucking out an eye seems harsh, consider what Christ says about daily following him: “You must take up your cross.” He’s talking about nothing less than death. To experience life in Christ we are to die to ourselves.   If the title makes you uncomfortable, now you... Continue Reading

Tragic things happen when we exchange God’s means of grace for our own—or when we misuse his means. Just ask Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. While handling the sacred things in the worship of God, they rebelliously offered strange fire on the altar of God—a means of worship the Lord did not command. The result?... Continue Reading

Buttigieg doesn’t speak like someone who believes abortion is even bad, let alone a necessary evil. No national Democrat can believe such a thing; that would entail believing that Planned Parenthood, which performs hundreds of thousands of abortions per year and also spends tens of millions of dollars to elect Democrats, is engaged in evil.... Continue Reading

Calvin affirms quite a few times the idea that God could have incarnated his Son without himself yielding to death for us, but God did not have done so because that would have been inferior to what in fact occurred. God would be free to, but this course would have been an impossible way to... Continue Reading

Creation is the very basis of and foundation for worship. The central principle of biblical worship is the fact that it is God-initiated and based upon his self-revelation. God’s speaking the world into existence was in its very essence an act to create worship. God created the universe ex nihilo through his spoken word for the... Continue Reading

Jesus is the heavenly Sojourner, traveling through the foreign land of this fallen world to the eternal inheritance He came to possess by way of the cross. He came to inherit the world by passing through the world and finishing the work of redemption.   After a decade of church planting and pastoring in the... Continue Reading

In light of the fact that someday in the future the nations will stream up to a new Jerusalem with a new temple, hear the word of the Lord, and leave, hammering their swords into ploughs, and their spears into hoes, and learning war no more, the people of Judah are called to walk in... Continue Reading

The book of Daniel proves two things: God provides and God saves. He not only takes care of his people in their present affliction, but is bringing an everlasting kingdom of peace, which was only prophesied in Daniel’s day, but finds its fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah.   Jerusalem is under attack. Israel, its sister... Continue Reading

The struggle to find God’s will is a struggle with certainty. We naturally seek as much certainty as possible in regard to decisions. Certainty helps us feel more in control, and when we feel in control, we feel safe.   “What does God want me to do?” Have you ever asked yourself that question? I... Continue Reading

If the delegates at the 2020 General Conference adopt the protocol, UMC churches that want to form a new Methodist denomination will register their intention by May 15, 2021. Local churches and conferences will then be able to vote to align with any of the newly established Methodist denominations that derive from the post-separation UMC.... Continue Reading