God is not a needy God. It’s not as if He was bored, twiddling His thumbs, desperately lonely before He created the world. God is not dependent on the world for His existence, nor is He dependent on the world for His happiness and self-fulfillment. Instead, He possesses life in and of Himself. More precisely,... Continue Reading

If Jesus’ words to Saul tell us that those who persecute the church are persecuting Christ, it also tells us that how we treat the church is how we treat Christ. If we never go to church, if we constantly go away for the weekend, if we never serve, if we find anything else to... Continue Reading

American consumerism has crept into the sacred beliefs of our faith. Rather than understanding that faith in Christ means that he gets our everything, many Americans believe that Jesus is just a nice addition to our already-nice lives. We wouldn’t say that, of course, but our beliefs are exposed in the way we are living.... Continue Reading

Is the office of deacon part of the government of the church?  The answer to that question should be painfully obvious to any blue-blooded Presbyterian, so obvious one might even scoff at the question even being posed.  Of course they are a part of the government of the church.  The deacons are part of the... Continue Reading

Israel has a right to exist in the land and that we have a moral and political obligation to stand with her against all enemies. But this is not the same thing as saying that Israel has a biblical or covenantal right to the territory over which so much blood has been shed in recent... Continue Reading

In all times of life, good and bad, we need to stay our minds on God. This means we need minds that are well-stocked with truth about Him so that we can draw on that truth to sustain us. Just as food in the stomach nourishes the body, so truth in the mind nourishes the... Continue Reading

We need to stop doing damage to the doctrine of the Trinity in our attempts to explain how submission works in marriage. ESS, while tempting, is not a viable answer to the question of marital submission.   For over four years now, I’ve been writing about a popular doctrine of the Trinity called the eternal... Continue Reading

Strangely, for all the problems the New Testament addresses, it yet brings the people of God (culturally divided as they were) into one church to participate in one worship service to the one triune God. The gospel was the bridge that transcended barriers.   What color is God? This is a strange question, but one... Continue Reading

I can assure you that when facing these kinds of pastoral challenges it is wonderful to have a team of elders with whom I can think, pray, study and minister. Left to myself, each of those cases would have been handled with far less wisdom and care than they warranted.   A challenge every faithful... Continue Reading

Jesus teaches against both the act of sin and the stirring up of our desire for sin. He goes further to say that the means by which such desires might be stirred (the eyes or the hand) should be cut off lest we stumble. When my entertainment puts sin on display so that it awakens... Continue Reading