Nearly every commentator and overview article highlights a number of major themes that receive exceptional emphasis in Luke’s gospel: the poor, women, Gentiles, outsiders, prayer, the word, and the Holy Spirit. The charges against Paul explain why these themes mattered so much to Luke.   Last week, I presented evidence from both Acts and Luke... Continue Reading

The church today lacks a full commitment to God’s Word. While the church and her leaders (pastors in local churches) today often talk about marketing, programs, and other ideologies as opposed to the need for true revival. The clear commitment to God’s Word has been abandoned. The principle of sola Scriptura has been replaced with... Continue Reading

Be honest, how many of your prayers start and end with thoughts about the glory of God? How many of the things you ask the Lord to do are to serve his glory? Now there are things in the everyday life of the believer that, should we ask the Lord for them and should he... Continue Reading

A covenant theology is a churchly theology. Covenant theology draws the Christian into the church as the Christ-confessing covenant community, where burdens are shared, prayers are offered together, where the Word is preached, and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are administered. The church is important but she is not the Lord. She is... Continue Reading

Bavinck writes with warmth and life. Each page is replete with biblical references. He treats all sides of his topic and goes from baptism and parental instruction, to church confessions, to Christian unity in the faith and Christian duty in the public sphere, and ends with an exultation in the ultimate confession the Church will... Continue Reading

I was asking God, “Why isn’t my book published? Why don’t I have more followers? I’ve been working like crazy for your will and I’ve seen very little reward.” And God answered me through 1 Thessalonians, as if saying, “You’ve been looking for the wrong reward. My will is to sanctify you.”   When I... Continue Reading

We are indeed rooted and firmly established in the love of God, for God has not left His love in doubt. No matter what might happen to us or around us circumstantially, God has demonstrated His love for us in that Christ has died. This case is closed. But the love of God is not... Continue Reading

Still offers practical, solid advice that can only come from someone with much experience in ministry: on expecting opposition, experiencing early fruits, handling problem people, managing expectations, dealing with our own tendencies, and more.   I love learning from old, faithful pastors. We’re often drawn to the young and charismatic. I’m learning we need the... Continue Reading

Here lies the danger of me-focused guilt. The danger is not just that it’s wrong or dishonoring to God or unbiblical—although those are true. The danger is how it leads us to find the solution to our problem in ourselves, to trust in ourselves, to find hope in what we can do better next time—and... Continue Reading

God is the source of illumination, wisdom, knowledge, and truth. By creating light three days before he created the sun, moon, and stars, he made this crystal clear. The sun is merely God’s tool, God’s torch. We could say that in the same way the moon dimly reflects the light of the sun, the sun... Continue Reading