The vision of Revelation 4-5 shows you just how important worship is. If the throne is the central image of the universe, worship is the central activity. The vision describes the attendants around the throne. They include 24 elders, representing the people of God in all times (12 tribes plus 12 apostles), 4 living creatures,... Continue Reading

Theologians have referred to the church militant and the church triumphant. The church militant is the collective group of believers fighting their way to glory. The church triumphant is the collective group of believers who have finished their pilgrimage and have entered into their rest in the presence of God and the Lamb. When theologians... Continue Reading

Ten lepers came to Jesus and asked him to heal them. Jesus sent them to the priests, and they were all healed along the way. Only one of the ten healed people returned to thank Jesus, and that person was not even a Jew. He was a Samaritan who was considered to be a foreigner... Continue Reading

God knows the suffering you carry, he knows the hurdles you face, he knows how insufficient and insecure you feel, and he knows exactly what you need. It may not always be safe or pain-free or clear to you in the moment, but he will bring you to a faith and joy and life through... Continue Reading

When we treat worship services like the movie theater or a sporting event, it turns it into something other than what God intends a worship service to be in the first place. When you hear people talking about going to a church because they’re attracted to their “worship” or their “singing” you should have red... Continue Reading

The Christian’s confidence and knowledge of the afterlife depend not upon the ability to gaze into the future, like some palm reader, but on looking back at the past to just two thousand years ago in the small region of Palestine. There, a man named Jesus claimed to be God—and proved it.   Most religions... Continue Reading

From Genesis to Revelation, the theme of marriage to Christ persists throughout Scripture, being an introduction and conclusion to our spiritual life. Far from being an obscure them, we are meant to be virgin brides to our groom. We are meant to have a distinctly feminine characteristic to our faith.   A primary metaphor for our... Continue Reading

If Laski was unswerving in his opposition to heretical views, he was tolerant of other views within the Protestant camp, trying to foster unity among Reformed, Lutherans, and Polish Brethren (followers of the 15th-century reformer Jan Hus). He was also one of the translators of the first complete Polish translation of the Bible, known as... Continue Reading

Moral decisions create fork-in-the-road moments in our lives every single day. Depending on the decision we make, our actions have a positive or negative effect on ourselves and others: whether or not we tell our boss the truth that we blew it, whether or not we envy someone else’s success, whether we choose to be... Continue Reading

We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we know that our God doesn’t make mistakes. There is nothing that falls outside of his sovereign eternal decree. As the hymn writer put it, “What e’re my God ordains is right.”   Often, the most basic of God’s commands are the hardest for us to obey.... Continue Reading