When God makes peace with a person, He begins by wakening that person up to the fact that there is a problem that needs to be faced. The honesty that says, “Well, there’s a problem here,” is the kind of honesty that leads to peacemaking.   1. Recognize where there is a problem. They have... Continue Reading

The hidden mystery has now been made manifest by Jesus and made known through the Old Testament. Something therefore has changed. The hidden is now manifest. The mystery is now revealed. Christ lies at the centre of this mystery since he manifests the mystery and makes known the hidden mystery in the Old Testament.   ... Continue Reading

Lewis is concerned that human loves, at times, tend to claim for themselves a divine authority that overrides all other claims and obligations. They demand unconditional allegiance and thereby become gods (and thereby become demons which destroy both us and themselves).   In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis begins his discussion of the natural... Continue Reading

Why does he call this “the gospel” of Satan? Because “the best trick of the devil is getting you to think his ideas aren’t just yours, but even God’s. So he creates his own ‘gospel,’ a perversion of the real one. It sounds like good news because it appears to answer questions we’ve always had,... Continue Reading

When I encountered Reformed theology and the Reformed Church, one of the first questions I asked my first Reformed teacher, Warren Embree, was, “What about Israel?” To which he replied, “the dividing wall has been broken down.” Again I asked, “But what about Israel?” Again he replied, “The dividing wall has been broken down.” A... Continue Reading

A couple of songs into that portion of the concert it suddenly dawned on me: my attention was so monopolized by all that was being shown on the screens, I was no longer consciously listening to and appreciating the tremendous music that was being so skillfully performed by the band on the platform. Even after... Continue Reading

So what of this man for us? Is he just another superhero of the faith who can never be emulated in today’s world? What encouragements can we receive as we begin another new year?    Many years ago, I wandered into a Christian book store and laid my eyes on something wonderful – a half... Continue Reading

Understanding it is not up to us to produce growth is both frustrating and liberating. The frustration comes from a natural desire to see our ministry have an impact on the lives of our listeners. When growth is not visible, or when it seems that the ground is dry and hard, it can be discouraging.... Continue Reading

God’s new mercy meets us each morning (Lamentations 3:22–23), and yet we’re often too consumed by tomorrow’s trouble to even notice. David models stopping, even in the midst of ongoing uncertainty and distress, to see daily grace, and he calls us to join him in the peace and confidence that seeing brings.   I will... Continue Reading

One thing v. 1 teaches us is that since Revelation is a revelation from God to His Son who then gave it to His servants, we know that every word in it is true. But that doesn’t mean that we are to take every word literally. As we will shortly see, that is impossible. If... Continue Reading