We can imagine the Pharisees pleading with Christ: surely He could wait one more day to heal these people so He wouldn’t desecrate God’s Sabbath. One time Jesus’ disciples picked some heads of grain in a field on the Sabbath, presumably to eat them, but nothing implies they were on the verge of starvation (Mark... Continue Reading

God has given us a word that is especially fit for declaring his praise when all other language fails us. We often praise him in ways we can understand, borrowed from our finite and limited human experience. We praise his strength, his love, his justice, his mercy. But we also grow to realize, in fits... Continue Reading

One of the beauties of Ezra 3 is that it does not merely present us with a project, but with progress. The foundation of the temple is established, bricks begin to rise where once rubble had been strewn, there are hints of a new work to be done. The celebrations that vv11-12 depict are not... Continue Reading

When God judges your life, He bases His decision on the performance of the substitute. With all good deeds and no bad deeds, your record is perfect. For the Muslim who is concerned about which way the balance scale will tip, this is great news. Jesus’ substitution in your place affects both sides of the... Continue Reading

A passive listener sits in church and hopes that with enough coffee, and if the pastor is really on his game that day, he will go home with a few helpful takeaways for his Christian life. But we must do more than simply sit there and hope a sermon point or two just happen to... Continue Reading

While we might not be able to truly see what’s inside of us, at least not in its fullness, what we do have today are some signposts that guide our way. Much different than looking into the abyss of our motives and innermost thoughts, these are two practical measures God tells us will point us... Continue Reading

We have no idea who the unregenerate elect are. We must get the gospel to everyone so God will use its general call to strive with the hearts of those elect who have yet to believe. When ungodly people attack us, make fun of us, ridicule us or simply ignore us we must not become... Continue Reading

We can’t pretend we’re okay when we’re not, that we agree when we really don’t. We have to have the big, hard conversations. So what can we do? We can trust Jesus. And we can trust Jesus together. We can trust Jesus alongside those we’re debating. We can begin and end our arguments with faith in the... Continue Reading

The Apostle Paul explains the doctrine of the church so that we might understand what God has done and so that we may understand who we are. And in calling us to understand who we are and what we’re called to do, Paul says that we’re the church. We’re the church that God ordained from... Continue Reading

Beauty cannot be a universal or transcendant property instantiated in our world. Instead, all that exist are objects upon which we project the notion of beauty. Beauty exists not jointly between subject and object, but solely in the subject. This would develop into the empiricism of Locke and Hume, where transcendentals like beauty are all but... Continue Reading