“Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and... Continue Reading

Disagreement is simply part of reality. If social media has made anything clear in our age, it is that we are an opinionated species. And our opinions are often not the same as the opinions of others. Whether we disagree over how best to educate our children, or who to vote for during an election,... Continue Reading

We must take a close look at our walk. We must examine ourselves. Are we obedient with a whole heart or are we simply being religious? What are our motives? We must weed out all compromises. Our obedience must be pure and bound to a humble, devoted heart.   22 Samuel said, “Has the Lord... Continue Reading

To disbelieve in the existence of devils is to disbelieve the Bible itself. Yes, it is possible to fall into error by developing an unhealthy fascination that sees demonic activity everywhere. But I do not believe that error to be as serious as the error of denying the truth of God’s Word by dismissing their... Continue Reading

The idea of offering up yourself as a living sacrifice, as Paul describes it, is the same point that Jesus made in his quotation of the Shema. God demands everything. In order to worship God as supreme (as Romans 12:1 says—spiritual worship) involves the proper engagement of heart, soul, mind, and strength. In other words,... Continue Reading

God’s infinite love for His own image within human beings and His infinite hatred of sin in them means He cannot grow in love or hatred towards humans. Thus is not to suggest that God’s love does not truly respond to human behaviour. Instead, the trajectory of sinners towards sin or away from it drives... Continue Reading

Watching my mother alter from her strong, vibrant shape into a skeletal, weakened slip of herself was wrenchingly, stabbingly difficult. But seeing her strength despite great pain, watching her reach for hope and help, feeling connection even when she could no longer speak: these were among the gifts of her dying. Her dying changed me... Continue Reading

Small ball is ordinary but it is basic. Regular time in prayer. Time and patience devoted to sermon preparation. Plotting and planning for ways to enfold the sheep in the work. Time spent with people, inside and outside the church family. The list is long and it isn’t flashy. But God uses it.   “I... Continue Reading

There is no time in human history when you were more perfectly represented than in the Garden of Eden because your representative was chosen infallibly by a perfectly holy, perfectly just, omniscient God. So I cannot say that I would have done differently than Adam did.   I think the New Testament does teach that... Continue Reading

I love and have been instructed by A Christmas Carol because of the way Dickens condenses down to its essence the whole grand progress from sin to salvation, selfishness to compassion, despair to hope, imprisonment to freedom: the accomplishments of a lifetime turned, like Shakespeare’s Henry V, into an hour glass.   Let me begin... Continue Reading