Never Be Ashamed to Seek Heaven
Why some drag their feet to paradise.
If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant... Continue Reading
The Art of Dying as a Christian
What we experience in this life is only the introduction to our stories, and the most glorious part has yet to be told.
As Martyn Lloyd Jones points out, despair and depression are the result of self: self-pity, self-concern, self-reliance, etc. What you can expect as the Holy Spirit works in you during this time is that your love for him and others will grow tremendously. There will be many tears because your love will be so strong,... Continue Reading
Prioritize Love
Love needs to be a spiritual discipline, just like pursuing knowledge about God.
The world has a messed up definition of love. Some churches allow the world to define love and then fit in with the world in how it loves. This is wrong. Love needs to coordinate with truth. But we people do weird things. Sometimes we allow another person or group’s wrong behavior to influence our... Continue Reading
God’s Commandments Are “Right” and “Good,” but Are They “True”?
There is in reality a certain way this world was designed and purposed to work.
Something that is false is the opposite—something that is not in accordance with reality. If the door is actually open, then “The door is open” is true as it is in accordance with reality. If the door is not actually open, then “The door is open” is false as it is not in accordance with... Continue Reading
Christ in the Old Testament
The things of Jesus have now been announced and preached to us.
Do we go to the Old Testament looking for the exalted Christ? Do we see the Old Testament as pointing to Jesus and the fulfillment of His Work? The Bible is a plot, a storyline. It is the history of God’s acting to redeem and people to Himself. Like a story, it moves to a... Continue Reading
What Is at the Centre of Christian Faith?
Jesus, the only begotten God along with the triune Gospel stand at the centre of our faith.
The historical acts of God alone do not fully explain how the Trinity and the Gospel can both stand at the centre of our faith and really describe the same idea. For that, we need to turn to the inner life of God because the inner life of God bespeaks the Gospel. By nature, God is... Continue Reading
Not “How Can I Lead?” but “How Can I Serve?”
We are called to be servants who help people to see God more clearly, rather than helping people to see us.
I see a lot of people, especially young people, who want to be noticed, who want to do big church growth and write about it, who want to be in charge and preach and teach, but who seem much less interested in welcoming difficult newcomers, journeying with people through pain, and pitching in with Sunday... Continue Reading
Repaying Your Relatives?
All grace is poured out from Him to be His loving instruments to repay ailing, frail, sick, or aging relatives.
What I’ve come to discover, is that when we care for our loved ones who need help, massive blessing can result from what we had maybe, in part, previously viewed as stress. As I tearfully drove my mother down to hospital this morning, a wonderful truth was impressed upon my heart. If this blog... Continue Reading
Cold Water to Splash in Despair’s Face over Apostasy
God not only has a remnant of faithful believers, he still has many pastors faithfully holding to God’s Word and proclaiming it weekly from their pulpit.
I don’t want to address the specific apostasy of any one individual. Instead, I want to remind us of some important facts that tend to get lost in explosive, scandalous nature of such stories, especially when they happen in a string. Of late many high-profile apostasies have rattled evangelical Christianity. Some of the men... Continue Reading
Is All Of Life Political?
Of course it depends upon what one means by “politics.”
Christians serve in earthly politics, they seek to persuade their neighbors to pursue just laws and policies, but their loyalties are twofold because they belong to what John Calvin called a “twofold kingdom” (duplex regimen) and there is a hierarchy among the two aspects of God’s twofold government of the world: our first loyalty is... Continue Reading