10 Things You Should Know about Common Grace
Most of us have close friends and relatives who are not Christians but who are, what we would feel justified in calling, “good” people.
The truth of God’s common grace is driven home when we ask how it is that people who lie under the wrath of God experience so many good gifts at the hand of God. How do we account for the extraordinary gifts, talents, and accomplishments of those who are unregenerate? How is it that so... Continue Reading
Here I Raise My Ebenezer
The Inspiration for ‘Come Thou Fount’
The meaning of Ebenezer originates more than a thousand years before Christ, during the ministry of the prophet Samuel, who played a pivotal role at a key juncture in the history of God’s people. Long has he been remembered as one of Israel’s greatest figures, alongside names like Moses and David. God raised up Samuel as the... Continue Reading
Waiting When God Seems Silent
What about when we wait and listen, with seemingly no response from God?
The call to wait on God is an invitation to trust and hope. It entails believing that one day — even if today is not that day — he will make all things right. In times of waiting, as we seek God in prayer, we must learn to listen to him as well as talk to him... Continue Reading
Sabbath Rest – Part 2
In Exodus 20 we find the codification of the Sabbath into law, given to Israel at Mt. Sinai and then the renewal of the covenant in Deuteronomy 5.
In the Fourth Commandment we see the concept for six days of work, which is just as commanded as the one day of rest, followed by the Sabbath observance on the seventh day. The widespread, nondiscriminatory nature of the observance, which simply includes “no work”, extends from the individual, to family, to servants, to livestock,... Continue Reading
Incomprehensible but Knowable: A Lisping God
The God of the Bible, the Creator, is too great to enclose in the limits of creaturely minds.
Though pastors in training often earn Masters of Divinity degrees, they simply cannot master God, but can only be mastered by him, or fail to be. How then can we know God, if he is beyond us? Together with affirming God’s “incomprehensibility,” Calvin emphasized that God graciously overcomes our natural inability so that we truly... Continue Reading
An Everlasting Meal
In God’s wisdom, the death of Christ would coincide with the Passover feast.
Jesus supplies the primary purpose of this new covenant feast: “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25). Paul clarifies that this mandate has an expiration date: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v. 26, emphasis... Continue Reading
Incomprehensible but Knowable: Special Revelation
God is pleased to reveal His glory to Moses, but only part of it.
What do we have that didn’t come from somewhere or someone else? Applied to our knowledge of God: what do we know about God that He Himself has not told us? In a certain sense, theology is a one-way street. We cannot attain to the heavenlies. The heavenlies must come down to us. In Exodus... Continue Reading
You Are Not You Without Him
Die to yourself, and you will find the true you.
The God who made us in his own image has not given us the power to create a self that can survive on its own. From the beginning, our true identity (who weare) has been tied to our Creator (who he is): “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” (Genesis... Continue Reading
Sabbath Rest – Part 1
The most detailed revelation on the concept of rest begins after Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
“I am the Lord your God,” a common recognition formula that God often employs to instruct His people on who He is. When morning came, Moses relayed the command of the Lord to the people to take as much as they could eat, an omer, according to the number of people in each tent. Those who... Continue Reading
Guidelines for Grumbling
What then if I have been guilty of grumbling or have been tempted to guilty gripes and later given in?
If we have a work-for-wages spirit, and think we are more deserving than others, because we have worked harder or longer, we have seriously misunderstood the principle of grace: none of us deserves a thing from God except destruction, hell, death and miseries in this life – any reward that a son of Adam gets... Continue Reading