What Are the “High Places” in the Old Testament, and How Does That Apply to Us Today?
The “high places” is a shorthand term for places of pagan worship.
The New Testament recognizes a figurative sort of high places, where Christ’s people worship false gods instead of the one true God. Like Israel’s kings, we have the responsibility to topple all the idols in our own lives in order to give Jesus full Lordship. The fact that they didn’t use their power and authority... Continue Reading
A Thanksgiving Jesus
Jesus’ thankfulness teaches us to pour out our own hearts in thanksgiving to God–above all, for the redemption that He has freely given to us in the Son.
In short, the three things for which Jesus expressed thanksgiving were all bound up in the work of redemption. In this, Jesus teaches us that above all the things that we should be thankful for–not just on one day in November, but every day of our lives–is the redemption that we have in His blood, the... Continue Reading
Blessed Even in the Worst: How to Give Thanks in Every Circumstance
We enjoy God’s blessing only because Jesus experienced the full measure of God’s curse in our place.
So how is it that God can be so good to us? On what basis can God bless us so generously? You and I can anticipate being showered with God’s blessing only because Jesus experienced the full measure of God’s curse in our place. Christ was given what we deserve so that we might be... Continue Reading
We Need To Listen To Dissenters, And Have Leaders Who Are Willing To Stand Alone
An observable pattern in both the Old and New Testaments: people who have spoken for God have often spoken alone.
Periodically leaders with insight and courage will speak up when others won’t. Do we welcome that, or just put up with it, marginalizing those voices instead of earnestly listening to what they have to say? God may be speaking through them, not the current majority. I’ve noticed a pattern in both the Old and... Continue Reading
Fill Your Wandering Heart with Thankfulness
The more thankfulness is present in us, the less vulnerable we are to sin.
Gratitude is what we experience when we perceive that what we have received is an undeserved gift of God’s grace. It is a fruit of humility; it’s inherently unselfish. We don’t feel true gratitude toward ourselves, but only towards someone else who treats us better than we deserve. Do you know what’s stronger than... Continue Reading
Approaching the Throne of Grace
We can approach the throne of grace with boldness because we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.
If Christ’s intercession is not sufficient for us, what can be added to it? If Christ has not granted to us access to the throne of grace, who can? Without Christ’s righteousness and merit, we dare not approach Him, but thanks be to God that Christ, our High Priest, continually makes intercession for us in... Continue Reading
Apostasy and How It Happens
Perhaps a personal health check is in order. And today would be the wisest time to do it.
The solemn fact is that none of us can tell the difference between the beginning of backsliding and the beginning of apostasy. Both look the same. So what are the tell-tale signs of this sickness unto death? Are there early symptoms that might alert us to our spiritual danger? I can still recall the conversation... Continue Reading
What Is Hypostatic Union?
It means that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
If we don’t understand this doctrine or how we got it, we’re left with flimsy answers to important questions–questions which become barriers to faith for some people. We may find ourselves having to shrug at crucial Christian beliefs, or worse, provide answers that drive people further away from Christ. Hypostatic union is how Christians... Continue Reading
Is This Life All There Is?
That eternity is in our hearts is one reason why people who are devoted to pursuing temporal pleasure ordinarily find life so empty.
This awareness of eternity belongs to what John Calvin calls the sensus divinitatis, and it inescapably orients even the unregenerate to our unending future. This is evident in humanity’s fascination with the afterlife and the way we speak of the “departed.” It is also apparent in how religious humans have been in all ages, including our own.... Continue Reading
Is Porn Addiction Just a Medical Problem?
the church needs to be aware that the fundamental anthropology of a disease model for a porn addiction falls far short of the way God describes humanity’s experience as his fallen image bearers.
The Bible always locates sin in one place: the human heart. This doesn’t mean that environmental and physiological factors don’t play a role in addictions, but the Bible sees every external factor as the context for the desires, responses, and engagements of the heart. In other words, Scripture says the entire person—the body, mind, and... Continue Reading