Heaven on Earth? The Beatific Vision
Pining for God is our calling, our chief end.
At the present, if you are alive that is, you see God by faith. At present we walk by faith and not by sight. What is more, our “vision” of God now, by faith, is only adequate and apprehensive because the finite is not able to grasp the infinite. However, there will come a day... Continue Reading
What Every Christian Needs to Know About Evil and Suffering
whatever befalls us, God has a plan and has already figured out how he will weave the darker threads into a beautiful tapestry.
Many things that happen to us—like sickness, disease, prolonged battles of various kinds—are just the result of living in a fallen world. But these aren’t just random accidents. God never allows any trial that he hasn’t already figured out how to turn to our profit. Our ultimate good that Romans 8:28 is talking about is our salvation. ... Continue Reading
Doubting the Traditional Take on Thomas
The moniker “Doubting Thomas” is mostly unfair.
Thomas doubted the testimony of his peers, and really, who could blame him? None of them were expecting the resurrection. Why would Thomas put stock in the testimony of similarly exhausted, traumatized people like him? But even as we soften in our view of Thomas, we should not blunt the edge in the Lord’s correction... Continue Reading
Getting All the Good Things In
The Puritans on the Good Source, Effects, and Benefits of Holiness
One of the leading defenders of the Puritans, J. I. Packer, explains in A Quest for Godliness that the Puritans developed a holistic lifestyle that centered around holiness “not so much to keep bad things out as to make sure that they got all good and important things in” (24). Thus, one way the Puritans can help... Continue Reading
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 6, Gospel
There is no greater marketing term in our day than the word gospel.
Some consider social justice a gospel issue while others would say that it’s something that is acutely affected and influenced by the gospel. This is why implications, applications, and illustrations must be handled with precision and care. In most cases, both groups (woke and non-woke) evangelicals would agree on the gospel, but the real controversy... Continue Reading
God Will Conquer All Your Sins
I prayed for more holiness, more faith, more love, but often, God seemed to answer by illuminating new corners of darkness in the cavern of my flesh.
I needed to remember what God had promised about my sins. I needed to remember that my holiness does not rest on my frail shoulders, but rather on God’s almighty resolve, from eternity past forever into the future, to make me blameless before him (Colossians 1:22). I didn’t know holiness would be so hard-won.... Continue Reading
Scripture: Our Inerrant and Infallible Authority
As the decades pass and generations come and go, God’s Word sadly recedes from the center of His people’s lives and from prominence in His congregation.
The Old Testament prophets spoke of a famine of the Word of God. As we look through the pages of the Bible and through church history, we find such times of famine. One of the severest of these times of famine came on the eve of the Reformation. It’s one of those moments we wish... Continue Reading
The Imago Dei in Man
What makes rats so trivial and toddlers so treasured?
The Judeo-Christian worldview teaches that human beings are different from animals not just in degree, but in kind. Animals are creatures, but humans are a special kind of creature, one that is uniquely created in the image of their Creator. Genesis 1:27 says it succinctly: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God... Continue Reading
We Will Out-Sing the Enemy
Sometimes we fear the voice of our accuser will win the day.
The sound of our oppression, of our bondage and of our shame, threatens to drown us out. It is overwhelming. The voice of the accuser, our enemy the devil, rings so loudly in our ears as it to shake our very souls. We begin to cry out ourselves to our Savior. One of my... Continue Reading
How to Live a Simple and Wasted Life
Thoreau didn’t want to discover too late that he had missed life’s essential preciousness.
Did Thoreau “rout out all that was not life”? Did he find out what life essentially is? No, he didn’t. Like the long line of life-lookers before and after him, Thoreau identified vanity parasites that suck so much time and energy and resources out of people’s lives, but did not discover the essential essence or... Continue Reading