Good, Not Safe
God offers safety to those who obey Him. But those who refuse to submit to His authority have no expectation of safety.
And, here in Revelation, we learn that we will join Christ in opposing disobedience. And this is serious opposition, isn’t it? Ruling with a rod of iron. Shattering his enemies like clay pots. The Lord takes dealing with disobedience seriously. And this should get our attention. He takes obedience seriously. He rewards obedience. But He takes disobedience equally seriously.... Continue Reading
Remember Who You Were Without Christ
“If we are going to treasure all we have in Christ, we need to remember who we were without him.”
Remembering our sin in this way, far from sending us into despair, deepens our assurance. For if Christ loved us then, while we wanted nothing to do with him, will he not surely go on loving us now (Romans 5:10)? Our sin reminds us that the love of God never rested on our worthiness —... Continue Reading
Why the Problem of Evil Is Still a Problem
Adversaries assert God either can’t destroy or won’t destroy. If he can’t destroy it, then he’s not all powerful. If he won’t destroy it, then he’s not all good.
Skeptics find the problem of evil so repugnant and our solutions so hollow because they refuse to accept a fundamental reality that every Christian believes in: life after death. It’s an essential truth that’s part of a coherent Christian worldview. Because believers accept this truth, the solution to the problem of evil is palatable. But because skeptics reject this... Continue Reading
What Shapes Your Image of the Good Life?
God doesn’t want us to escape from reality or ignore reality; he wants us to be blessed through that reality.
I mean, really, which counsel is more tempting for you, the counsel of violent rioters who say, “Hey, come with us and burn things down and harm people,” or the counsel of a neighbor like that who says, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just sleep in on Sunday morning, have a relaxing day out on... Continue Reading
The “Vision” Behind the Great Commission
What does Jesus conquering the world have to do with taking the gospel to the ends of the earth?
The two most familiar New Testament passages about the Great Commission—Matthew 28 and Acts 1—share many unmistakable similarities with Daniel 7. For the sake of time, I will only be able to cover four similarities each Great Commission text shares with Daniel 7. But the final result will leave no doubt that Jesus’ victory at... Continue Reading
Scripture in Scripture
Reading the Old Testament with the Apostles
The New Testament authors quote, allude to, and interpret the Old Testament in a great variety of ways — and sometimes in ways that seem illegitimate to modern readers. But the apostles’ use of the Old Testament becomes clearer as we grasp the distinct practices and postures they brought to the Scriptures. Such practices and... Continue Reading
Trusting God in Times of Plenty
You cannot come until you see your poverty, turn away from your wickedness, and turn to God in trust.
Even so, one problem still remains for all of us: we are spiritually poor. In the end, even the richest person on earth, with access to the best doctors, multiple houses and other possessions, able to buy just about anything the mind can imagine, is born in spiritual poverty. These poor ones are the kind... Continue Reading
Blessed Are Those Who Mourn – Applications for Lacrimations
Brief thoughts about how to read and use the often-neglected book of Lamentations with pastoral profit.
Confess how little we engage in godly lamentation; pray that God would use this means of grace to mourn with Jesus’ own Spirit-filled, tearful, heart. Blessed are those that mourn – the LORD has comforted Zion. Introduction How valuable this book is – in this world of tears it is a veritable treasure trove: there... Continue Reading
What Makes a Man — or a Woman?
Our differences are not merely differences from each other, but are actually differences for each other.
God’s design in creation = nature. Expressed and clarified in the word of God = Scripture. Wise and prudent application = culture. God has built the world in a particular way, creating men and women for his mission, but doing so in a particular order and with a mutual dependence…Getting straight on these categories is... Continue Reading
Worship and Gender
God intends natural gender distinctions to be visible and obvious in the worshiping assembly.
The Word teaches that gender distinctions are important to our Creator, and especially so in public worship of the church.[3] What reader of the Bible is actually surprised by this? We are told that God made man in His own image, male and female, placed them in a Garden and befriended them. With multi-faceted beauty and giftedness, they... Continue Reading