Is Anything Impossible with God?
With God, nothing is truly “inconceivable.”
Sarah, by faith, conceives a child. What is truly “inconceivable” is the fact that when Sarah conceives Isaac, she is an old woman. The way of women had ceased to be with her (Gen. 18:11). If that were not enough to startle us, Abraham himself is one hundred years old when he and Sarah conceive... Continue Reading
Yawning at Majesty
How to Fight Boredom with the Bible
The Bible is the most amazing book in the world. And when we’re tempted to feel bored with it, we may need to step back and remember how marvelous and unique and powerful this piece of literature is. The Bible is simply unequaled in its influence, audacious in its claims, and unrivaled in its power... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know About God’s Creative Power
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
Most of us wake up and go through our day without ever taking note of the sun, except perhaps to complain about it either being obscured by clouds or too hot to stay outside very long. What we rarely if ever consider is the fact that hundreds of billion billion billion billion (that’s 10 with... Continue Reading
The Spirit Who Proceeds
The Son can send the Spirit because He proceeds from the Son just as He proceeds from the Father.
The Father sends the Holy Spirit in the name of the Son (14:26), and biblically speaking, to send in the name of a person is to send someone on behalf of that person. This would mean that the Son agrees in the sending of the Spirit, that the Spirit is His ambassador. In turn, theologians... Continue Reading
Vos, True Religion and General Assembly
The intimate fellowship of the covenant bond between God and man, secured in the Christ of history for his people, is "the essential character of the Christian religion."
Throughout his writings, Vos urges us to join him in scaling the heights of God’s loving purpose across covenant history in order to survey the beauty and richness of the divine glory before that final Day. But he also calls us to make our sin-killing, rejoicing-in-righteousness, child-like fellowship with the Father, in the Son, by... Continue Reading
Why We Need to Talk About Sin
“Talk of hell, damnation and even sin has been replaced by a nonjudgmental language of understanding and empathy.”
The Reformation doctrine of justification helps us to see that our salvation is the work of Christ for us. It also delivers us from a life of doubt and fear that causes us to wonder how God could possibly love sinners like us. It shows us that we have peace with God objectively because Christ... Continue Reading
Borrowed, Not Possessed
How different would our parenting be if we sought to align ourselves with Hannah’s prayer and God’s desires?
Now of course, Samuel is a little bit different from Junior and Sally. He was one of God’s anointed prophets. He did some big stuff to move the Kingdom football down the field. However, the principle still remains—our covenant children are not ours, they are his. The best we might be able to say is... Continue Reading
Covenant, Free Will, and Apologetics
If there is to be any reconciliation with God, He must move towards us, before we could possibly think of moving towards Him.
Covenantally. if our righteousness originally required perfect and continuous obedience, then one offense shatters the whole, because there is no room, time, or act that can make up for the offense. If you are to always to be right with God, then there is no “down time” by which you could say you wanted to... Continue Reading
The Sovereign Regenerating Spirit
Who is the agent of regeneration who brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life?
“John 3:5–6 explains that the Holy Spirit does this work, but this does not mean that the Holy Spirit acts all by Himself in regeneration. The external acts of God—that which He does in and for creation—are undivided, so the Father and the Son are active in the regeneration of sinners as well.” “God,... Continue Reading
Stop Bowing to the God of Busyness
When people like me meet the God of rest, we have a problem
“To fall into the trap of perpetual busyness is to confuse the God of the Bible with the god of this world. They’re not the same. The story of the exodus and the triumph of the cross prove as much. The god of this world and the God of the Bible speak differently to our... Continue Reading