The Lord is Good
“You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.”
This is but another way to draw attention to God’s simplicity. Rather than goodness being a ‘part’ of God, goodness just is God. God is not good in relationship to anyone or anything else. God experiences neither increase nor decrease in goodness. His goodness is absolutely uncreated. As with his other attributes or names, for... Continue Reading
What Is God Up To?: The Temptation to Overinterpret Suffering
This pandemic is the first time that many of us have reckoned with a particular trouble that affects nearly everyone, and it has caused us to think more about God’s ways.
There is something about the human mind that prefers answers. When life-changing events befall us, we often interpret them as highly personal messages. We do this with individuals. Every person whose troubles are known to a church community receives specific “biblical” interpretations for the trouble, or is asked, “What is God trying to teach you?”... Continue Reading
How Patient Is God With Us?
God does not owe us life or forgiveness.
Every time we think of the patience and the long-suffering of God (and think of that truth in light of what he has done for us in Christ crucified), the proper response is repentance and gratitude. The patience of God is one of his most formidable attributes—yet, one that is not frequently highlighted. Augustine... Continue Reading
Undoing The Curse In This Life?
This expression is a provocative way to speak and is used by modern authors in two ways: 1) with reference to Christ’s work for us; 2) with reference to our work in this world.
The New Testament scholar James M. Hamilton uses the expression “roll back the curse” in a couple of places, e.g., Work and Our Labor in the Lord (2017) and in the essay, ‘The Mystery of Marriage” in a 2010 Festschrift for John Piper, both times with reference to the work of Christ for us. One sees this expression... Continue Reading
Does God Miss Our Worship?
We need to pray for the Lord’s mercy so that we may rightly worship Him again.
As the prophets clearly rejected the corruptions of the outward forms of worship, so they also spoke of the hearts of God’s worshiping people. Amos reminds the people that God expects them to return to Him (Amos 4:6) and God calls to them: “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4), a call very much in the... Continue Reading
9 Reasons You May Be in a Spiritual Drought—and How to Find Refreshment
What keeps us moving through the desert is knowing for certain that an oasis lies over the next hill.
None of these suggestions will guard us from all spiritual drought. Because we are sinful and because we live in a fallen world with fallen bodies, we must face up to the reality that spiritual dryness will come again. That is why the psalmist says that the Word of God restores his soul (Ps. 19:7).... Continue Reading
Build Your House on the Rock
We are supposed to seek Him, obey Him, and serve Him in and out of church. We are to be real Christians 24/7.
Those who agree to obey and live lives of repentance are those who have built their lives upon the Rock with deep foundations down to the bedrock of our Lord and Saviour. On the other hand, those who rebel and refuse to submit to His Lordship are those who have built their lives on their... Continue Reading
Why I’m Religious, Not Just Spiritual
True religion is about the vertical (our relationship with God), but it also includes the horizontal (our relationships with one another).
One phrase, in particular, keeps on rearing its (ugly) head: “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” “Religion,” we’re told, is a negative concept, and it has to do with outward observance of rituals and behaviors, rather than the relationship that we should have with Jesus. It sounds great because we should all agree that the... Continue Reading
You Can’t Control How You’re Feeling, but You Can Control Where You’re Looking
You may or may not be feeling rightly today. Regardless, make sure you are “looking” rightly.
If we are resigned to the fact that we are going to feel what we feel, and that those feelings might not be right, then the most proactive thing we can do is to make sure we are looking at the right thing. To make sure, even in the midst of feeling what we know... Continue Reading
Missing the Mark
The misconception is that sin is something we do, when it is actually something we do not do.
Most believers have the wrong idea about sin. They have no problem assigning the title of “sinner” to a murderer or drunkard, et cetera, but those of us who are respectable citizens, what about us? Most of us would probably think that sin has not very much to do with us, at least not like... Continue Reading