None of Your Pain Will Be Wasted
Paul says that our affliction in this age prepares for us this coming glory which is beyond comprehension and compare.
Just as “suffering produces endurance” (Romans 5:3) and “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:3), so also affliction in this life, endured in faith, produces this incomparable, immeasurable weight of coming glory. Which means that in those moments when we are suffering — and so far as we can tell, as in those final... Continue Reading
Lord, I Don’t Know What to Do
May we follow King Jehoshaphat’s example and resolve to seek the Lord.
2 Chronicles 20 begins with a daunting picture. Several nations, the Bible calls them a “vast multitude”, joined together to fight against Judah. King Jehoshaphat was afraid. Yet in that fear, he didn’t panic. He didn’t begin to strategize with the leaders of the land. He didn’t turn to the corrupt king of Israel for... Continue Reading
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
As followers of Christ, we are to participate in the good fight of faith and to lay hold of eternal life.
If someone were after you and you were running away from that predator for your life, we would both call that “fleeing” and would use much energy to do it. Running away from a threat is not passive. This is active. It would involve sweat, time, and much energy. If we were pursuing someone in... Continue Reading
A Life and Death Decision
Stop dabbling with God’s way and with your sin. Make your choice.
The fork in the road Moses pointed out to the nation of Israel is a decision every person must make for himself. Not just those present, not just those in the future of the nation Israel, but in a real sense every person who ever lives must choose between life or death. Everyone must choose.... Continue Reading
Teaching Men to Pray
Fundamental to coming to Christ is an attitude or spirit of learning, growing.
It’s very interesting that in the Westminster Shorter Catechism each petition in the Lord’s prayer is examined and explained. It’s very helpful in teaching a new believer what prayer is all about. However, we’re not to that point yet with this new believer. Intimacy with God in prayer grows slowly. When one is helping a... Continue Reading
Five Ways Worry Can Be Helpful
The solution to worry is not becoming laid-back.
The Christian life is one of complete engagement, not disengagement. In the same book where Paul talks about not being anxious for anything (Philippians 4:6), he also says, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13), and “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me”... Continue Reading
The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
An allergy to theological precision has left many of the heirs of both liberalism and fundamentalism barren of theological boundaries.
Progressives in the Presbyterian church (generally centered in the Presbytery of New York), while calling themselves “evangelical,” expressed growing resistance to doctrinal precision. Particular theories such as the substitutionary atonement of Christ, they argued, failed to exhaust the mysteries of divine revelation, which could not be reduced to tidy theological systems. Three provocative actions by... Continue Reading
Sanctification in Christ—the Rest of Your Story
You can be confident about your spiritual growth in Christ, because God is in control.
Sanctification is a slow process of dying to the flesh (mortification) and living unto God (vivification). Just as it is impossible to know exactly what a tree seedling is going to look like in ten years, it can be frustrating to attempt to evaluate a person’s growth in Christ over the short term. The... Continue Reading
The Bad News of John 3:16
The good news of God’s love broadcast in John 3:16 cannot be fully appreciated apart from the bad news represented in the word perish.
Unlike with the Coronavirus, when it comes to sin’s infection there is no vaccine against its contagion. All are born sinners, and find themselves alienated from God and objects of His wrath (Eph. 2:3). Nor can people develop immunity to it. In fact, the Scriptures describe them as already dead in sin (Eph. 2:4). ... Continue Reading
8 Ways Temptation Actually Works for Our Good
God has promised to work all things for our good—even temptation.
Temptation makes us long for the place where all temptations have ceased. We know that in this life we will face unending waves of temptation, but in the life to come, we will be free! Temptation is a universal experience. If Jesus himself did not escape it, we can be certain that we will... Continue Reading