Don’t Face Unbelief Alone
We need our trusted brothers and sisters to help us trust in the Lord, even when we’d rather struggle alone.
The Lord requires us to humble ourselves and confide our sinful desires, irrational or exaggerated fears, the soul-shaking doubts, and dark despairing thoughts in trusted members of our community of faith, distrusting the resistance we feel to doing this. Because he has ordained that we receive the Spirit’s help through them. We all very... Continue Reading
The Coming Attack on Homeschooling and Educational Freedom?
They have an (eschatological) vision for the future, where the brightest and the best are in charge of your daily life.
This is a major essay by a professor in one of the top law schools in the USA. This essay will reinforce and validate the fears of policy makers and law makers. It will surely be featured at the upcoming conference at Harvard Law. These are culture-making and culture-shaping institutions. Today’s Harvard Law students are... Continue Reading
Train Hard, Fight Easy
What decisions can I make today which will reap dividends when I am called on to take large steps or endure hard sacrifices for the gospel?
We have become so present-centred that not only are we seldom thinking of eternity, we are scarcely planning for tomorrow. Such a perspective will make any future hostility or persecution depressingly effective in terms of decimating the ranks of the Church. A good friend of mine spent part of his career as an elite... Continue Reading
Don’t Waste Your Medical Crisis
Through all of this, I learned much—much that is applicable to any medical crisis, including COVID-19.
For me, 2019 was the hardest year of my life. I spent it trying to regain the physical strength and energy I lost through my medical crisis. But everything I endured proved to be a gift. It changed my life in so many good ways. Approximately one year ago, on April 11, 2019, my... Continue Reading
Theological Reflections on the Pandemic
Disease and death have indelibly marked the human experience east of Eden.
The coronavirus pandemic is the latest in a long line of disease outbreaks that have wreaked havoc on humanity over the centuries, and it will very likely not be the last. This editorial offers theological, historical, and pastoral reflections on disease and sickness. So thou, sick world, mistak’st thy self to be Well, when... Continue Reading
Why David’s Census was Wrong
Why did the Lord incite David to take the census, and express anger at him afterwards for doing so?
Matthew Henry cites five possible reasons that David’s census was wrong: 1) He was using it to number men under twenty years of age for army service, which was forbidden in God’s law; 2) The census had no direct order from God; 3) David was going to use the results to tax the people more... Continue Reading
3 Ways God Saves You from Drowning—the Second Day of Creation
Our Savior showed how he can deliver us from the chaotic suffocating waters in whatever form they come.
First, we see creation: formless, lifeless, lightless, empty, and watery. This is the raw material. On Day One God floods creation with light. And periods of light will alternate with periods of darkness to make “day and night.” Yet, although creation is no longer black, it is still a formless watery chaos. On Day Two God builds structure, a firmament-expanse,... Continue Reading
“Hate” – A Word Like “Atheism”
Unbelievers are very free with the word haters.
Polycarp’s dialogue with the governor requires a bit of commentary to be understood. When the governor told Polycarp to say “Down with the atheists”, he meant for Polycarp to renounce Christianity. Atheist was a pejorative term that pagans threw at Christians. To a polytheistic society awash in gods, goddesses, temples, and all their paraphernalia, Christianity seemed, at... Continue Reading
Prayer: If We Want To Overcome Our Prayerlessness Perhaps We Need To Embrace The Fact That Prayer Is Hard Work
Our confidence in prayer is sapped by our experience of unanswered prayer, which causes us to doubt the efficacy and therefore the importance of praying.
I suspect that there are two fundamental reasons why we do not pray more, which are to some degree related, one theological and the other experiential. Theologically we do not really believe that prayer makes a difference. Experientially we do not enjoy praying. It is indisputable that many Christians, and indeed many gospel ministers,... Continue Reading
What is Christian Liberty?
The perfect law of freedom is the freedom of generosity when the Judge shows his generosity in proportion to the mercifulness of the believers on earth.
When we study the Word of God, in order to obtain the correct biblical interpretation of a passage such as Galatians 5:1, we must remember to always maintain context. This will give us the correct meaning of a passage. It is quite an easy thing to rip a passage of scripture out of context in... Continue Reading