Coronavirus19—What’s It for?
What do Creed-reciting Christians have to say about the plague?
Whatever purpose plagues played in the O.T., we should hold to the fact that now the people of God are no longer ‘slaves’ but ‘sons’ (Gal. 4.3), Jesus taught that evils act as ‘reminders’ or as warnings of human mortality and weakness and need, and of the personal accountability before God of each of us.... Continue Reading
For, Not To
God's Word was written for you, but it was not written to you.
While the Bible is perfectly designed to be our guide for faith and life, we were not the original audience. And reading it as if we were is simplistic and dangerous. Learning this one, simple truth will both unlock the depths of God’s Word while also guarding us from bad interpretation. When people becomes... Continue Reading
5 Post-Lockdown Regrets
Some will look back on lockdown with a deep sense of regret at having missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow closer to God.
As I spoke with a good friend yesterday, we were pondering how lockdown does not create new spiritual or emotional issues for us. It is the kind of pressure that merely reveals issues more blatantly. So now is a good time to anticipate how we will feel coming out of lockdown. Why? Because now we... Continue Reading
Context Matters: Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing
We cannot know Jesus’s full meaning in John 15:5 without understanding “abiding” and “bearing fruit.”
Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. When we read this verse in context we see that Jesus is not primarily warning against self-reliance nor dismissing the contributions of non-Christians. Yes, he is drawing a sharp line between those who follow him and those who do not. But this is a call to life. ... Continue Reading
Crunching the Numbers on the Resurrection Toll
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead is a gigantic deal.
Don’t let the roller-coaster resurrection story become stale for you. Grab a Bible, plop down on a couch with your kids, read it over and over, talk about it, and feel the awe. For those who are hidden in Christ, sin is forgiven. Death is done. Fear not. He is risen. Reading through the... Continue Reading
A Creedal Crescendo—Risen, Reigning, Returning
Exploring the work of Christ under headings of the Apostles’ Creed.
Jesus rose bodily from the grave, but where is He now and what is He doing? Jesus came into this world in the humblest of ways – born a helpless baby, in an obscure town, among the animals in a stable. He was born a king but yet to conquer. Christ left the world, however,... Continue Reading
More Than an Idle Threat: Real Assaults on Religious Liberty Emerge in the Pandemic
During a national or global emergency, bad precedents can take root.
We must be alarmed that…the mayor of a major American city threatened to have the police take down the license plate numbers of cars gathered in a parking lot for an Easter worship service—people who were otherwise abiding by the CDC and other governmental guidelines. They are taking names. They are taking numbers. This is... Continue Reading
‘Progressive’ Christianity: Even Shallower Than the Evangelical Faith I Left
Progressives had become just as fundamentalist as the fundamentalists they despised. But instead of traditional values being the litmus test, it was now wokeness.
We need more theology, nuance, grace, compassion, and understanding in our churches, not less. But these things are made possible by orthodox doctrine, not in spite of it. Doubt and questions need not catalyze a pendulum swing from belief to unbelief. In John 6, Jesus’s hard teaching causes a large number of his followers... Continue Reading
Services Suspended: Are They the Voice of God to Us?
Troubles and trials were sent to the people of God for two purposes; to drive them away from syncretism with the world, and to drive them to “return” to their only Refuge and Strength.
Indications are that the pause will soon be over, and life in ministry will be restarted. I believe then God will ask us, “What did you do with the time I gave you, all of you, in the whole nation, to seek Me and my Word?” I can’t speak for other Reformed denominations, but I... Continue Reading
7 Ways Our World Has Changed, But God Hasn’t
Our continent is humbled. But God’s Word is not chained.
God has faithfully carried His people through pestilence, plague, persecution, and war all through history. And all through history it has been the most difficult times that have led to the greatest growth in the church. It feels like we are living a key moment in history right now —may it be a key moment... Continue Reading