The Need and Imperative of Self-Counsel
Without the the consistent lifestyle of a believer in Jesus Christ, the model of biblical counseling falls.
In many ways, you can think of biblical counseling as a four-legged stool. One leg is theology—the dynamics of biblical change. Another leg is methodology—methods consistent with biblical theology that promote change. The third leg is the context of biblical counseling—the body of Christ in the local church. The fourth leg is the practitioner participating... Continue Reading
Let Us Make Our Calling and Election Sure
If we obey our Lord in our sanctification, working it out with fear and trembling then we will be putting to death our flesh and its sinful desires.
Peter tells us that we are to make every effort to supplement our faith. How do we do that and what is it we are to add to it? Again, the answer is to become Spirit-led. This breaks the chains of our fleshly desires and puts us into a mode of obedience to God that... Continue Reading
How Is God Present in Our Pain?
It seems clear that when we suffer, we should prepare to endure even as we also give ourselves to self-examination.
God assured Paul of his power and presence, but also gave him a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble, to keep him from falling into a spiritual death-spiral. God calls us to confess our sins that we may be healed, an acknowledgement that sometimes our sickness and suffering may be a divinely-ordained consequence... Continue Reading
4 Important Things to Remember If You Are a Doubting Believer
A healthy understanding of doubt should go hand in hand with a healthy understanding of faith.
Doubt is not the same thing as unbelief. Unbelief is an act of the will that refuses to trust and obey Christ. Doubt is often asking questions or voicing uncertainty; and, it may well be from the standpoint of faith. And doubt which is smothered or ignored can often be the precursor of many problems... Continue Reading
3 Reasons to Study Bible Genealogies with Kids
The individual stories of Abraham, Ruth, and David come together to testify of one person: Jesus Christ.
You may have heard this testimony before: a Christian grows up hearing isolated Bible stories. Later in life, she discovers these various accounts all fit together to proclaim one glorious gospel. She’s delighted to see God’s unfolding revelation in Scripture but wonders why she never saw this before. Parents hoping to make this testimony rare... Continue Reading
True Friends Confront Sin
You can kiss your “friends” to death by overlooking their sin.
Your friends won’t sit by and watch you engage in sinful behavior. Much less will they share in your indulgences. The person who does that isn’t your friend, but an enemy of your soul. Perhaps it’s the fear of not wanting to be the person who rains on someone else’s parade, or maybe it’s a... Continue Reading
All You Need for Another Year
God, and God alone, will be your sufficiency — in everything.
You may not feel sufficient for what God has called you to do. Likely, as you look back over the last year, you feel freshly insufficient for your marriage, family, ministry, and other callings. That’s good. God does not call us to feel or be sufficient. We should feel insufficient for the Christian life (2... Continue Reading
Confessions of a Church: We Win
We have the promise of Christ to never leave us nor forsake us.
Brothers and sisters, the world and its lusts are passing away. The reprobate is being given over to their degrading passions and depraved minds. They are condemned already, without help in the world because of their unbelief. Jesus encouraged us to remember that we are to fear not the one who can destroy the body,... Continue Reading
Two Ways We Get the Gospel Wrong, One Way to Get It Right
The new life we have in Christ is far greater than we often consider.
Many people who have grown up in legalistic homes or environments don’t know what to make of the Christian life. There is little room for virtue or moral examples, habits or disciplines. When Christians who have grown up in this environment come to a fresh understanding of the gospel of free grace, they don’t know what... Continue Reading
Hell to Pay
What Truly Happened to Jesus on the Cross?
If Jesus wasn’t truly forsaken—if he didn’t really endure the equivalent of eternal punishment on the cross—then substitutionary atonement is a legal fiction. If Jesus didn’t really suffer the pains of hell on the cross, then the infinite and eternal wrath of God is not truly propitiated. If Jesus didn’t become the object of the... Continue Reading