The Damning Devastation of a Single Coddled Sin
Just a single sin left in your life is as dangerous as just a single rattlesnake left in your bed.
Christian, do not be ambivalent with your sin. Do not be complacent with sin in general and be doubly sure you are not ignoring a single treasured pet sin. There is great danger in any and every sin; there is great joy and freedom in every measure of holiness. We can never be ambivalent.... Continue Reading
Just What Is Godly Sex? – Part 2
Sex, like all of life, is profoundly theological, while being gloriously earthy and physical.
Some Christians believe the world’s lie that maximum pleasure is the goal of sex. Scripture warns that in the last days people will be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). God wants us to know him more fully in all of life, to worship him as our Creator and see... Continue Reading
The Marrow Controversy: The Book
Fisher’s work is filled with practical advise and tidbits that are relevant your Christian living today and current debates on the nature and role of sanctification.
The Marrow of Modern Divinity is still worth reading today. It gives not only doctrine but great pastoral wisdom. Regardless of whether or not one reads the book, the issues remain current today. We must always guard the gospel against legalism and antinomianism. In resisting one, we must not fall into the error of the other. We... Continue Reading
5 Passages Your Pastor Wishes You’d Stop Taking Out of Context
How we get them wrong and what church leaders can do about it.
Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2 NASB). Sometimes misinterpreting a passage boils down to decontextualizing a single word—in this case prosper. “This passage has typically been used as a proof text that God is mandated to bless in a very... Continue Reading
The Agonizing Ordeal of Eugene Peterson — You Might Be Next
Those who have fled for security to the house of evasion must know that the structure has crumbled. It always does.
Consider these lessons from Eugene Peterson’s ordeal. First, there is nowhere to hide. Every pastor, every Christian leader, every author — even every believer — will have to answer the question. The question cannot simply be about same-sex marriage. The question is about whether or not the believer is willing to declare and defend God’s... Continue Reading
Rethinking Christian Calling
You don’t need a divine calling to confirm the decisions in your life.
The Christian life is one where we are called to be holy. As Paul wrote: “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7). It is the daily struggle of every Christian to live in a manner worthy of that calling. Why unnecessarily press upon people the need to seek a divine... Continue Reading
Christ, the Content of the Law
Not only was Christ the giver of the Law, but also the very content and substance that the Moral Law of God imaged and pictured
We must never think of the Old Testament People of God as a carnal people, hoping in temporal promises, and only reaching Christ in spite of the Old Covenant. We must instead put ourselves in the shoes of the faithful saints of old by attending to the actual words of Scripture. Held out before them was the... Continue Reading
The Suffering and the Glory of Psalm 22
We wonder how our loving heavenly Father can stand idly by when we are in such distress.
Yet, even in this extreme distress, David never loses faith or falls into complete hopelessness. His anguish leads him to prayer, and the first words of the prayer are “My God.” Even in his suffering and wondering about the ways of God, he does not let go of his knowledge that God is his God.... Continue Reading
Discovering Christ in the Psalms
Every systematic and biblical-theological truth of Scripture is found, in seed form, in the Psalms.
It should not surprise us that the New Testament writers cite the Psalms more than any other book of the Old Testament. Neither should it surprise us that, in each citation, Jesus and the Apostles teach us that the Psalms are Messianic in nature. In so doing, they teach us the principles that we must... Continue Reading
Children of Divorce
Ultimately, in light of God’s design for marriage, young people need more than a lesson in commitment; they need the message of Christ’s commitment.
There’s no talking about the Gospel without sin, and there’s no meaningful discussion about marriage without mention of divorce. As sons and daughters of Adam, we’re all children of divorce. We’ve all gone astray. We’ve all played the harlot. But the very existence of marriage tells us there’s a greater wedding – and a greater... Continue Reading