5 Effects of Being Rooted and Established in Love
This love is not the stuff of intellectual pursuit, but instead of experience.
We are indeed rooted and firmly established in the love of God, for God has not left His love in doubt. No matter what might happen to us or around us circumstantially, God has demonstrated His love for us in that Christ has died. This case is closed. But the love of God is not... Continue Reading
The Work of the Pastor
Staying faithful to our work as pastors.
Still offers practical, solid advice that can only come from someone with much experience in ministry: on expecting opposition, experiencing early fruits, handling problem people, managing expectations, dealing with our own tendencies, and more. I love learning from old, faithful pastors. We’re often drawn to the young and charismatic. I’m learning we need the... Continue Reading
The Danger of Me-Focused Guilt
Satan’s strategy is to attack our egos, taunting us for not sufficiently employing our own wisdom and strength.
Here lies the danger of me-focused guilt. The danger is not just that it’s wrong or dishonoring to God or unbiblical—although those are true. The danger is how it leads us to find the solution to our problem in ourselves, to trust in ourselves, to find hope in what we can do better next time—and... Continue Reading
“Let There Be Light”
6 Things You Need to Know about the Light God Gives You
God is the source of illumination, wisdom, knowledge, and truth. By creating light three days before he created the sun, moon, and stars, he made this crystal clear. The sun is merely God’s tool, God’s torch. We could say that in the same way the moon dimly reflects the light of the sun, the sun... Continue Reading
The Theo-logic of Heavenly Worship
From creation to consummation, the corporate worship of God’s people is a memorial.
This picture of the worship of heaven has significance for Christian worship for several reasons. First, since earthly worship, both in the OT and NT, is said to be patterned after the worship of heaven, how heavenly worship takes place should inform earthly Christian worship. Second, consequently, Christians since the first century have taken careful... Continue Reading
Songs of the Saints: While We Wait, We Sing
Come thou long expected, Jesus, born to set thy people free.
The value of something can be proven when it stands the test of time. Like the hymns we sing at church on Sunday, or at home any day of the week. These theological melodies are timeless and are worth our time, attention, and voices still today. The sun blazes hot on the brown bristles... Continue Reading
In What Way Is God’s Love For Us Most Clearly Seen?
If you focus on God and all that he is for us in Jesus, you will never again thirst or go spiritually hungry or lack for the joy that your soul most deeply desires.
If God is to love my wife, Ann, optimally, in the most superlative way possible, he must bestow or impart to her the best gift he has, the greatest prize, the most precious treasure, the most exalted and worthy thing within his power to give. That gift, of course, is himself. Is there anything better than... Continue Reading
How Precious To Me Are Your Thoughts, O God!
The God who knows every thought and has planned every day – even the hard ones – is also the God who has entered into the brokenness of our world and died so that we could live forever.
Can we rejoice in the sovereign providence and planning of God when he takes someone we love? Can we rejoice in the sovereign providence of God when afflicted with chronic pain or disease? Can we rejoice in the sovereign providence of God when he does things in ways that we would not expect or desire?... Continue Reading
By Nature We Are Not Ill But Dead
The Reformation is built on Augustine’s anti-Pelagian doctrines of sin and grace.
We all know that Martin Luther and the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers recovered the doctrine that Scripture is the sole final authority (sola scriptura), that justification is by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone. It is less well known, however, that one of the most fundamental aspects of the Reformation... Continue Reading
Is God Simple?
This confession of God’s simplicity represents the common opinion of reformed theology as well as earlier Christian theology.
Divine simplicity as well as its attendant teachings (immutability, impassibility, timelessness) no longer enjoy a consensus. Instead, a number of theologians now deny, ignorte, or redefine simplicity. Certainly, the principle of Sola Scriptura allows even the most central teaching of Christianity to undergo scrutiny. Yet I am persuaded that divine simplicity enjoyed such universal consensus... Continue Reading