Wealth Despite Faithlessness: the Tragedy of the Prosperity Gospel
“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
The rich young man likely thought his life was a good example of a Jew receiving blessing because of keeping the covenant. Yet the reality—as Jesus will soon reveal to us, the rich man and the disciples—is that he wasn’t rich because of his faithfulness to God; rather, he was rich in spite of his unfaithfulness to... Continue Reading
Return to the Ordinary Means of Grace
Open your Bible often. Pray without ceasing. It’s ordinary, and unremarkable.
Our call is to make disciples, not draw crowds. Are the people in our churches disciples of Christ who are growing in depth of godliness? Or are they simply spectators at an event? If it’s the latter, how do we prune the branches that are not bearing fruit? How do we correct course if we’ve... Continue Reading
Help for When We’re Feeling Overwhelmed
We feel like everything is chaotic. But it’s not; God reigns.
God has been God and will continue to be God forever. When we’re overwhelmed, we often over-fixate on the situation and everything going on. But here we see the psalmist break free from focusing only on the moment at hand. He looks to his everlasting God. It’s encouraging to him that God not only reigns... Continue Reading
The Gospel That Is Believed and Saves
Genuine Christians know and believe the Lord. They know that it is not their religiosity that holds them.
Those who truly know Jesus Christ as Lord gladly commit their all to Him. They do not do so to some religious acts, but to their personal Saviour. Paul knew our Lord and was sure that He was able to keep or guard what had been entrusted to him until the day of judgment, the... Continue Reading
What Does It Mean to Crucify Christ Again in Hebrews 6:6?
If we reject Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, there’s no other sacrifice left for us that can atone for sins (Heb. 10:26).
In verse 6, crucifying the Son of God again is parallel to holding him up to contempt. The word used by the pastor here is rare in the New Testament, in fact, this is its only occurrence! It means to disgrace someone in a public manner. The people described in Hebrews 6:4-6 experienced in a... Continue Reading
Do Everything Without Grumbling
Every decision to grumble is a decision not to pray, not to pour out our hearts before God.
Like all temptations common to man, the temptation to grumble always comes with “the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). But how? How can we confront our own tendencies to murmur and, amazingly, begin to “do all things without grumbling” (Philippians 2:14)? “Do all things without... Continue Reading
No One Can Come to Me Unless the Father Who Sent Me Draws Him
Even the most mature Christians are in great need of reflecting on the cross.
Not only has God provided the way to eternal life through the Son, He also draws His people to Him in such a way that they believe and repent in total surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Those who were God’s enemies who considered the cross as “Nonsense” and Christianity as, at best, a pie... Continue Reading
Why Did God Command Hosea to Marry an Immoral Woman?
Hosea’s marriage as a prophetic sign-act reveals the length to which God is willing to go to wake us from our sinful stupor.
The prophet is called by God to enter into a marriage that functions, most scandalously, as an enacted parable, graphically—even shockingly—illustrating Israel’s infidelity to her husband, Yahweh. The punch this passage packs is that Yahweh God, in redeeming lost sinners, became a cuckold straight away, taking to himself an unfaithful wife. Strikingly, provocatively, and scandalously, he... Continue Reading
Marriage and the 7th Commandment
Simply put, marriage between a husband and wife is a picture of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His church .
Why does God take marriage so seriously? Any number of things could be said in answer to that question. One could point to the many societal ills and the damage that is done by sexual immorality and divorce. The breakdown of the family has taken a truly staggering toll on our society. But there is also... Continue Reading
Tried with Fire: Death and Its Brood
If Adam had not eaten the fruit, then none of these bad things would have happened. Creation would not have been spoiled.
A couple of conclusions can be drawn from Genesis 3. First, the death penalty that God pronounced upon Adam worked at more than one level. The sentence clearly involved more than the death of the body. The judgment of Genesis 3 weaves several concepts together. These include alienation from God, alienation between humans, the corruption... Continue Reading