What Is Distinctive About Preaching, And How Does It Differ From Other Ministries of the Word? (Part 1)
What is distinctive about the Sunday sermon is that it is addressed to the church
“The Sunday sermon is therefore the moment in the week when the people of God together meet the word of God and and so the role of preachers of God’s word to God’s people is one of immense worth and unique importance. In our weekly sermon God’s people gather around God and hear him speak to them through... Continue Reading
When the Saints Go Marching In
What’s wrong with reserving the title saint for only a select few Christians?
This is how Scripture can declare all believers to be saints in the here and now. What is true of Jesus is true of all those unite to Him by faith. When believers come to understand that their sainthood is founded on the sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ, they learn that the ups... Continue Reading
Reformed Pentecostals
As one who professes Jesus Christ, you too must rely on the work of the Spirit from womb to tomb.
Search the Scriptures to see his work. Do not be afraid to drink deeply of and profess joyfully the Spirit’s work. Do not let other’s errors of fixation on the Spirit’s work lead you to become a theoretical professor of the Spirit’s work. Search the Scriptures and find joy in the Holy Spirit, the Lord... Continue Reading
Ignoring Spiritual Conflict on the Battlefield of the Christian Life
As Christians we should not allow weird strains of Christianity to put what the Bible says about spiritual conflict out of our thoughts and prayers.
The Christian life is a war and Christ is our Captain. On the battlefield are many dangers flying toward us: We can fall prey to our own sin, to the opposition of the world on one side or the temptation of the world on the other, we can be led astray by false teaching. All... Continue Reading
Sexual Identity: Homosexuality, an Ontological Impossibility
To claim that homosexual orientation is benign or neutral is an ontologically impossible position.
Vital to understanding sanctification is the relationship between the indicative and imperative. The indicative describes what God has done in Christ for us and is the ground of the imperative to be what we are in Christ. In other words, we are becoming in Christ what we already are in Christ… if sexual orientation is... Continue Reading
Spiritual Disciplines and the Sinkhole Syndrome
Pursue the Lord with a relentless, lifelong, obstacle-defying passion. Resolve never to let your daily life keep you from Jesus daily.
Never be deceived by the temptation to think that with the increasing spiritual maturity you expect to come with age, the less you will need to feast your soul on Christ through the Bible and prayer. What Jesus prayed in John 17:17 for all His followers—“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth”—applies to us all... Continue Reading
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Satan is relentless in his desire to diminish God’s glory; he is the ultimate liar and can never tell the truth.
Satan is relentless in his desire to diminish God’s glory. However, since he cannot touch God, he sets his sights on those bearing God’s image. But he has no power over God’s beloved children. They are united with Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, and they have nothing to fear in regards to the power of the evil one. The... Continue Reading
Sex Negative
The attitude toward sex in our secular culture is simultaneously tedious and disturbing.
There was once a time when sexual intercourse was thought to be full of rich social and emotional significance. Now, even our language betrays our impoverished and negative attitudes. That we speak of “having sex” and not of “making love”—that the latter phrase can even evoke sniggers—is significant. A man can have sex with a... Continue Reading
Don’t Waste Your Suffering #4
What purposes are there then in suffering? There are at least four purposes that God has revealed
Since God is both sovereign and loving, then he has brought suffering to you for your good. That means there is a purpose to it. We will not find good in suffering if we’re not looking for it. And that’s what we need to aim for. But twin dangers fight against us seeing a sense... Continue Reading
Depression & the Ministry – Part 2
There are good and righteous reasons behind sorrow’s frequent visit in the spiritually-minded church leader
First, God is sovereign over our sorrow. Depression is ordained by God because God is sovereign over everything. As God’s children, no moment, especially not the sorrowful ones, need be wasted (Rom. 8:28). In fact, times of depression season the pastor in a unique way. It is a rare seasoning which, though painful upon the... Continue Reading