God Is Bigger Than Your Problems
Your problems may be big, perhaps even bigger than you know. But your God is bigger, and his promises to you are stronger and surer.
Who is the God who gives his promises to us? He is the God of might, who created the world by his word. He is the God of wisdom, who makes a way in the wilderness. He is the God of tenderness, who carries his children home. And he is bigger than all of our... Continue Reading
Moths & Roaches: Responding to the Light
Spiritually speaking, we are all roaches who love darkness.
You cannot escape the way the Bible presents the reason some people receive the light and others don’t. All are born roaches and only the will of God changes us into moths. An application for us is to preach the gospel to all people with confidence. Give all glory to God for our salvation, keeping none... Continue Reading
Providence and God’s Pilgrim People
God’s providence is beautiful, but it is not always easy.
The surprising twists and turns we see in the lives of the patriarchs are nothing compared to the surprise of the gospel. That God should become man is truly the greatest surprise in history. That He should become the servant of poor sinners such as we are is the sweetest surprise we have ever imagined.... Continue Reading
Legalism: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
Hold your conviction with passion and zeal, but do not seek to enslave the consciences of others who may disagree with you.
One unmistakable sign of a legalistic spirit is the tendency always to be looking for what’s wrong in other people’s lives in order to judge them, instead of looking for what’s right in order to encourage them. None of us does everything right. We all fall short in many ways. It may be how we respond to the poor or our style... Continue Reading
Why too Many Christians Fail to Love their Neighbor
Every human being—every neighbor of ours—is an image-bearer knit and sculpted with care by a loving God, we demonstrate our love for God by our love for fellow humans in our world.
This question was not a question of curiosity, but a question in search of loopholes in the command to apply the law of God to our interactions with our neighbors. It’s a question that continues to be asked today. All of us know we haven’t loved our neighbors as ourselves. And, like the lawyer, we... Continue Reading
Be Holy, for I am Holy
Why Peter Grounds Our Holiness in the Holiness of God
Time and time again the apostles write with a “gospel grammar.” They write first about what God has done or has promised to do for us, and then about what God is doing in us and through us as we respond to him in faith and love. In the first twelve verses of 1 Peter... Continue Reading
‘Broken,’ ‘Authentic,’ ‘Surrender’: The Problem of Christian Jargon
Overuse of a minor concept can deafen us to more prominent biblical concepts.
Some jargon comes directly from Scripture. For example, “saved” appears many times in God’s Word, and it generally has the sense we give it in church circles. “Saved” is an important biblical term, and the danger is not that it’s misleading, but that we use it thoughtlessly, so the term loses its heft. But more... Continue Reading
Where to Look When Your Anxiety is Crippling
When I fear the unknown in my life, I would be wise to remember the cross.
God doesn’t guarantee me understanding of everything that will happen in my life. And that can be a source of great anxiety. I stress about what I can’t control and lose sleep over what I can’t change. But as Paul so helpfully reminds us, with prayer and thanksgiving, we can find peace. A New... Continue Reading
Is Calvinism “Rigid”?
Google the phrase “rigid Calvinism” and one finds no small number of results.
What people typically mean when they say that Calvinism is “rigid” is that the Calvinists teach that God is sovereign in creation and salvation, that just as he spoke into nothing and created all that is, so too he freely, sovereignly, and graciously saves his elect, those whom he determined from all eternity to save.... Continue Reading
Give Me a Man with an Open Bible!
As Christians, we must insist that authority is not derived first from experience, but from Scripture.
There is tremendous benefit in learning from someone who has been there and done that. But we don’t need such people. And it’s not like they are not qualified to teach or lead or counsel because of the experiences they’ve gone through. Their experience is valuable to us only to the degree that it is consistent with... Continue Reading