When All Things Are Made New
The most difficult problem I’ve faced is the problem of suffering.
Scripture says that the end defines the significance of the beginning (Eccl. 7:8). God alone knows the end from the beginning comprehensively, but in His Word, He gives us a glimpse of the end toward which we are moving. And if we can focus our attention on the end and not merely on the now... Continue Reading
The War for Inner Peace
How Desperation Fuels Contentment
And if we expect peace in this age to always feel peaceful, we’ll rarely experience real peace — the kind that meets reality and adversity head-on. If we never feel any tension, urgency, or desperation in our peace, then we’re probably experiencing something other than true inner peace. It might feel peaceful for the moment,... Continue Reading
Heaven’s Jihad: The Gospel of Peace
I want to convince you that there is no such thing as a peaceful human being.
Whether it is a sweet grandma who doesn’t know Jesus, a devout Muslim who doesn’t know Jesus, or an evil drug lord who doesn’t know Jesus, everyone is at war with God. The moral mother and corrupt criminal are both desperately prideful and in need of humbling themselves before their Creator. War. There is... Continue Reading
Reformed Theology: More than Five Points
People across the world were discovering the ancient doctrines of grace and building a new and widening community of Reformed believers.
As I ponder the future, I’m increasingly concerned that the Reformed theology of many within the movement is little deeper than five points of Calvinism that describe salvation. This is troubling because Reformed theology is not merely a few points of doctrine we believe but a theological stream we enter into. It doesn’t address only... Continue Reading
The Good Fight
This Christian life requires combat.
Fighting is generally deemed to be not good. And even when it is right to fight – in just war and for the defence of the safety and rights of those who cannot defend themselves – it is usually in the sense of its being ‘a necessary evil’. So, when Paul explicitly describes the fight... Continue Reading
3 Ways to Live by Faith When Life Makes No Sense at All
There are three principles that guide us how to live by faith when life makes no sense at all.
It may take many years for you to see the result of what God is doing when life makes no sense at all. Or he may never reveal the reasons why. But no matter what you’re experiencing, God’s promises and commands are enough. On October 19, 2014, my life changed. I was in acute... Continue Reading
The Sanctity of the Moral Law (or: Constrained to Come to Calvary)
In 1935, at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA, John Murray gave an address called, “The Sanctity of the Moral Law.
But when we come to Calvary for the expiation of our guilt and the remission of our sin, it is not to diminish our esteem of that law nor relax our sense of its awful sanctity and binding authority. Oh no! …When we are possessed by the sense of the authority and sanctity of the... Continue Reading
What Science Is Really Teaching Us
Many Christians today are fearful of studying science, and there’s more to this fear than math anxiety.
As a Christian and a scientist who has been working in the discipline long enough to see some major scientific theory and paradigm shifts (such as from an eternal, “steady state” universe to a “big bang” universe with a beginning in space and time), I can say with confidence that “science destroys faith” may be... Continue Reading
A Simple Acrostic for Prayer: A.C.T.S.
Not only does this acrostic remind us of the elements of prayer, it shows us the priority we ought to give to each.
I think this is a helpful acrostic for remembering both the elements and the priorities of prayer. Unfortunately, we often spell our prayer life something like S.C.A.T., because we start with supplication and spend very little time, if any, on adoration, confession, and thanksgiving. Christians often use a simple acrostic as a guide to... Continue Reading
Come to Church Desperate
We have seen with the eyes of our hearts the supreme beauty of God and his ways (Ephesians 1:18).
And we have come to cherish the supreme worth of this treasure (Matthew 13:44; Philippians 3:8). And when we have completed our corporate exaltation of the glories of God, we continue that worship in a thousand daily tasks where the supreme worth of Christ governs our lives. This is what it means to be a Christian.... Continue Reading