Double the Trouble if You Ignore the Context
When you ignore the context, you don’t know what the author is talking about.
When you don’t read the text before and after a verse, you create a context vacuum that you are tempted to fill with your own life circumstances. Since context determines the meaning of the smaller unit of text, your own life situation becomes the new context that changes the meaning of the verse. Never... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know about the Second Coming of Christ
We must first remind ourselves that the second coming of Jesus is our sure and certain, rock-solid and immovable hope.
Careful reflection on Christ’s return, sustained meditation on what it will mean in that moment and for all eternity, has a purifying effect on the soul. It turns sin sour in our mouths and serves to conform us ever more to the image of Jesus himself. After all, who can truly set their sights on... Continue Reading
Gnat-straining, Camel-gorging
“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”
Gnats and camels were the smallest and largest ceremonially unclean animals. Jesus picks the smallest creature to the eye; a gnat. These tiny bugs would fly into a wine container. So, people would strain them out by pouring the wine through a permeable cloth. It speaks of meticulous activity to remove the smallest little bugs... Continue Reading
The Apostle’s Creed: Born of the Virgin Mary
“Born of the Virgin Mary” does indicate that Jesus’ humanity is made of the same stuff as Mary, and that he is the same kind of creature as she – and as you and I!
Mary’s humanity was the material for the Spirit’s creation. We share the same humanity with Jesus and Mary, only newly created in Jesus as a kind of second humanity. Both sources (maker and material) rule out sexual union. His humanity is “conceived by the Holy Spirit,” rather than by the ordinary means, and “born of... Continue Reading
4 Huge Theological Challenges (and How the Exodus Story Helps)
Reflecting on the exodus story, and particularly its echoes throughout the Bible, can help us face the challenges of our generation
Some of these echoes are clear as a bell (“for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed”), and some are much fainter (chariots and water in the Elijah story). But they all increase our insight into, and enjoyment of, the redemptive shape of the biblical story. Every generation faces specific theological challenges. If asked... Continue Reading
The One Who Endures: The Confession
We are often tempted to look for the source of our endurance in one place (our free will or our desire to persevere) when, truly, it is found in another (the unchanging decree of God)!
One should clarify, in this age of spiritual and religious transience, that perseverance really does exist. There are those who will not fall away and will finally enter into eternal rest. However, the Westminster Confession of Faith goes a bit further on that point, saying not just that folk WILL not fall away but that... Continue Reading
Is It Arrogant For Christians To Say They Know the Truth?
We as Christians have to clearly understand the truth. Our Western culture has found a way to skirt around Christian truth claims by calling Christians “arrogant.”
We have a good and gracious God—an external reality—who revealed himself as truth because we would not know what truth is unless the Truth himself told us and showed us. Is it of utmost importance to understand that the most significant and practical revelation of truth is found in God’s Word—written and incarnate. Relativism Everybody makes... Continue Reading
A Time to Mourn
We weep in the graveyard now just as sure as we will dance at the resurrection when Jesus returns.
Grieving reader, I want to begin by saying, “I’m sorry. Could we gather together around the Bible, in your time of sorrow, and let the Lord place His arm around our shoulders, hearing Him invite us to do what His people have done and will always do until the day of no more tears—to mourn,... Continue Reading
5 Spiritual Disciplines That Will Change Your Life
Here are a few “Spiritual Disciplines” or practices that produce fruit and blessings in our lives.
The more we obey Jesus’ commands to serve others, the more joy it will bring into our lives…. A “discipline” is something we do regularly. So don’t wait until you’re in trouble to pray. Do it every day….God gives us these “spiritual disciplines” for our joy and gladness in him. Start small. Build habits. ... Continue Reading
Coveting Beauty
The initial seed of sin is when we do not obey the voice and commandment of the Lord.
There is nothing wrong with beautiful things. But when their beauty captivates our eyes and our heart more than the beauty of Christ, then we have begun to worship false gods. Achan had cherished the things devoted to the LORD more than he cherished the LORD. And the consequence for his false worship was that... Continue Reading