Extinguishing the Fire of Destructive Speech
The tongue, though small, can be a mighty weapon.
In the Bible, the tongue can be used for wisdom or for folly. Many of the Proverbs contrast a wise tongue and a destructive tongue. The question is, how does one gain wisdom and use the tongue for good? How do we use our words for healing and to bring life rather than death to... Continue Reading
Engaging With 1689 (1)
To the degree our Baptist friends assert that the Abrahamic covenant was a covenant of works, they have sharply departed from the theology of Luther, Zwingli, Bullinger, Calvin, and Beza.
There are approximately 60 million North American evangelicals—by contrast there are probably no more than about 500,000 confessionally Reformed Christians in North America. Virtually all of those evangelicals either assume or consciously confess some version of a Baptist account of redemptive history and some version of a Baptist view of the church and sacraments. Because... Continue Reading
Who Is the God of Mormonism?
The term “God” is the most foundational difference between Christian and LDS theology.
According to official LDS doctrine, Heavenly Father has not always been a god. He was once like us (some say he was a sinner, and some think he never sinned), but he followed a plan (just as we’re required to follow a plan) to reach godhood. He has a physical body as we do and is... Continue Reading
What Really Happened?
It turns out gratitude is the secret to happiness. Even Oprah is doing it.
While they are reveling in the epiphany that gratitude can help steer negative thinking and depression, I am thinking about how this functions as a worldly substitute for prayer. It made me kind of sad. I mean, I’m happy that they have discovered gratefulness, but whom are they thanking for all that they have discovered... Continue Reading
What is Real Repentance?
Repentance, then, is the posture that leads us to pray with the tax-collector, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”
Godly repentance does not lead to a life stricken with guilt and regret, but instead it moves us towards the great love of God and his salvation in Christ. A repentant sinner is ready to receive the grace of God offered in the free gift of the gospel (Lk. 24:47; Acts 20:21). God does not... Continue Reading
Sin and the Prophets
Sin, biblically defined is not exclusively, or even primarily a horizontal offense. It is primarily an offense against God.
It is for this reason that most moderns seem to be uncomfortable with the biblical prophets. They spoke much about sin, but not in our terms. They were concerned with the horizontal affects of sin. But they were far more concerned with the vertical effects of sin. They were profoundly aware of the depth of... Continue Reading
Why You Can’t Measure the Value of Homemaking
As we consider our work and the work of those around us, remember that the size of the paycheck does not equal a job’s value to God.
No matter what the price tag would have been for outsourcing childrearing and house cleaning, contracting this work out would not have produced the lasting satisfaction of doing the work of parenting myself. In fact, there is no paycheck size that will ever produce this kind of contentment. Rather, the inherent value of my work was where the... Continue Reading
Jesus Did Not Say Lust is the Same as Adultery – Response to Jerry Fallwell Jr.
These sins are similar, but Jesus did not say they are the same.
Flattening sins and making them all the same does not encourage us to treat sins appropriately. The way we should respond to the sin of lust in the heart is far different than the way we should respond to adultery. If you don’t believe me, just ask any spouse who has known the pain of adultery’s intimate betrayal. ... Continue Reading
A Gospel Prescription in Postpartum Depression
Postpartum depression can’t separate you from the love of God
Hope in God and his purposes, not the subsiding of symptoms. Perhaps your days have been filled with pleas like the Psalmist in Psalm 13:1, crying “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” But as you wait for God to part the waters of... Continue Reading
Things That Matter Rarely Happen Fast
Faith in the Son of God is not about fast changes.
It’s easy to get discouraged when the changes we desire don’t happen when we want them to. But hold fast to Jesus. Make Him your supreme desire. Trust Him today with all of its worries and all of tomorrow’s unknowns. Don’t bank on feelings and emotions. They will come and go like chaff in the... Continue Reading