I want to highlight all of the times the Heidelberg Catechism mentions the idea of thanksgiving. If you’ve never considered how often the Catechism mentions thankfulness, perhaps take the time to meditate on this excellent and historic pedagogue of the reformed faith as you approach the Thanksgiving holiday…thanksgiving is built into the structure of the... Continue Reading

Like bridges in the high school physics class, they all eventually sag and break under the pressure. These things were simply not designed to bear the weight of our hope. But Jesus? Jesus is strong enough to bear it. He is the One who never disappoints. Indeed, when we place our hope in Christ and in... Continue Reading

God has revealed himself in Jesus, who is the pinnacle of God’s revelation. If the stakes were high back in Moses’ day, they’re even higher now. One day God will shake not only a place in the Egyptian wilderness but all earth and heaven in judgment, so it’s even more important that we pay attention... Continue Reading

The chaos of modern life calls all of us to simplify where we can. Often, the mantra “less is more” is really true in all kinds of areas. But it is a great mistake to think that spiritual life will thrive by challenging your faith less than its current ability. That kind of approach is... Continue Reading

Through this entire process, we are investing in the Kingdom, and we must never lose sight of that goal.  And we must also maintain a spirit of contentment with what God provides for us in each season.  All in all, freedom from debt is possible, even in the current economy.  We should pursue it and... Continue Reading

 A man filled with divine wisdom has within himself an entirely new standard whereby to judge of truth and to regulate his life! As the Psalmist expresses, “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me” (Psalm 119:98).   The fear of God is the essential part of true wisdom. As... Continue Reading

The disciples are in the first stage of spiritual sight, seeing but not fully. Jesus is indeed the Christ, but they don’t understand what the Christ has come to do: be rejected, suffer, and die. Peter’s rebuke confirms his partial sight. He thinks he’s seeing better than he actually is.   Stories have turning points,... Continue Reading

Let’s avoid the traps of making productivity an unhealthy obsession with results or a very well-intentioned goal we can never reach. Let’s understand productivity correctly—as making the best use you can of the resources God has placed in your hands—and use it as a means of serving our Lord and the people around us. This... Continue Reading

Until or unless God makes people able to live for him by causing them to be born again by the Spirit, faithful leaders work in vain to modify external behavior to mimic it. Yet Nehemiah does not teach us that all leadership is pointless; instead, Nehemiah helps us to set our sights more on faithfulness... Continue Reading

Christ accomplished what He set out to accomplish, the job the Father had designed for Him to do. God’s sovereign will is not at the whim and mercy of our personal and individual responses to it. If it were, there is a theoretical possibility that God’s plan could be thwarted and, in the end, no... Continue Reading