Praise God for Boring Days
What agony has taught me.
Each day, like providential fireworks, God’s grace lights up our lives. Just like John the Baptist, each exploding glory is meant to call us out of our spiritual stupor. Each testifies to our soul about the light. Yet more often than not, we are deaf to these calls and blind to their brilliance. “Praise... Continue Reading
Strengthen My Hands
Nehemiah would not be deterred.
Nehemiah’s response to the fear tactics of the enemy was to turn to God. “O God, strengthen my hands” (Neh. 6:9). He did not cower but he did realize his need for God. The Lord was his refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. The strength needed was not simply to withstand but to... Continue Reading
The Most Important Thing
Difference between trusting him and dismissing him.
To think little or not at all about the centerpiece of history, is to guarantee that you will have no place in heaven. It is not enough to merely be religious by going to church on holidays or even every Sunday, or doing a few other well-meaning duties. It is not religion that makes you... Continue Reading
Twice Wrapped and Laid
How cloths framed the life of Jesus.
Birth and burial. In Luke’s Gospel, the scene of Jesus’s birth involved him being wrapped and laid, and the scene of Jesus’s death involved him being wrapped and laid. Mary wrapped him in Luke 2:7, and Joseph of Arimathea wrapped him in Luke 23:53. In 2:7 Jesus was laid in a manger, and in 23:53... Continue Reading
Except in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Faith in Christ fulfilling the law on our behalf.
The peace and mercy of God are only for those who place their entire confidence only in what Christ has done for them and not in anything that they are able to do. You see, the beauty of the new creation is that it is like the original creation in the sense that the creation... Continue Reading
We Are the Temple
We, as the church, get to usher people into God’s presence.
When Solomon built the temple in 1 Kings 6, he paid attention to some intricate details. If I’m honest, I often blow past them. After all, what does the width of doors, or the kinds of wood and stone used for the interior of the temple, have to do with me today? I believe the... Continue Reading
Brought into His Own Presence
Hallelujah for the Father, orchestrating the great rescue!
God knew what was coming. He would one day send His Son, the Adam of a new Kingdom to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He was born into this earth as a man, lived and died, and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could... Continue Reading
The Sorrowing Have a Savior
Lessons from Spurgeon’s depression.
Spurgeon points to the sorrowing Savior to defend those of us who experience depression from people like Job’s friends, friends too hasty with their help. Is another’s sorrow and fear warranted and proportional to what he or she is experiencing? After all, to cry about crying things and to feel frightened by frightening things are... Continue Reading
Moral and Positive Law in the Sabbath
Perceiving the moral-positive law distinction in the Fourth Commandment, Christians should be strengthened in their personal conviction and better prepared to make that day a delight.
The bottom line is that the Sabbath’s moral component is two-fold: first, the purpose of the Sabbath is for rest and worship (with allowance – as Jesus taught – for genuine works of necessity and acts of mercy/piety); and, second, one-seventh portion of time is to be consecrated to God (Exodus 20:8-11). For brevity’s... Continue Reading
He Really Is Working All Things After the Counsel of His Will
It all matters to God. He is always working.
Maybe you failed significantly this year. Maybe you feel like you’re wandering in a purposeless wilderness. But don’t be “governed by present appearances”! The truth is far better: God “works all things after the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). You can’t mess up his plan. And there is a plan, even in the small... Continue Reading
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