As hard as Charles tried to be holy he always felt like he was falling short of the standard God set. He believed he was intermittently falling out of God’s favor and losing his salvation. It wasn’t until after he was ordained as a preacher and was commissioned as a missionary to the American colony... Continue Reading

In this passage our Lord speaks of our tribulation, which could involve persecution because of our testimony for Christ. However, in our Lord’s overwhelming and complete victory in which He has overcome the world is the fundamental ground for our endurance through these trials. Through Jesus’ death, He rendered the world’s opposition null and void.... Continue Reading

It is hard to endure lengthy suffering, but the difficulty is greatly alleviated when we hear our Lord explaining the mystery in the case of the man born blind, whom God called to many years of pain for Jesus’ glory.   I once visited with a woman who was dying from uterine cancer. She was... Continue Reading

By God’s own singular sovereignty and providence, the histories of Rome and Jerusalem, both of which figured so prominently in our Lord’s life on earth, had converged. The appointed date for the debut of the Son of the Father arrived right on schedule. In the fullness of time behold him come!   One of the... Continue Reading

These sorts of bills are dangerous, draconian, and totally unnecessary – unless of course you have a bigger agenda you are working toward. And if that agenda includes silencing ALL opposition to the homosexual narrative and shutting down ALL faith-based and other groups from offering much-needed help to those who are pleading for it, then... Continue Reading

Hannah’s example is worthy of emulation! Here we can learn how to wrestle with God deeply, preparing ourselves for obedience and responding to His grace with praise and outward-looking faith.   She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed and vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if... Continue Reading

If the contentment goes and the giving of thanks goes, we are not loving God as we should, and proper desire has become coveting against God. There is proper desire, and there is proper rejection of the results of a fallen, abnormal world; but when I can no longer say thank you in the midst... Continue Reading

If we alter our doctrine of sin so as to not turn off those who identify as “sexual minorities,” we may be exhibiting symptoms of Schleiermacher. If we alter our worship to make it more entertaining to millennials, we may be haunted by the ghost of Schleiermacher. Or, if we seek to placate Arminian or... Continue Reading

A heaven-sent revival will only come when Scripture is enthroned once again in the pulpit. There must be the clarion declaration of the Bible, the kind of preaching that gives a clear explanation of a biblical text with compelling application, exhortation, and appeal.   Every season of reformation and every hour of spiritual awakening has... Continue Reading

The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t make allowance for various levels of wrongdoing, nor does it speak of justice here either. Rather, it is a direct call to forgive others and encapsulates all types of wrongdoing in the process.   In her fascinating longform essay, ‘Letting Go’, Amy Westervelt writes about the study of forgiveness in academia.... Continue Reading