God must work in us before we can move towards him. Our hope is founded upon the reality that God first moves graciously towards us and works within us before we come to him in faith. We thus are dependent upon God’s grace from the first to the last.   According to the Bible, humanity... Continue Reading

Those who are the best models of kindness are those who understand, model, and wisely teach others what the Teacher Himself has taught. As Paul reminded Timothy, “the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach,” etc. (2 Tim 2:24).   Kindness is one of God’s communicable attributes, those He... Continue Reading

Guerrilla warfare has reached the pews. What will our response be? Perhaps it’s less vociferous in the rest of the West, but as they say, when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold, or a virus more deadly perhaps. That’s totally possible.   The Culture War threatening to tear the West apart... Continue Reading

Reading a verse in isolation creates a context vacuum that is quickly filled with our own life context, which creates a new meaning. God’s intended meaning is overwritten by our own meaning.   It’s easy to overwrite the meaning of God’s word. We can do it without trying because the process is almost automatic. That’s... Continue Reading

During the Reformation, John Calvin saw a need to help the church rehearse gospel rhythms when it gathered for worship.[1] His liturgy, or order of worship, followed three movements—a cycle of adoration, a cycle of renewal, and a cycle of commitment.   When you think about explaining a worship service to kids, you might say... Continue Reading

We all have our own gifts and callings that can be used, and if nothing else, we all live in a particular sphere of family and friends that no one else does. So the close relationships one person has with his own family members, his circles of friends, his workmates or classmates, etc, are largely... Continue Reading

What is so wonderful is that this great and good God is our Lord, the one whom we serve. In our service to Him, we glorify and enjoy Him. We glorify Him because He is our true joy in life, and we enjoy Him because He is truly glorious. We have a profound and significant... Continue Reading

We should not be counted among those who see the fourth Thursday in November as nothing more than a day of football and over-indulgence. We should be thankful for one day set apart to consider all that we have and realize that all that we have has been given to us. Of course, such gratitude... Continue Reading

The principle is that the Christian must never submit to extra-biblical regulations upon religious observance as mandatory. To do so would be to lay down the freedoms which we have obtained in Christ as a matter of obedience to another authority. When we submit to the will of others in extra-biblical religious matters, we must... Continue Reading

For those of us in Christ as we look at the sorry state of the vast multitudes of humanity who are lost in their rebellion against the knowledge of God, we should realize what a blessing it is that our God had mercy on us and drew us to Himself, justifying us by grace through... Continue Reading