They love these people in front of them who bear the image of the true God, and so they want them to turn from idols to the true God. Paul and Barnabas love the God who has made, saved, and kept them, and so they wants others to know, love and worship him too. And it... Continue Reading

True love means proclaiming the truth. True love means proclaiming the gospel. True love means proclaiming the love of God and the wrath of God, and the most unloving thing we could possibly do is withhold the truth from those who are perishing without Christ—the truth about God’s love, holiness, justice, and grace; the truth... Continue Reading

He allows us to go through thousands of experiences to show us the worthlessness of trusting in anything else. We can look to hundreds of other sources. If we are fortunate to have a caring discipler beside us, they will gently take the Scriptures and remind us of the faithfulness of God and the value... Continue Reading

The brilliant sun of God’s love rises against the pitch black of His just wrath that engulfs us as sinners. It is that wrath of which John speaks when he uses the term “propitiation.” For Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins means that the wrath of God due us fell upon Him, fully, fiercely,... Continue Reading

Holiness also refers to God’s perfect, righteous character. A. W. Pink explains, “The sum of all moral excellency is found in him.”1 No other purity comes close to the purity of God. He holds the full measure of all that is good and right. Every act, thought, and intent of God is completely righteous and perfect.... Continue Reading

This craving for uniqueness is a race to escape the reality of our human nature. You were made to mirror God’s glory as a free creature of a Sovereign God. To despise this truth is to despise your humanity, and to succumb to beast-hood; descending into the thoughtlessness of a herd creature. Every glory of art, science,... Continue Reading

Faith without works is dead and so is the bread a condemnation to the eater at the table if it is not mixed with existing, real lively belief found in a person previously redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We miss the glory available to the true Christian if we forget the simple reality... Continue Reading

Those who teach the nice gospel will usually maintain that the gospel is good news but that they don’t want to be mean. This is false thinking. The opposite of the nice gospel is not a mean gospel, it is the true gospel. The true gospel is not mean, nor is it nice. It is the... Continue Reading

No matter where we find ourselves today, whether we’ve had a fresh experience of intimacy with God, we’re struggling in the valleys, or we’re plodding through the plains, let’s never forget: God does not only meet us on the mountaintop. He is with us in the valleys and the plains, too. And God is with us,... Continue Reading

Jesus knows temptation and testing.  Jesus fights to obey his Father’s will.  And so when we’re struggling to obey we can run to him for help in prayer because he knows what it is to fight to obey. Because Jesus knows and overcomes temptation and testing we can let go of our pretended heroism and run to... Continue Reading