As is always the way when Yahweh fights the gods, there’s not any combat, the actions of the Lord simply show them to be impotent before him. The first three plagues fit in a pattern of water, earth, and sky (nile →  frogs →  gnats), which is the biblical layering of the cosmos (waters below, earth,... Continue Reading

Hypocrisy is telling other people how to live when you are unwilling to do the same things. This was what the Pharisees were doing. Hypocrisy is telling people that we are all sinners in the same boat, who all need to repent of many different things, but then making out that we have no need... Continue Reading

Why, ultimately, did Paul warn of hell? Because Jesus was too wonderful, too marvelous not to use every righteous means available to “present everyone mature in Christ,” to win people to him and keep people near him. Others needed to know the danger of hell because they needed to know the danger of missing eternal... Continue Reading

We’re so tied to that hero complex that we react badly when something or someone challenges it.  When we can’t do something or fail to achieve what we set out to, or even just don’t do something very well, we can’t handle our hero narrative being challenged so we excuse it – it was someone else’s... Continue Reading

Not all of us can preach, but all of us can listen. Not all of us can apply ourselves to diligently expositing the Word, but all of us can apply ourselves to diligently receiving it. And preaching is at its very best when the preacher and the listener alike take their role seriously and do... Continue Reading

Iron sharpens iron. Before the word is snatched away, think through what you have heard and speak about it. What challenged you? What did you learn? Be brave. Encourage honesty by opening up what you found difficult to hear or to understand. Admit your struggles. Remember that the message was preached to the church family so... Continue Reading

If a pastor suspects that a fellow elder is abusing his office in any way, he must stand between that false shepherd and the precious sheep. Too often elderships have been accused of circling the wagons and protecting their own at the expense of Christ’s blood-bought sheep. It is not the job of shepherds to... Continue Reading

The Bible is the opening of the heart of God. It is God’s heart unveiled, each beat inviting the mourner, the poor in spirit, the widow, the fatherless, the bereaved, the persecuted, the sufferer, yes, every child of affliction and grief to the refuge and sympathy, the protection and soothing of His heart.    As... Continue Reading

Deuteronomy 6:5 is about loyalty, covenant faithfulness, allegiance. What kind of people should the Israelites be? They should be loyal to God who had redeemed them from Egypt and who (in the context of Deuteronomy) had carried them to the border of the promised land. Their love for God would take the shape of obedience—internalizing... Continue Reading

Not everyone sees God’s beauty. Some are “haters of God” that have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images” (Romans 1:23, 30). That’s why Samuel Parkison says there is an aesthetic component to salvation: when the Spirit regenerates us, he enables us “to behold the beauty of the Trinity mediated in Christ.” This new... Continue Reading