Mere intellectual knowledge that Jesus is the only Mediator and the One who fulfills the covenant promises is insufficient for us to receive the promised blessings—we need to exercise personal faith in Christ as the object of the blessings. God has chosen to make faith the instrument of union with Christ. This affects our invocation... Continue Reading

What we have seen is that the “day of judgment,” or “day of wrath,” will be the day of Jesus’s judgment and Jesus’s wrath, acting by the appointment of God the Father. Therefore, when Paul says that Jesus “delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10), we are not to think of the... Continue Reading

Church historians tells us that John was “nearly kidnapped” or “almost abducted” or “forcibly taken”–which essentially means he was kidnapped, abducted, or taken, despite the adverbs. For 700 miles the case was made for why John ought to be the next pastor of the city church in Constantinople and when they arrived back in the city–the... Continue Reading

Left and right decisions are different. These are the kinds of decisions in which there is no decision that is inherently more moral than the other. These are times when you just have to choose – to choose this home or that one. This town or that one. This job or that one. Neither choice... Continue Reading

We need thicker communities, but saying that and doing it are very different things. Rebuilding life after it’s been stripped apart by the many arms of cultural change will take a long time, maybe even generations, but the church has all that’s required to do so. If we want to get practical, one of the ways... Continue Reading

In the end, self-examination, like all means of God’s grace, is just that: a means. Understanding ourselves holds almost no value if we remain preoccupied with ourselves. But if we allow what we see of ourselves to lead us somewhere else, to preoccupy us with Christ, then introspection will become one more servant of our joy in... Continue Reading

 It is the blood of Christ, not His example only, or His beautiful moral teaching, but His vicarious sacrifice that meets the wants of the soul. No wonder that Peter calls it “precious.” Precious it has been found by the heathen abroad, and by the peer and the peasant at home…   What is the... Continue Reading

Morning by morning, if we look to Him, He will deliver the manna to our door. He provides with tenderness and love and absolute perfection. His timing is always right, often waiting till the midnight hour so we will learn one more lesson that builds our faith and perseverance and gives the watching world a... Continue Reading

When we draw in on ourselves in our anxieties and sin, we play right into the devil’s hand. The enemy’s tactics are simple: separate the struggling from the flock by enticing them to respond to their sin and anxiety on their own, with pride, and not Christ and community.     “I’m sure no one... Continue Reading

Our lesson from the Directory of Public Worship regarding prayer is to remind us of something that is central to our faith, and that is that Christ forgives sin. That seems a like an obvious thing to confess, but we often don’t because we don’t really see ourselves as needing forgiveness. We ask for it... Continue Reading