What Psalm 8 says about mankind and about our relation to creation will be true because it is true for Jesus. There is redemption not just in the forgiveness of sins, as great as that is, but in the restoration of what it means to be human and what it means to be human in... Continue Reading

There is only one thing that will assure the long-term thriving of a church, and that is God’s grace, which He pours out lavishly on those who love His son Jesus Christ. God’s grace sustains the meek, the humble, the downtrodden…and yet are not crushed.   Have you ever been cut off by a car... Continue Reading

We have a perfectly compassionate Lord. The Good Shepherd teaches under-shepherds how to care for wounded sheep, stubborn sheep, needy sheep, and wandering sheep. May He help us to be so compassionate.   When is your compassion tested most in ministry? Recently, after a long and somewhat discouraging Sunday, I was finally sitting on the... Continue Reading

The Lord loves an honest sinner, who now (down here in this life, in the church militant) becomes a sinner/saint. When the Prodigal Son was walking home, rehearsing his lines of repentance, the Exuberant Father was running out to welcome him.   Probably the hardest thing for us fallen sinners to do, is to be... Continue Reading

Wisdom begins when a person learns to pause and ask a better question than the crowd is asking. Instead of asking who should win the fight, the wiser question asks whether the fight should happen at all.   The entire sixth grade heard the announcement before I did. “After lunch tomorrow, James is going to... Continue Reading

If we don’t believe that prayer really matters or that God uses prayers as a means to bring about His purposes, then it’s unlikely we’ll pray. Daniel was a great prophet of God who depended upon prayer. But Jesus, the greater and final prophet, also depended upon prayer throughout His life and ministry.   When... Continue Reading

Judges teaches us what Israel truly needs, and what we need as well. Not another judge. Not stronger discipline. Not clearer instruction alone. Israel needs a Savior who can do more than rescue from enemies. She needs one who can save from sin itself. One who does not come for a season and then die,... Continue Reading

 As a boy, He heard the Scriptures in the synagogue, learned them at home, stored them in His heart, and walked beneath their steady rule. He did not live by a modern quiet-time formula. He lived by the Word. Scripture lived in Him, rose to His lips in the wilderness, steadied Him in sorrow, and... Continue Reading

Recently, Barton Swaim’s “Christianity Isn’t Dead in the West,” (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 10, 2026, p. A13) notes the sea change since 2000, which is a comparison worth making, say, to 1975. He sees 9/11 as the hinge event, revealing “The world’s least Christianized societies are also the least open and tolerant—in short, the least... Continue Reading

Creeds do not rival Scripture, and they cannot improve upon it. They function as guardrails precisely because Scripture alone stands as the final authority. Every confession, council, and theological opinion must be examined by the Word of God and corrected by it. The Three Forms of Unity — the confessional standards of the continental Reformed... Continue Reading