As we heed Paul’s example to practice such therapy by Christ’s strength in Philippians 4, we can trust we will have His peace that is not of this angry world and transforms us like the man called Legion: clothed, unchained, sitting still, quiet, and in our right mind.[15]   To understand anger and its peaceful... Continue Reading

All-in-all, Gun Lap is exactly the book I hoped it would be. It features a man who is running his final lap engaging in conversation with the people beside him and the people not too far behind him. He is passing along the lessons the Lord has taught him.   Would it be strange to say... Continue Reading

Bavinck does not say that the divinity of Jesus the Messiah can be arrived at by means of neutral, historical research. Bavinck only says that such research can uncover the fact that the earliest Christians believed this to be so. But faith is required in order to accept Jesus as the Christ: “whoever wants to acknowledge Jesus... Continue Reading

Overall, Murray’s volume on the biblical ethic is a classic text within the Reformed moral and ethical tradition for good reason. While he doesn’t address every particular issue of Christian ethics, he lays a solid foundation, grounded in God’s unchanging word and a deep knowledge of the Scriptures unlike many modern treatments of Christian ethics... Continue Reading

If there is a crisis of confidence in preaching, it is a crisis in the pulpit as much as in the pew. “Who is going to believe,” asks Stewart, “that the tidings brought by the preacher matter literally more than anything else on earth if they are presented with no sort of verve or fire... Continue Reading

Yes, somehow, and some way, God really does work ALL things together for good for those who love him. And that makes some real practical differences as to how we live – even when my freezer just died moments ago. It made me think about God’s loving and detailed interaction with me, including every detail... Continue Reading

We have different translations—for different uses of the Bible. Sometimes a stricter, more word-for-word translation of the original language is exactly what you need. But at other times, you want something a bit more readable, a bit more readily understandable, and so some translations offer a more phrase-for-phrase (or even thought-for-thought) approach, smoothing out word... Continue Reading

The image of the Puritans as dour, legalistic killjoys is a caricature that does not line up with the experience of actually reading the Puritans, to say nothing of the historical record. In the new volume on Puritan Reformed Theology, Joel R. Beeke adds to his growing body of evidence setting the record straight about... Continue Reading

  Hard-totalitarianism is the absence of liberty produced by a totally brutal civil government.  Any refusal to conform to state-mandated rules, especially in regard to speech, results in an arrest and being sent to the Gulag (the prison for non-conformists) …. Soft-totalitarianism is much more subtle. Rather than escort you off to prison, the civil-government... Continue Reading

The lawsuit argued that the rule forces religious schools to violate their religious beliefs and said the order was issued “without notice or the opportunity for public comment.” It further contended that the policy was issued without considering alternative policies that “respect the interests of private religious colleges.”   A federal judge rejected a Missouri Christian university’s... Continue Reading