(10) Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you’ll definitely find someone.--Cain (Gen. 4:16-17) (11) Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest.--Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)

If we feel obligated to preach only Christ’s priestly office, then we must find a way to turn every text to this issue even when it may not naturally go there. Thus, we “find” Christ in the text in an unnatural way rather than a natural way. This ends up creating sermons that sound almost the same every time, regardless of what the passage actually says

Father's Day is a day to remember that God made dads. And when they break, and they can and often do, only He can fix them.

In the Reformed community there has been quite an emphasis of late on the freedom we have in Christ from the guilt of sin. Thank God! That is essential in our Gospel preaching and teaching.

Segregation, like slavery, was shown to be what all human consciences already knew it to be: not just a political injustice or a social inequity (although certainly that) but also a sin against God and neighbor and a repudiation of the gospel. Regenerate hearts ultimately melted before such arguments because in them they heard the voice of their Christ, a voice they’d heard in the Scriptures themselves.

This is why so many Presbyterians treat the Westminster Divines the way most Americans regard the founders — these are the heroic founders of our religious and political institutions. Noting the problems and flaws that haunted these folks is not what most people want to hear. They’d rather contemplate the genius, commitment, and courage that led to the triumph of good over bad

Forty-six percent said they believe God created human beings pretty much in their present form within approximately the last 10,000 years. Thirty-two percent said human beings develop over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process.

So be careful little fingers what you post. The internet is like God and like the devil. It sees all and forgives nothing. Knowing this, I will still tweet and blog, and I’m sure I’ll make mistakes from time to time. But I hope I won't forget the one indispensable rule.

Further, the New Testament explains another change between the Testaments. Sins continue to be sins—but the penalties change. In the Old Testament things like adultery or incest were punishable with civil sanctions like execution…But in the New Testament the people of God are an assembly of churches all over the world, living under many different governments. The church is not a civil government, and so sins are dealt with by exhortation and, at worst, exclusion from membership.

Joining a Reformed church, I felt like I belonged in some way now to the communion of saints—not just in my local church, but in all times and places. I had to get used to words like “liturgy” and “catechism.” (At the time, I didn’t even know that the Reformers recovered the ancient practice of catechism instruction and Rome only picked up on it as a way of countering the movement.) The public recitation of the creed and the confession of sin was jarring at first. It was a little off-putting to hear the pastor declare in Christ’s name that I am forgiven.