True Shepherding
Attitudes to Cultivate
Remember that the grieving and dying are facing many terrors, so offer comfort to the saved, and evangelize the unsaved. What joy we feel as pastors when we see the grieving saved and growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ under our shepherding! Every morning for several months, my wife and I walked... Continue Reading
PCA Minister, Don Keith Clements, Called Home to Glory
Don Keith Clements, 85, of Blacksburg, VA, was called home to glory on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
Don was a committed churchman. As an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), he served pastored churches in Savannah, GA, Virginis Beach, VA, Blacksburg, VA, and Narrows, VA. In 2003 he started Metokos Ministries, which focused on consulting full time with small churches on revitalization and officer training. He served a number... Continue Reading
“Servant and Lord: The Carmen Christi” (Philippians 2:1-11)
The “Christ Hymn”
The Carmen Christi is packed with theological significance, and is beautiful in its form. It was likely sung in the early churches and we ought do the same. It is cited by Paul to remind us of Jesus’ attitude toward others. Jesus counted all his advantages as nothing and made himself a servant. While we... Continue Reading
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Article IV
The gift of language is a means of revelation.
God’s Word is given to mankind to know His will for our conduct and for our salvation; it is altogether clear and sufficient for Christian faith and practice. Through history, poetry, prophecy, and didactic instruction, God speaks to us in His Word in an intelligible manner. That is, God uses language to reveal to us... Continue Reading
Please Don’t Call Her Pastor
There is so much good ministry that women can and should be doing in our churches; we don’t help them at all by giving them an unbiblical and unnecessary job title.
When God’s good design for men and women is so under attack in our day, why would anyone who embraces that design deliberately add to the confusion by using such a loaded term for female ministry personnel? Our church is complementarian, which means that we value and embrace the God-given differences between men and... Continue Reading
One Measure of Greatness
None of us ever evolves beyond our need for the ordinary means of grace.
Piper talks about the measure of the greatness of a man (or woman), and we know from the Bible that true greatness is marked by humility, for “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). While all of us ought to see evidence of marked growth in... Continue Reading
God-Breathed
Remembering the potency of Scripture in a world of competing voices.
Our world is full of competing voices. It is a cacophony of opinions, most of them false, all jostling to be given attention and credibility in the ever-shifting arena of public opinion. But there is one Voice that transcends them all. There is one Voice that rises above the rest and has the power to... Continue Reading
God Did Not Make a Mistake When He Made You
My Condition - My Blessing
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Despite the hardships we may endure, there is always hope in God. If you are His child, He cares for you, and His grace is sufficient. As you face any diagnosis or personal challenge, remember that God did not make a mistake when He knit you together, body and... Continue Reading
Till Death Do You Part: A Case for the Permanency and Indissolubility of Marriage
Covenants are not "Contracts"
The teaching of natural law, Scripture, and the church have been consistent on the permanency of marriage. The issue is not an overly complex one. The problem is that we live in a culture where marriage and family are arbitrary creations of convenience for the purpose of promoting self-fulfillment. Long before our culture began popularizing... Continue Reading
Cultural Revolution
It is the task of the Christian in the twenty-first century to underscore the unique call that God gives to us to be people who are non-conformists to a fallen and pagan culture.
We are to seek to live transformed lives and to have our minds informed not by what other people are doing in the secular culture, not by what is deemed acceptable in television episodes or movie scenes of extramarital sex or by homosexual relationships, but we are to have our minds informed by the Word... Continue Reading
Statement From Philadelphia Presbytery on Liam Goligher
Liam Goligher was immediately suspended from the sacraments and his office for his contumacy
Because of TE Goligher’s refusal to comply with the lawful proceedings of this court in defiance of BCO 32-6b, these proceedings are hindered and continuing without due repentance from TE Goligher for his contumacy poses a serious risk to the wellbeing of witnesses and victims named in these proceedings. In accord with BCO 34-4, TE Liam... Continue Reading
Jimmy Fallon and Your Next Pastoral Call
You never know who’s watching.
People judge books by their cover all the time, whether it’s fair or not. And, people are always making evaluations all the time about the people around them. What type of an impression will you make? In the end, your desire should be to make a good impression, not because you’re looking to promote yourself... Continue Reading
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Article 3
Affirmation of Scripture as Revelation
We see that Scripture as revelation is breathed out by God. Typically, one of the more technical descriptions used to refer to God’s breathing out of Scripture is verbal plenary inspiration. Inspiration refers to the way in which God led the writers of sacred Scripture, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to write down exactly what He desired them to... Continue Reading
What Does 2 Timothy 3:16 Mean?
Scripture is “profitable” for readers in regard to four very specific tasks.
“Teaching.” Scripture tells readers positively what they must believe; it gives sound doctrine. “Reproof.” Scripture tells readers negatively what they should not believe; it disabuses readers of unsound doctrine. “Correction” means “setting right, . . . most likely with a reference to conduct.”1 Scripture tells readers negatively what not to do. “Training in righteousness” indicates... Continue Reading
Is Salvation by Faith in Jesus Unfair to Those Who Never Hear of Him?
Understanding the Difference Between Justice and Grace
God’s grace is freely given—not to those who are owed it, but to those who aren’t. No one can say that justice demands they be given something they didn’t earn; and if someone gives an undeserved gift to one, in no way is he required to give the same gift to all. As Sproul concludes, this... Continue Reading
How and When will all Israel be Saved?
Who is “all Israel”?
God never intended to save all of ethnic Israel. He always intended that the children of promise or elect Israel were to be the heirs of the promises. That has not changed. Gentiles are included as children of the promises made to Abraham. That has not changed either. It is about mercy, not law-righteousness. All... Continue Reading
The Lifestyle Ratchet Is Hard to Avoid
Changes in the culture make opting out of lifestyle upgrades difficult to pull off.
Economic, technological, and social changes affect the availability and norms of society in ways that make it difficult to avoid adapting to them. I want to dial in on cultural and social expectations. Because these can put pressure on people to upgrade their lifestyles in ways that might be possible to resist, but which are difficult... Continue Reading
Priestesses and Goddesses in the Church?
What gender language “monitoring” at the United Methodist General Conference reveals.
The impulse to downplay male-female difference and treat men and women interchangeably against God’s clear revelation—in the home, in the church, in marriage, and in society—is the same impulse that attempts to approach God on one’s own terms, making God in one’s own interchangeable image. This is the definition of idolatry, the opposite of Christianity. Headlines... Continue Reading
The Problem Is Us
When we encounter something that troubles us in Scripture, we are tempted to think that the problem is with the text or with the God who revealed it.
The invasion of Canaan, in which God executed His wrath in an immediate and dramatic fashion, was a foretaste of the judgment to come. But a greater wrath lies ahead, and there is only one way to escape it—by trusting in Christ alone. Ultimately, then, the invasion of Canaan, for the people of God, is... Continue Reading
General Assembly Preview: Polity, Procedure, & Personnel
The PCA's 51st General Assembly in Richmond lacks the social controversies that overshadowed recent assemblies, but this year's GA has the potential to reshape the character of the PCA.
The Assembly will have the opportunity to consider whether to uphold our polity and/or to reform our judicial procedures. Additionally the Assembly will take crucial votes regarding the personnel who comprise our GA Committees and Judicial Commission as well as for the staff who administer the daily operations of the denominational agencies. Thanks to... Continue Reading
Complementarians And The Rise Of Second-Wave Evangelical Feminism
Over the last three decades, cracks in the complementarian movement have grown to the extent that two forms of complementarianism are now distinguishable.
For complementarians like these are emptying complementarity of any positive content, thereby aiding the project of the late modern West, which is warring against the sexual binary and any attempts to identify traits, features, customs, habits, or callings as characteristically—much less, exclusively—masculine or feminine. We don’t even have mothers anymore—only “pregnant people” and “birthing persons.”... Continue Reading
Stop Swiping, Start Serving
What does it say about you if you know more about the controversies in the wider church than the needs in your local church?
Consider how you can replace self-indulgence with expressing love to others, self-centeredness with a life of blessing and serving others. For this is why God made you, why he called you, and why he saved you—so you could live a life of doing good to others for the glory of his name. I’m going... Continue Reading
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Article 2
The authority of the Church is subordinate to that of Scripture.
It is the written text of Scripture and the ministry of God’s Spirit that alone bind the consciences of God’s people. The church is not the Holy Spirit. There is one Master, our Lord Jesus, to whom every Christian must answer and he is able to make all his servants stand (Romans 14:4). Article... Continue Reading
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Tool, Image Bearer, or Temptation?
Technology may not be good or bad in and of itself, but technology is never neutral.
We must also recognize that AI technology is here to stay. The church cannot avoid giving careful thought to fundamental questions like: how does AI fit into the Christian worldview and how might we engage with AI technologies to further our mission without compromising our biblical values and principles? Abstract: The headlines of today... Continue Reading
I AM: Trinity
Who is God? He is. He is. He is.
God exists in three ways simultaneously. If His existence comprehends past, present and future simultaneously, God is able to exist in ways that seem paradoxical to us. If this is true of time; it may be equally true of personhood. “The Trinity is in the Old Testament present but concealed; The Trinity is in... Continue Reading
That Time Paul Gave Timothy a Quote from Luke’s Gospel
New Testament commentators are reluctant to suggest that Luke’s Gospel is Paul’s reference.
Paul had access to Luke during his travels, the preface “Scripture says” occurs six times in Paul’s letters and always leads to a quotation of an authoritative writing, and the context of Luke 10:7 corresponds to Paul’s concern about provision for elders in 1 Timothy 5:17–18. We are used to reading references and allusions... Continue Reading
Messy Lives, Merciful Savior
It seems almost impossible that God could use our lives to bring glory to Himself, yet He does.
As you view the complicated situations caused by sinful hearts in this fallen world, remember that God keeps his covenant with his people, and he will bring you home to the promised land. No sin can thwart his purposes, and he will be faithful to his children. Sometimes, our lives can get so messy... Continue Reading
One New Man in Place of Two
In Christ, there is only one kind of people.
The Jews had typically thought of themselves as strangers and aliens when it comes to the world—they were separated from the nations, sometimes exiled among them, and strange because of their strict monotheism and repudiation of paganism. The gentiles, while they were at home in the world, were at the receiving end of an implicit... Continue Reading
Against Overture 15 Before the PCA General Assembly: To Say “Biological Men” is Caving to the Culture
Overture 15 has to do with the madness called transgenderism. The PCA General Assembly should answer this overture in the negative.
It’s been said many times, he who controls the language controls the culture. For believers in Jesus Christ to use the term “biological men” amounts to a surrender to the culture’s mistaken notion that there exists the possibility of a man/male other than one who is identifiable biologically as a man/male. If we know there... Continue Reading
The Garments and Consecration of the Priests: Exodus 27:20–29:46
Taste and see the goodness of our great high priest who ever lives to plead for us.
The author of Hebrews labors throughout his sermon to show that Jesus is the great and perfect high priest of our faith. Through becoming flesh and tabernacling among us, Jesus was tempted in every way that we are yet never yielded to sin. Thus, while we can rejoice that He is able to sympathize with... Continue Reading