Magnificent Messiah
The Lord Jesus Christ, having made purification for sins, has sat down at the right hand of the Father in the majestic heights.
He reigns, for us, at the right hand of God; He dwells forever in the Heavenly Zion-Sanctuary; He is King and God over those celestial courts which He has purified by His blood. Relish the height of the Mount “not beclouded in smoke” but “happily drenched in the eternally-efficacious blood of the crucified, risen, exalted,... Continue Reading
When Elders Disagree
A Pathway for Pastoral Conflicts
Throughout the whole process, seek to extend grace to the fellow elders that God has designed to lead his church. A plurality of elders is a precious gift of God. Where one elder might be quick, bold, or decisive, others balance him out with gentleness, discernment, thoughtfulness, and pastoral care. And where some elders may... Continue Reading
Matthew Henry, A Method for Prayer
Matthew Henry points out, prayer needs to made for the world in general.
Henry’s book is a fine work, however, as wonderful as the book is, the Alliance has done a great service by taking Method and putting it in form for daily prayers. The free subscription provides a daily prayer addressing any of a variety of subjects with their lengths running to three or four hundred words. For more... Continue Reading
Discipleship in the Family
We have hearts, spiritual centers of our being, from which our behaviors flow.
The Bible also teaches that our hearts are born in corruption (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:12), thus the members of the family—both parents and children—ultimately need to have their problems solved from the inside out. That brings parents back to the Great Commission. The fundamental need of discipleship is a new heart cleansed from sin. Only Christ can... Continue Reading
Examples Of Victorious Death
History is full of tens of thousands of saints who have died victoriously in Jesus with great joy, despite the affliction death brought.
Scotsman, David Dickson (c. 1583–1662), well-known for writing the first commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith and for his commentaries on the Psalms, Matthew, and Hebrews. When his friends were gathered around his deathbed, one of them asked him when in the throes of a painful death what he was thinking. Dickson replied, “I... Continue Reading
“Be Doers of My Preference”
It is scary how simple it is for the devil, not to change the Bible, but to twist it (2 Peter 3:16).
Somehow (I still wonder how He did it), God pulled me out of this prideful place, and made me see that I was pushing my preferences and not God’s Word. I actually didn’t change my mind about much of what I thought, I just changed the way that I spoke and thought about it. Now,... Continue Reading
Preparing for Death Every Sunday
The Lord’s Day is God’s gift and preparation for our eternal destiny.
You do not have to fear standing before God in judgment if you have made a practice of confessing your sins and standing before the judgment seat of Christ every Lord’s Day: hearing his pardon, receiving his absolution, and being comforted by the knowledge of his love and grace. You will not be idolatrously wed... Continue Reading
A Presbyterian’s Confession: “The Rainy Sabbath” (1825)
This letter offers thoughtful readers one of the best little windows into the mindset of early nineteenth-century reformed believers regarding the Lord’s Day.
You may well suppose, then, Mr Editor, that the Sabbath is a valued and honoured day in my family; and that the invitation “let us go up together to the house of God,” is heard with gladness, and joyfully accepted. Sometimes, however, the Sabbath is a rainy day!—To be sure, I do not suffer a... Continue Reading
Encounters with Jesus in the Ashes
Jesus sought you, saved you, and he is changing you day by day.
When Jesus plucks us out of our own ashes, he doesn’t expect perfection—he has already attained that on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). We have died with Christ, and he will raise us to life. He has purchased our right-standing with God. Still, he does want to change us, little by little, to love sin... Continue Reading
Train Yourself for Godliness
Reflecting on Paul’s Words in 1 Timothy 4:7–8
The pursuit of godliness requires focus, sacrifice, commitment, and endurance. Paul knows that training is a perfect metaphor for Christian obedience—training “for godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7b). This kind of training has value for the present life and the life to come. In other words, there is an all-compassing value to this pursuit. Don’t you want to... Continue Reading
God Made Us Male and Female- Why We Cannot Change Our Gender
Submitting to God’s created pattern for humanity is a part of our response of faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t need to conform to our feelings, or our biological ability to mutilate our bodies. God has made and declared what is good. It is good for men to be manly, and good for women to be womanly. Each culture WILL look slightly different, but that doesn’t change the created order of God, and... Continue Reading
About That One Barth Quote
Disregard for a Manmade Method of Theological Inquiry Is Not Indicative of a Bad Character
Guess who is marked out as a false prophet by such criteria. Karl Barth. For that man maintained a lifelong, impenitent, and fairly public affair with his research assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, in which he both refused to repent when confronted by his mother and forced his wife (who knew about the affair) to accept... Continue Reading
It’s Just a Distraction
The devil loves to get us talking about good things, so long as we are not sharing the best thing.
Be aware of the schemes of the devil and avoid being distracted from the main thing. When we go to share Christ, let’s actually share Christ! We need to tell folks about sin, and righteousness, and the coming judgement. People need to hear about their great need, and they need to hear that God in... Continue Reading
Why Mixing Up Social Justice and Biblical Justice Matters
One of the crucial errors at the heart of this new social justice framework is a redefinition of sin.
Many Christians in the West recognise that they have received blessings that others have not. We have education, wealth, and opportunities that many around our world do not. Social justice advocates want us to feel guilty about this and to see it as a privilege for which we should automatically feel ashamed. If we allow... Continue Reading
Deep Mirth and Mourning
How many tragedies go unmourned and unhonored by the church because of our loss of the capacity for sorrow?
“How can it be right to laugh when there is so much to grieve?” This is more of a question of context. We clearly must weep, just as we clearly must laugh. There are times for both, as Ecclesiastes says, but what are the proper times? Weeping should not be self-focused, but for others; laughter... Continue Reading
Lies that Paralyze: Weaponizing Pleasant Words
Lies that Live- Part 10
Many more pleasant, but false words seep into our culture. One way to be inoculated against them is to focus on what’s true, good, and beautiful. Or, as the author of Hebrews put it: But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from... Continue Reading
Hypocrisy and God’s Reputation
The Word teaches us that it honors Him when we confess our sin and sinfulness.
Our pride convinces us that God needs us to hide our sins, so as to not to bring shame upon Him. But He calls us to bring it out into the light, denounce it, be ashamed of it so that by His mercy our shame might be turned into the uplifted face of those who... Continue Reading
The Battle for Grace Alone
Augustine argued that the very cooperation with grace was the effect of God’s empowering the sinner to that cooperation.
The operative word in Augustine’s view is that regenerating grace is monergistic. It is the work of God alone. Pelagius rejected the doctrine of monergistic grace and replaces it with a view of synergism, which involves a work of cooperation between God and man. The early part of the fifth century witnessed a serious controversy... Continue Reading
Salvation Out, Self-Help In
We no longer believe in sin, so we no longer believe in a saviour.
Discussing the “saccharin-like” preaching of Joel Osteen, Wells says this of the kind of God he presents: “The dominant view, even among evangelical teenagers, is that God made everything and established a moral order, but he does not intervene. Actually, for most he is not even Trinitarian, and the incarnation and resurrection of Christ play... Continue Reading
Nourished on the Words of the Faith
Returning to the Church's true source of strength and vitality.
If God says sound doctrine is good for us, then that’s the way it is. If He says meditating upon His law day and night is what makes a man prosper and mature (Ps. 1:3), then that’s simply what we’ve got to do. It matters very little if our flesh objects otherwise. God’s Word sets... Continue Reading
Praising God During the Wait
Three Things We Can do During the Waiting Period
Praying comes last after we Seek God and Praise God. Praying comes as a result of seeking God by His Word, and Praising God for who He is and what He has done. We come to God through words after we have already heard His Word and praised Him despite our circumstances. Our seeking is... Continue Reading
Isolationism: A Historic and Christian Take
Isolationism is the belief that a country should avoid involvement in other nations’ military, economic, and political policies. How should Christians think about national foreign policy?
The Scriptures are clear that governments act per the will of God (Romans 13:1, Colossians 1:16). The U.S. prides itself on democracy, independence, and freedom for all. America is not perfect; it fought its own battle with slavery and civil rights. However, the founding ideals and principles have maintained prominence in American culture and have... Continue Reading
Knowing God According to His Self-Revelation
Swinnock focuses the gaze of his readers on the incomparable greatness of God, who “is boundless in His duration, perfections, attributes, and being.”
In the course of his book, Swinnock considered at least sixteen specific attributes of God. He defined God’s attributes as “those perfections in the divine nature which are ascribed to Him so that we can better understand Him. They are called attributes because they are attributed to Him for our sake, even though they are not in... Continue Reading
Wrap Your Soul in Truth
Under-Armor for Spiritual War
The Christian who wraps his soul in the objective truth of Scripture shapes his subjective heart for the wiles of war. He takes the divine word deep into his human center, for transformation and joy. He not only searches the Scriptures, but lets the Scriptures search him. He ingests God’s truth both to feed and... Continue Reading
Sometimes it Takes More Courage to Stay
The path of Christian life and ministry is one paved with difficulty.
As we weigh in the options to leave or keep fighting we can do what Jesus did. We can pray. I know that doesn’t sound like the solution we are looking for. But although the cup wasn’t removed from him, he did get the strength to stay, Luke 22:43. And let me tell you, it... Continue Reading
Have We Made God in Our Own Image?
Book Review: John Peckham and Covenantal Theism
There is no doubt that Peckham is a gifted writer, and his intentions motivating his work are noble. He seeks to provide an account of the divine attributes that is biblically faithful and theologically coherent in hopes that readers will be drawn to worship and praise for God. Unfortunately, Peckham’s unique formulation of the doctrine... Continue Reading
Wholesome Protestant Doctrine
Francis Turretin, Divine Simplicity, and the Creator-Creature Distinction
God is not simply a big person, sharing our imperfections with us or exalting the supposed virtue of dependence, as if God is somehow glorified in His need. Rather, His divine life is marked by a completely different type of being—so much so, that it is more proper to call him the source, ground, or... Continue Reading
Lessons Learned from a Wolf Attack
When wolves in sheep’s clothing are recognized for what they are, they will not run. They will attack.
Wolves are inevitable as the gospel advances. Jesus had Judas, the believers in Ephesus had their own fierce wolves emerge after Paul was gone (Acts 20:29). Wise believers will seek to prepare for this common danger to the church—and act when the wolves are exposed. Some of the most painful lessons of ministry are... Continue Reading
The Real Function of Third Way Rhetoric
The person using third way rhetoric positions himself morally above the positions to his left and his right.
So much of the teachings of the urban church flatter the sensibilities of the people in the pews rather than fundamentally challenging them about the way they are living their lives…The pedimental nature of third way rhetoric is very effective, and it’s easy to see why it appeals to the striver class people who populate... Continue Reading
The Bible Says It, I Believe It
The Bible is going to offend; we let it loose, and stand firm.
No matter the teaching, no matter the offense—if the Bible says it, we ought to believe it. Period. We should never apologize for what the Bible says. Society is saturated with apologizers. Every which way we turn, someone is apologizing for something because it offended someone. It’s a vicious cycle. And Christians are, in... Continue Reading