Our Merciful High Priest
Jesus Christ, as the High Priest of the Church, was reliable before God and can be relied upon.
Never for a moment did his unspotted, perfect, obedience, hesitate or halt: from the heart, for the entirety of His life, His will and mind were aligned and allied sinlessly to God. Both tablets of the LORD, were harmoniously and persistently observed, even when facing the most extreme and difficult circumstances – from birth to... Continue Reading
3 Things You Should Know about Amos
Amos teaches us that covenantal privilege cannot be separated from the demands of obedience to God’s commands.
The role of the prophet was to mediate between God and His covenant people by declaring God’s word and encouraging obedience to His requirements. They were guardians of the kingdom, seeking to hold kings and other leaders accountable to God for their actions. They can be regarded as enforcement mediators of the covenant, dedicated to... Continue Reading
A Review: ‘A Christian Guide to Mental Illness’ by David Murray and Tom Karel Jr
The church should never “underestimate the power of including those suffering with mental illness and welcoming them in the church family.”
“The purpose of this book is to help the reader understand how the broken brain does not work, (analogy to a broken arm) to set the broken brain in the context of the gospel, and to discover how the church can bring comfort to the mentally ill and their families by watching for a Galatians... Continue Reading
Why Daily Bread Is Better
God wants us to trust his loving care, and he wants us to trust him daily.
Moment by moment, God answers. This is his daily bread. God shows us the next step, the next right thing to do. He gives us what we need for each conversation, for each moment of suffering, for each anxious thought, for each difficulty that feels overwhelming and beyond what we can bear. I know God... Continue Reading
The Rock
He is mighty, unchanging, immoveable, and faithful.
He is the One who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). He is the One who says, “”For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6). He is the One who, “does according to his will among the host of heaven... Continue Reading
What I Wish the Church would Understand about Disability
A supportive community makes all the difference for a child to thrive.
Disability often makes people uncomfortable, but that doesn’t need to be the case! Disability isn’t a dirty word! Don’t shy away but engage with disabled people and their families. Accessibility sometimes means doing things differently to how they’ve been done in the past. Change can be hard, but not being welcomed in the church is harder.... Continue Reading
Three Ways God Is Working Through Your Suffering
God is with us in our suffering.
When suffering comes, God doesn’t leave us to cope with it in our own strength. He is with us in our suffering just as he was with Peter, James, and John. You can be sure God is with you through all your ups and downs, good days and bad. There is no struggle that will... Continue Reading
Seeing Yourself Rightly
Self-Awareness
A man or woman with the proper view of themselves can be a strong yet humble force for the kingdom of God. What a mighty creature we can become when we realize who we are in Christ … and that all the glory goes to Him! Bill Wellons, one of the finest leaders and... Continue Reading
Knowing Whom We Have Believed
Calling Evangelicals to Repentance
Paul encourages Timothy, primarily, in two ways. First, he reminds Timothy that God has not given His ministers a spirit of timidity or cowardice (v. 7), but rather has furnished them with the potent and effective tools of power, love, and self-discipline. Timothy, therefore, should be unashamed of the “witness about our Lord,” or of... Continue Reading
The Story of Creation Gives Us Purpose
New book on creation theology orients readers beautifully to who God is and why we are his image bearers.
In his book, The Beginning and End of All Things, Dr. Klink attempted to point Christians to the other important questions that are being asked and answered in the first few chapters of Genesis and how they connect to the rest of Holy Scripture. “But I would like to argue that the biblical text is not... Continue Reading
It’s Not Always an Affection Problem
Affection Problem Verses Personality Trait
Not having his excellence spill out of us in the form of verbiage may not be a sign that we have an affection problem. It may just be evidence of a particular personality. It may be evidence of other perfectly innocent and ordinary things too. We shouldn’t be too quick to assume a lack of... Continue Reading
Mere Men
The worst evaluation that could be given of true believers is that they are “walking like mere men.” True believers are Spirit-men.
We were made for so much more. Fearfully and wonderfully made, we were created a little lower than the angels in the image of God. God has gone to extraordinary lengths—even the death of His Son—to conform you to His image. And there is much to do. The great tragedy of life would be... Continue Reading
Life and Death are in the Power of the Fingers
Why is it Hard to Tame our Fingers?
When we are ready to post on social media, He sees our motives, He sees our content, and He sees the way we communicate this content. If we are true believers, this awesome awareness will make it our chief concern to please Him in all that we do (2 Cor. 5:9), knowing that we will... Continue Reading
God has Your Good Graces in Mind
Resting in His Sacramental Love in Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper work together, as the catechism notes, to each in their own way testify to the one covenant of grace made in Genesis 3:15 and reconfirmed in circumcision and Passover, and then in the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 and stated by Christ in Mark 14 and Peter in Acts 2.... Continue Reading
The Law’s End and Application
A firm grasp on the goal of God’s law will take your application skills to the next level.
Sometimes, robust reflection on the end or purpose of God’s law will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: politics, leadership, authority, liberty, influence—to name just a few. Deepen your grasp of the proper purpose of the law, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level. The End... Continue Reading
Read John Calvin’s Mail to Discover His Theological Development
Calvin didn’t practice letter writing absent from theological implications. These implications can be identified in three particular contours—Calvin’s views on friendship, the church, and the unifying power of faith.
Letter writing as a discipline helped Calvin consider his words and his calling, preserved his connection to the ministry in Geneva, and kept his friendships flourishing both in Strasbourg and beyond. While he remained in Strasbourg for a short time, it was because of his correspondences that his return to Geneva was smooth and his... Continue Reading
What Is God’s Plan for Your Life Here and Now?
We need to be faithfully and patiently present to all of those who are near us as we settle in for the long haul.
Though our true hope and eternal future do not rest on temporal things, such as plans for political power or an ultimate cultural transformation, we are not to neglect this creation that God has so graciously and providentially provided to us. As he is patient, so we ought also to be patient, living in the... Continue Reading
Failing Hurts Most When Success Defines Us
Where Do You Find Your Worth?
Failure is a reality of life just as success is a reality of life. Those failures don’t define us. We should allow the scriptures to shape our priorities and our view of ourselves. We should also forge real relationships with each other so that we provide support and guidance to those of us who need... Continue Reading
Entertainment and the Death of a Culture
The iron grip of endless entertainment impacts everything, even the churches.
I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of... Continue Reading
Review of John Gerstner by Jeffrey S. McDonald
Dr. McDonald shows that Gerstner was influential from the lectern, in the pulpit, and through writing for a variety of publications.
Jeffrey McDonald has provided a thought-provoking biography supported by over a thousand footnotes that document sources including Gerstner’s writings, reviews of his writings, recordings, judicatory records, letters, web material, and interviews of his students and colleagues. The nineteen-page bibliography shows a wide variety of sources accessed by McDonald. The book provides another angle on the... Continue Reading
We Must Identify and Resist Fools: Countering the Post-Modern Culture of Sentimentality
The wise and diligent know how to identify fools, help others identify them, and avoid them.
We must teach our students to work hard to empathize with and understand others. Students need many prior Christian virtues, such as humility, self-control, and gentleness, before learning and applying these skills. Yet, at the same time, we must not shy away from teaching our students to identify fools, offer reasons for their foolishness, and yes be willing to... Continue Reading
B. B. Warfield on the Formation of New Testament Canon
Through the revelation of the gospel preached by the apostles, Warfield notes that the Holy Spirit added to the existing Old Testament canon during the apostolic age.
According to Warfield, the church did not create a new canon alongside the old by determining what ought to be included in it (or not). Rather, the church recognized the books of our present New Testament as they were given, and therefore added them to the existing books of the Old Testament canon. These books... Continue Reading
The Gospel-Forward Church
Putting the mission in mission works.
When it comes to our local church becoming a gospel-forward church, it isn’t going to happen unless we pray, individually and collectively, that God will open our eyes, and free up our time. It means we will start planning gospel encounters with the unconverted. What does that look like? You tell me. I think it... Continue Reading
The Evolution of Protestant Politics
Christianity and Politics XI: From the Reformation to Early America
The New Testament only grants authority regarding the internal governance of the church to the officers of the church. I think most people who oppose establishment frame their opposition the other way round: they are mostly afraid of Christians imposing their will on the general populace via the state. I am more concerned—from a biblical... Continue Reading
America’s Campus Meltdown
This is what happens when the ideological left controls higher education.
What is not unclear is that the students now condemning Israel are the products of an elite American academic industry that offers leftist ideologies as its main product and, brace yourselves, the younger professors on many campuses are much further to left in both ideology and politics. The old liberals are scared to death of... Continue Reading
Heady Thoughts About Your Heart
Summarizing the teaching of Scripture, we can say the heart governs the totality of our inner self.
To be born again means that God has given each of us a new heart. Just as every function and aspect of our old heart was perilously infected by sin, so also nothing in our new heart remains untouched by God’s grace—including our mind. God has graciously enlightened our understanding. Now we see our sin and we... Continue Reading
Stopping the Transgender Conveyor Belt
Over the last decade, a complicated network of state and federal laws has increasingly channeled children down the path of gender transition.
This, in short, is how the conveyor belt works: The school encourages the child to embrace a new gender. Teachers must affirm it and hide it from parents. Counselors must support it. Parents must go along or risk losing custody. Employers and insurers must pay for it. Doctors must perform it. All of this is... Continue Reading
A New Testament Passage That’s Older than the New Testament
Historians are convinced that 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 is an early Christian creed Paul is reminding the Corinthians of.
This ancient creed, however, shows us what the very first Christians believed about Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances. The Christian creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 obliterates the “Jesus as legend” challenge. From the inception of the church, the earliest believers confessed Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances. There was no time for legendary development. The... Continue Reading
Teach What is Good
“Older women…teach what is good” (Tit. 2:3).
Being an “older woman” is not for the faint of heart. The older we get the more we realize the more flawed we are and the more we need every ounce of grace that God graciously gives –which is probably why God gives this command to us at this time in our lives. But our... Continue Reading
Stuart Robinson, 1814-1881
Stuart Robinson was known for his preaching gifts, the precision of his sermons, his pointed and no holds barred writing, and a short-fused temper.
Robinson’s book, The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel, 1858, has been reprinted by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2009, with an introduction by A. Craig Troxel and a twenty-five page biography by T. E. Peck. Peck was a friend of Robinson and succeeded him at Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore. Robinson also published Discourses on Redemption:... Continue Reading