Don’t Wish Your Life Away
We must be careful that while we are looking forward to tomorrow, we don’t miss out on today.
Saying we want to enjoy today is great in theory, but it’s difficult when we see the struggles that ‘today’ brings. That’s when our eyes begin looking toward another day. Continually, we must recognize that even the struggles of today are being used by God to sanctify us and purify our faith through the fiery... Continue Reading
Missing the PAT (Point-After-Touchdown) on Sabbath Observance
Butker might have done well to consider the connection between ordered, Christ-centeredness and the Sabbath – which is, arguably, among the foremost ordering institutions in the Scripture.
Bishop Barron has produced a short, superb message entitled, “Loss of a Sabbath Consciousness.” In it, he notes the loss since about the 1960s of “a more religious rhythm” to American life, even in secular society – a trend, by the way, to which the National Football League has been a heavy, perhaps the heaviest,... Continue Reading
The Local Church Is Critical for Your Faith
Every Christian is called to have a spiritual home.
I believe a pastor needs to move on from the local church you served, so staying at our old church was not an option. But I came to realize that going to a variety of churches was not enough. You need to have your own church. You need to be part of a body of... Continue Reading
The Uniquely Christian Justification for Loving LGBT People
Though we might vigorously oppose false ideas, we should be kind to the people who hold them.
The shifting tide of culture is all it would take to change which groups people love. Christians, though, are not only justified in their love towards all people, but that justification will never change because it’s based on God’s eternal truth. There’s an important point I begin with when I teach on homosexuality and... Continue Reading
Authority: Who Needs It?
Book Review: The book is full of practical wisdom, I want to focus on four strengths and one small weakness.
Leeman’s book is full of practical wisdom. I won’t illustrate this point other than to say that he writes as an experienced pastor and father. He uses a lot of real-life illustrations to drive his points home. Many times, I found myself impressed by his ability to describe something I’ve experienced but never been able... Continue Reading
How to Pray for Open Hands
In order for us to mature spiritually, we need God to take control of our hands, our mouths, and even our hearts.
We are incapable of “opening our hands” to receive what God has promised to give for fear that we might lose what we think we have grasped. And so we pray with Jeremy Taylor that God would “open our hands for us. And [that he would] not only open [our] hand, but also open [our]... Continue Reading
The Lord (n) of lords (v)
He is the only Lord.
Jesus has true authority. He is the One who has all dominion and authority and majesty and might. He is the One who sees the nations as a drop in the bucket and commands the heavenly army. He is the One who has real glory. He is the Lord. So, don’t fear when you see men... Continue Reading
I’m Just Starting to Understand the Bible
It’s a joy, and no matter how much I discover, it feels like there’s so much more to explore.
Sometimes I read passages I’ve read hundreds of times before, and a new insight leaps off the page. I puzzle over passages, and find that the longer I look at them, the more they yield. I never finish looking at a passage and think, “Yep. Got that one down.” And then there are the relationships between... Continue Reading
The Altar & the Court | Exodus 27:1-19
The Israelite would return to his or her house praising Yahweh for accepting the blood of their animal in place of their own.
The blood of animals never covered any sinner’s sins. Instead, they pointed forward to the once for all sacrifice that Christ would make for us. Although they did not know His name, all the Israelites who sacrificed and believed by faith that Yahweh had forgiven their sins were truly placing their faith in Christ. In... Continue Reading
The Bible’s Family Trees
An Introduction to Genealogies
In Genesis 12, God chooses Abraham from the midst of the nations — or, more specifically, from the midst of the descendants of Shem. God does not, however, simply give Abraham the same command he gave to Adam and Noah. Instead, he gives Abraham a promise: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful,” he says (Genesis 17:6),... Continue Reading
Talking Back to Death
We can talk back to death because death itself has been defeated, and because of that we have nothing more to fear.
We can now face death with such confidence that we can even talk back to it as Luther did when his precious Magdalene died. As both John McClean and Martin Luther declared in their own way: “Death, you are defeated, for the Author of Life has risen again from the grave!” And that means that... Continue Reading
Sacramental Assistance
When joined to the Word of God, the sacraments strengthen our faith, further our sanctification, and assure us of the Lord’s unwavering faithfulness to us.
We are weak, sinful people who need all the assistance we can get in order to remember what the Lord has done for us. If we neglect the sacraments He has given His people and fail to understand the importance of the sacramental aspects of our faith, we are turning down precious helps that provide... Continue Reading
Biblical Male Leadership’s Aim is Love
Three aspects of the spiritual leadership charge Paul begins to give Timothy in chapter 1.
The calling of all Christiann men to lead our homes and churches is God’s good, perfect design; there is nothing about the prescribed leadership of men that even hints at oppression. To the contrary, it is a design rooted in the calling to love sacrificially and in the wisdom to know the three sources from which such self-giving love... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know about the Fruit of the Spirit
Patience is the active pursuit of hope (Rom. 8:25).
The world says, “Follow your heart” and “Be true to yourself,” but Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). According to Jesus, obedience means laying aside our love of comfort in order to pursue obedience. This is hard to do!... Continue Reading
I AM: Immutability
Unchanging and Unchangeable
God is immutable because time-space does not act upon God. God is not a mere participant in the cosmos, allowing events to form or shape Him. He is not passive: world history does not imprint itself on Him and change Him. This is what is meant by God’s impassibility. It is not that God has... Continue Reading
The Distortion of Vulnerability
Within the community of the church, we need not depend on the distorted vulnerability offered to us within the iron cage of modernity to act as a kind of social glue.
We must resist the disenchantment of the modern world, and instead maintain our grasp on the reality that we are deeply vulnerable – to the devil’s schemes, to the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil. And as we open our eyes to recognize this ‘classic’ vulnerability we will find that such... Continue Reading
Lion on the Loose
Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8).
Don’t listen to Satan’s deceptions, but hold onto the truth of God’s Word. Don’t even let Satan near you through what you watch, or what you dwell on in your thoughts, or where you visit on a weekend night. Don’t even let Satan near you, because then he’ll lunge. Have you ever met a... Continue Reading
God Not Only Created the World, He (Still) Holds It Together
New book explores God’s intimate and active role in sustaining His creation.
In a Christian worldview, the creation is more miraculous than mechanical, more enchanted than we often realize. Of course, the world is orderly and works according to identifiable and predictable laws. And yet, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, it is graciously and lovingly held together just as it was brought into being, by the very... Continue Reading
All of Ecclesiastes Is Wisdom to Receive
Reflecting on How the End of the Book Endorses What Preceded It
In Ecclesiastes 12:8–14, the book is coming to an end, and in this epilogue we find a strong endorsement of the book’s content. In 12:9, the writer calls the Preacher “wise” and someone who “taught the people knowledge.” So the content between the prologue and epilogue came from a wise person who taught wisdom. This... Continue Reading
Extraordinary Purposes in Ordinary Work
Realities of Daily Work and Our Lives as Christians
By faith we depend on Jesus to walk with us. We rely on his Spirit to guide us so that our relationship with Christ brings life to the wearisome, broken aspects of life. We can participate in God’s work wherever he has called us. Whatever our role—student, dishwasher, waitress, stay-at-home mom, working mom, office staff,... Continue Reading
Do Not Be Conformed to the World of Sports: Relearning How We Think about, Feel, and do Sports as Christians (Part 2)
Medical research specifies that football leads all sports in the rate of concussions along with the even greater concern of repeated sub-concussive hits.
Brains are central to cognitive and emotional intelligence, socialization, spiritual and moral formation, and to flourishing and finding personal fulfillment as responsible citizens in communities as fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters in families, as disciples of Christ in churches and as “salt and light” in our vocations. Damaged brains can never be undone and can... Continue Reading
“Give Me Neither Poverty Nor Riches” — 7 Things the Book of Proverbs Teaches Us About Money
Wealth comes from the Lord.
If money cannot buy happiness, far less can it buy salvation and life. It is God’s righteousness, not wealth, that turns the key of heaven’s gates. “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death … Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green... Continue Reading
Harrison Butker Is Right
The anger over his words is primarily anger over the word of God.
Harrison Butker didn’t say women shouldn’t work outside the home. He didn’t say wives should only be homemakers. His message to the graduating women is that getting married and having children is more important than a successful career. He was suggesting women should prioritize their husbands and children over themselves. Last Saturday Kansas City Chiefs’... Continue Reading
I AM: Ineffability
God as He is in Himself cannot be communicated in words.
God in Himself can be known only by Himself. He is different from us, not as an archangel is different from us – by some finite distance of hierarchical complexity. No, He is infinitely removed from us when it comes to what He is. He is what He is. This distance is also called the... Continue Reading
The Religious Orientation of Trans Ideology
Transgenderism is premised on dogmas which justify heinous acts against vulnerable people.
Transgenderism is a false view of anthropology, based upon a series of premises contrary to reason and reliant upon distinctly religious ideas that happen to be false and should not be accepted as true, good, or beautiful. Its power as an ideological force—observable in its dramatic capture of the political debate in recent years—can, to... Continue Reading
Book Review: The (Not-so-Secret) Secret to Reaching the Next Generation
Kevin DeYoung’s booklet reinforces this doctrine: that it is Christ who builds His church.
The focus of Reaching the Next Generation is in fact more on retention than addition. DeYoung points out that most church-leavers, after having observed their parents and church leaders at close quarters, check out in their teenage years. Book Review: Kevin DeYoung, The (Not-so-Secret) Secret to Reaching the Next Generation. Wheaton, Il: Crossway, 2024. 28 pages.... Continue Reading
Don’t Let Passion Drop Off in Your Marriage and Christian Life
Problems come when we no longer make the effort and stop to appreciate what we have in the other person.
People who have been Christians a long time often don’t feel the depth of passion for Jesus they once did. While this in itself is not something we can control, we should be striving to glorify God in all we do, to live out of love for Jesus. That will mean reminding ourselves of God’s... Continue Reading
Four Reasons to Preach the Psalms as a Book
The trajectory of the Psalms assures us that even through enemies and exiles God directs human history.
Our looking and longing isn’t done yet. King Jesus will return. And when he does, he will bring this world to an end and establish the new heavens and the new earth. The book of Psalms trains us for that world yet to come. There is a general movement across the five books of the... Continue Reading
God Loves a Cheerful Giver…So Should You Wait to Give?
Giving, even though it’s difficult, and giving out of a sense of obligation, are two different things.
A cheerful giver knows that all we have belongs to God anyway. A cheerful giver recognizes how richly God has blessed us. A cheerful giver is glad for the chance to participate in God’s mission and is happy for the opportunity to store up treasures in heaven. Some people are excellent gift-givers. They are... Continue Reading
Why We Need Critical Theory
The abuses of Critical Theory by the Frankfurt School should not blind us to the importance of critical methods.
If Christianity does not authentically inform your entire worldview, including the criteria by which you judge the most important things of this world, then how can you say that you’re any different than the unbeliever? “Hi, my name is Dr. Benjamin L. Mabry, and I’m a Critical Theorist.” It sounds to many ears like... Continue Reading