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
The Most Significant Edit to the Declaration of Independence
Franklin universalizes a presumptively Christian claim into a more universal one.
It doesn’t follow that if you evolved from nothing, from goo, through apes, or whatever you believe about evolution, that doesn’t lead to the conclusion that human beings have rights and must be protected and have dignity and that you should make sure you protect children or women or minorities. Those just don’t follow from... Continue Reading
The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence to Theology: A Comprehensive Analysis
Epistemological challenges associated with discerning AI-generated knowledge and the existential threat to the human image of God.
The opacity, bias, and lack of accountability inherent in AI-generated knowledge raise significant concerns about discerning truth in the age of AI. The integrity of theological inquiry depends on the ability to navigate these challenges and distinguish genuine insights from distortions perpetuated by AI systems. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable aspect of... Continue Reading
Suffering Saints and a Glorious Homecoming
Christians will one day meet again with lost loved ones.
There is a heavenly homecoming ahead for us believers. All the suffering and hardships that we have gone through in this life will seem like nothing compared to the glories of heaven and being once again with those that we love—including of course our Lord. We will indeed be with him and others for eternity. ... Continue Reading
Worship the Spirit
We should expect the Holy Spirit’s ordinary work to be that of sanctifying us through the effectual means of grace that he has prescribed in his Word.
The Holy Spirit inspired the sufficient revelation concerning the elements of gathered worship, and so we should expect that he would naturally work through those elements—reading the Word, preaching the Word, praying the Word, singing the Word, and visualizing the Word through baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This is why Christians have traditionally called these prescribed... Continue Reading
Introducing the Bible Answers Project
The goal of the Bible Answers Project is to connect unchurched people with presbyterian and reformed churches
“The good news is that every day, 100,000s of online searches (Google, Bing, etc.) are conducted for search queries related to the Bible and Christianity. The bad news is that, more often than not, search results for Bible-related queries never connect people back to confessional Presbyterian and Reformed churches — despite our robust commitment to... Continue Reading
Respond to Conflict Like Francis Schaeffer
Review: ‘The Mark of the Christian’ by Francis A. Schaeffer
Schaeffer says our love must be observable, something others can see. Observable love often requires saying sorry and asking for forgiveness—with a spouse, a friend, a child, a parent, or another person or group we’ve wronged. This is simple, but it won’t be easy. In my experience, it takes great strength of character to say,... Continue Reading
No, It’s Still Not Right
Twenty years later, you still cannot redefine marriage.
Same-sex marriage has also fueled the redefinition and imagination around how we conceive of family structure and how children are to be brought into this world. While a child with two moms or two dads may seem commonplace now, nature persists in telling us that it is unnatural. Children need moms and dads in conjoined... Continue Reading
One of the Toughest Ministry Lessons I’ve Had to Learn . . . and Why I Love Having Learned It Today
None of us is as strong a leader as we think, and not one of us is effective in ministry apart from His power.
I live in the tension of wanting to give my best for God’s work while not worrying about whether others recognize my best. My goal ought to be that only the name of Jesus gets glory before, during, and after I’m in my current seat of ministry. So, the work goes on, even beyond us,... Continue Reading
The Big Impact of Little Faith
Too often we readily diminish our expectations of God’s power to work.
Tiny, mustard-seed-size faith can move mountains. Here is Jesus’ vivid word picture, proverbial for overcoming great challenges. Jesus did not say, “You need giant faith!” No, tiny faith will do. Jesus’ followers need true faith, rightly rooted with deep, personal trust that heartily expects God to work! For all our endeavors—big and small—he calls us... Continue Reading