A Darkness More than Night
Darkness has always, in every culture, been the domain of the dead.
Those who grope around in darkness (see Deut. 28:29) cannot praise Jehovah for they see Him not. Light in the context of Genesis 1, John 1, and myriads of other verses says to believers that if they want to understand the world around them, be at peace, and receive all the goodness which comes to... Continue Reading
A Lesson on Wisdom and Folly: An Ecclesiastes Meditation, Part II
A foolish king is a disaster for the land, and a wise king is a great blessing to the land.
God’s Wisdom, by the power of his Spirit, makes us like himself. The Triune God shapes us into the image of true Wisdom. To be brought into Christ, then, is to be brought into Wisdom. And to become more like Christ (to become who we are—the journey of sanctification in the Christian life) is to become wise. ... Continue Reading
The Cross’s Double Cure
The cure that Christ provides covers our need to be right with God—and our need to be holy.
When the Lord Jesus Christ does a saving work in the life of a sinner, he or she is not only concerned with being free of guilt in the presence of God; but also being holy in the presence of God. The power of sin is broken and one is able to be well….The power... Continue Reading
Unquestioned Revelation
We can see the truth clearly, but there is a great chasm fixed between those who believe and those who don’t.
When our faith is quickened and we are made one with God, He writes His truth on our hearts and we know the truth. This is made real for us when we study God’s Word and hear godly expositional preaching and Bible teaching. The Holy Spirit is working in our hearts to see and understand... Continue Reading
Why the Third Day? The Promise Of Resurrection In All Of Scripture
Jesus and his apostles claim that his resurrection on the third day was “according to the Scriptures.”
ABSTRACT: Jesus and his apostles claim that his resurrection on the third day was “according to the Scriptures.” The hope of the resurrection stretches back far beyond the empty tomb to the hopes and prophecies of God’s old-covenant people. At the same time, Jesus’s rising inaugurates God’s new creation in the present and points us to... Continue Reading
How Do We Respond to a God That Doesn’t Give Timetables?
God is perfectly content to operate in His way, and in His time, and is not obligated to tell us what—much less when—He is going to act.
While we wait on the promise of God, we act on the commands of God. We continue on in what God has already told us to do, obediently living by faith. We continue and do what we know while we wait for what we don’t.This is what takes our posture from passive waiting into active... Continue Reading
Lived to Be Forgotten: Dixon E. Hoste, Missionary to China
The successor of Hudson Taylor as leader of the China Inland Mission never sought fame but was remembered for his earnest prayers.
One of the most important and striking characteristics of Hoste was his prayer life—and related to that, his true humility before God and in his ministry. Hoste never sought fame or power. Instead, he was determined that his name and reputation would be subsumed under the desire to see Jesus get all the honor for... Continue Reading
Sex and Christ Crucified
If we enter into a covenant with Christ, and then establish a new one in an illegitimate sexual relationship, we dishonor him, and the impact can be catastrophic.
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. You are not a free independent agent who is above God’s law, and God cares profoundly about what you do with your body. As a way to plant this in your soul, start your day with this summary, remember it, speak about it, and list... Continue Reading
Words from a Donkey
Making sense of what Balaam heard.
We know that donkeys don’t talk—which is why it was incredible when one did. The action is miraculous: the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth. The donkey’s words function as a rebuke—ultimately from the Lord—against Balaam’s actions. So here’s what happened: King Balak in Moab wanted the Israelites to be cursed, so the king sent... Continue Reading
Forgiving Each Other with God’s Immanence and Transcendence: A Corporate Call for Doctrine (Part One)
We need a corporate effort to develop a doctrinal explanation of what we are doing when we forgive others and ask them to forgive us.
While we have innumerable sermons and published works that explain Christ’s command to forgive each other, and that explore the benefits of doing so, practical explanations of what explicitly is meant by “forgiving each other” are few, and these tend to use ambiguous language when attempting to describe a corresponding orthopraxy. The absence of corporately... Continue Reading
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