While the early believers certainly cared for those within the Christian community who were in need, they also courageously communicated the truth of the Gospel with the world around them. The scriptures tell us they were of “one mind in the temple”. What was this “mind” they shared? Repeatedly, and in spite of intense opposition,... Continue Reading

We are not to fast and pray for the sake of fasting and prayer. We are to fast and pray for the sake and attention of our heavenly Father. As Matthew 6:16-18 makes clear to us, fasting is a means of grace if and only if presented for the notice of your heavenly Father who... Continue Reading

Trust God to handle the sin against you, your family, your neighbor, your community, or others. God will. He does not release the guilty. God’s wrath functions in righteousness and keeps you from the poison of your own. Your wrath spoils. You only hurt yourself.   Possibly you, like so many, have been sinned against... Continue Reading

Within the economic Trinity there is a Divine Person with a non-divine will that makes Jesus’ submission to God both possible and fitting. Accordingly, the Christ to God authority and submission is not a Trinity consideration per se but a limited consideration of the union of two natures in one hypostasis. Yet the submission of wife to husband finds its analogy to Christ to God not in an ordering of being but in creative design just the same.   A... Continue Reading

The objective, verifiable demonstration of God’s power and pardon for sins is the resurrection; the “standing-up” again of Jesus from the dead. This is the centre of Luke’s message in his written accounts to Theophilus: Jesus is the resurrected Saviour and Lord of the world.   I was running an early morning devotion for a... Continue Reading

Whether it is Pastor Story Hour or something else, we want our children to see us active in the world. We do not want them to grow up hiding from culture. We do not want them to believe that our faith is private, quiet, and secretive. We do not want them to grow up afraid... Continue Reading

Deception starts with a questioning of the plain meaning of Scripture. “Did God really say…?” Without a high view of Scripture and a belief in its perspicuity, we can twist the Scriptures to meet our own preferences. Once we start down that road, we will begin to fashion the Word to suit our own image.... Continue Reading

The real point of all this is that the Church of England is now to bless same-sex unions in clear defiance of both the Bible and the tradition of the Christian church. It will do so even as many of the more conservative churches in the Anglican Communion threaten to break from Canterbury. It will... Continue Reading

The amillennial interpretation of this text supplies a truer, richer, and far more comforting meaning than that of our dispensational brothers. The Lord is not speaking here of a pre-tribulation rapture, but of a three-fold coming to his disciples: first at the moment of their new birth, second at the moment of their death, and... Continue Reading

Reading (and rereading) the Bible is not an end in itself. There is no heavenly trophy for most times reading the Bible. We are getting to know a person—God—not a textbook. And we must hold tight to the gospel truths that fuel our love of our neighbors. We read because we are loved by God. And because... Continue Reading