These dissenting Christians had separated from the Church of England and were living in exile in Leyden, Amsterdam, and  Plymouth Plantation so they could practice their doctrine as congregational churches with each church bound by its covenant.   Introduction The church at Leyden was the mother church for the Pilgrim congregation in Plymouth Plantation in... Continue Reading

Only those who have truly trusted in Jesus as their Savior and submitted to His lordship will experience God’s eternal blessing. Obedience brings blessing, not because it merits salvation but because it demonstrates the reality of our faith in the One who blesses His people.   Although it is rarely noted, the concept of blessing... Continue Reading

“Respect” for tradition is not enough when cultural hurricanes threaten to blow Anglicans off the narrow pilgrim way. Just as “respect” for God is a far cry from the “trembling at My word” that God seeks (Isa. 66:2), and just as the Ethiopian eunuch asked how he could understand Isaiah without someone guiding his interpretation... Continue Reading

Wherever King Jesus is readily acknowledged, his reign in rule is more firmly felt and entrenched in our lives and in our world, and so mainly that will exist in the church. There we have his kingdom coming. What more important things could we pray about in our day?   We think about the petitions... Continue Reading

Calvin said there are two tests to determine the purity of a man’s aspirations. First, is the man already doing what the office requires?…Second, if he goes unnoticed in his service (let us say he does not get nominated this go-around), does he keep serving?    I have noticed an interesting difference between the description of... Continue Reading

Perhaps the most obvious corruption of our thought upon this point has been the substitution of “same sex attraction” for “lust.” …working off of Scripture’s framework, our constitution and ethical tradition know nothing of mere attraction, especially where it is conceived as a potential weakness or liability rather than as the sin of unnatural lust.... Continue Reading

As believers, we can have assurance that our standing before God is secure because it rests on Christ’s righteousness, not our own. This doesn’t mean we ignore good works, but it means those works flow out of a heart transformed by faith, not as a means to earn salvation. Some may point to James 2:17—“So... Continue Reading

The series is aimed at students, preachers and interested laypeople. My take is this volume veered more towards the student end of this spectrum as a first reference point. I think it will help preachers to the extent it compiles the Christological material in the letters and joins the dots to other Pauline teaching; chapter... Continue Reading

Indeed, in Acts 15 as in Acts 11, the prophets’ ministry of the word and the response of the disciples in Antioch shows us that joy, encouragement, and comfort (cf. 1 Cor 14:3) belonged even to Gentiles as co-heirs, co-members of the body, and co-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus with Jews through the... Continue Reading

A prodigal and riotous waster cannot get by with his yearly income, but takes on more on his estate on the next year’s income, before it come. He begins to spend out of it before it actually comes, and then, when it comes, it cannot suffice. In the same way, the insatiable and indigent heart... Continue Reading

When he lovingly brings pastoral trials into our lives — and he does so lovingly — he is working for us and in us, one of the greatest goods imaginable. When He tests us, he is taking action to keep us. And He keeps us not just by protecting our present level of faith and... Continue Reading

The very idea that humans are made in the image of God is rendered vacuous. (Gen. 1:27: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”) Affirmation of sodomy entails the hermeneutical unmaking of the created order. This is why Paul singles it... Continue Reading

The problem for Israel was not hearing. Just as general revelation wordlessly speaks of the glory of God to all of creation, so also “the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17) had analogously been spoken to the Jews and Gentiles (Romans 10:18; cf. Ps 19:4). Neither was the problem for Israel its understanding (Romans 10:19a). They... Continue Reading

The world has believed that marriage is for a man and a woman.  Men and women are different.  Viva la difference! They were made to complement one another and to be close, just like the positive and negative charges in physics. This was part of God’s created order.  From God’s creation comes order, predictability, productivity,... Continue Reading

There is historical precedent to correlate an embrace of more conservative conceptions of political authority with an accompanying an increase in piety, and vice versa. A symbiosis between conservative politics and more substantive Christian piety typified the Réveil, a religious and in some ways political revival movement that swept France, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and... Continue Reading

Pray that God would open the eyes of your heart so that you might know the hope and riches that are yours in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:18). Pray that God would fill you with songs of praise and thanksgiving as you meditate on the great things He has done (Eph. 5:19–20; 1 Peter 2:9).   Early in... Continue Reading

If you preach, make sure your preaching offers me Christ. I need him. I need to confess my sin and receive forgiveness each week. I need to see again that I’m raised up and seated with him in heavenly places each week. I need to encounter these truths in mind, in heart, and in body;... Continue Reading

Help us to be a church that remembers the fourth commandment. Help us by your Spirit to be careful to keep this one commandment, so that we might better keep all the rest of your commandments. Help us to see that we are stronger together when we spend more of our day in worship, more... Continue Reading

Let the instruction of your father and the wisdom of your mother be as a crown, a sword, a scepter unto you. They bestow you with the royalty of being children of the covenant, and so receive that lofty calling and fulfill it in honor of both God your Father and your parents. The true... Continue Reading

The reason why we find ourselves often in a lesser-of-two-evil election is because we think like 1 Samuel 8 Israelites way too often. We end up in a kind of Judas-esque situation trying to back a different horse at the last minute because what we thought we had is not what we actually wanted. Lots... Continue Reading

David, with all his failures, still gives us a good example of how to do this in the Psalms. The first two books of the Psalms, from Psalm 1 through Psalm 72, are packed full of David’s meditations on the Word of God. From singing with his sheep to running in the wilderness, from his mighty victories to... Continue Reading

My favorite non-profit organization—One More Child—made emergency shipments to us. Fuel supplies are not what they do, but they understood the crisis and responded. We were rationing half gallons to keep medical equipment running for people with life-threatening conditions. Thankfully, our Governor opened supplies just in time. I don’t want to overdramatize what was happening,... Continue Reading

Every believer, indwelled by the Spirit of Christ, is being anointed with gifts and graces in order to serve, together with the whole church, as Christ’s prophets, priests, and princes in the world today. Bearing witness to Christ in this way is the identity and calling of all believers. We all have the profound privilege... Continue Reading

Without Christ, there is no hope. Apart from unwavering faith in His unwavering promises, would we not, all of us, be undone? Looking at my father from the doorway, weak and worn as he was, these twin realities presented themselves: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by... Continue Reading

I was having coffee with one of the people of this church.  I asked them if they knew that God delighted over them.  They asked me how I could say that.  So I showed them this verses from Zephaniah: ‘he will rejoice over you with singing’ (3:17).  That truth made tears run down their cheek. ... Continue Reading

Two angels had been sent by the Lord to warn Lot and his family what was about to happen and take them away from Sodom. Lot, however, “lingered.” His infatuation with Sodom seemed to know no bounds. In response, “the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord... Continue Reading

Bill was a physically imposing mechanic at 6’ 6”. But Lou Gehrig’s disease, the illness that physicist Stephen Hawkins endured, soon wilted him into a shadow of the man he had been. But he had Christ. He was able to live four more years—far beyond the doctor’s expectation. What amazing Christ-filled years those were.  ... Continue Reading

The call to guard our eyes is not just a warning against overt immorality but a reminder to protect against anything that diverts our hearts from pure devotion to God. Each unguarded thought, each glance that lingers is a potential breach in our spiritual defense, a deviation from holiness that leads to brokenness, strain in... Continue Reading

Practically, in your search for spiritual fathers, you’ll want to find the ones who don’t care how big or small their influence is. Their ambition is to be faithful with the talents they’ve been given — be they one or five. Those who are constantly calculating their speech, and maneuvering their public profile, are (jedi... Continue Reading

We would also do well to realize that more of the deep and tangible sense of God’s involvement in our lives is available to us. When we pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18), walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), and are led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14), we will experience more of the Lord, who... Continue Reading