Posts from 2019
The Surpassing Worth of KNOWING Christ
Most do not understand the implications and ramifications of KNOWING Christ. It has a comparative value. Notice what one like Paul will forfeit to know Christ. I’m quoting only part of the long sentence, but it conveys what I want you to see: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered…
What About Your Relatives?
For many of us, the Christmas/New Year season is a time not only to think about Jesus’ incarnation but also to enjoy our relatives and friends. Perhaps we see them only at this time of the year. Some time ago I wrote this short article to guide us about speaking the gospel to those relatives we love. Take a few moments to ponder these ideas: What About Your Relatives? In the New Testament, we find new believers confronting their own…
The Guarantee of Holiness
“Say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins and art born of God,” said puritan William Gurnall, “unless thou canst prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy.” There is no such thing as an unholy Christian (at least in any ongoing sense.) Can Christians commit any sort of sin? Yes. Can Christians repeatedly commit sin? Yes. Can Christians commit the worst of sins? Yes. But it is inconceivable that a person could be a Christian without holiness…
The Old Ways
The old ways. Do we want them? Some of you are older (though I’m glad that hasn’t happened to me). And all of you are older this year than you were last. Was it better before? Do we have the right perspective about the way it used to be? There is something charming about what things were like before smartphones and social media and so much public anger…..the pace of life, the emphasis on relationships, the steadiness of it all. …
Disinterestedness
Disinterestedness. This compelling word is not about what you might expect. We have all seen (and been) the disinterested student, expressionless, gazing into some unknown blank space outside the classroom, waiting out the final eternal moments of the professor’s pedantic, sleep-inducing hum. That describes a use of the word, but not our use. What we wish to say with this word is immensely desirable; it was once employed to describe the best of conditions of the believer. The following intriguing…
The Love of Beauty
I know beauty when I see it. I am now out-of-doors in the morning on a spring day, drinking coffee with the right kind of cup, a light breeze flowing over my shoulder, the prospect of a useful day (which is the best day for me) and a sense of God’s hand planning all events. It is the convergence of likable things made even more desirable by all the days not so perfect. I have had other days, strung tight…
Witness of the Spirit
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God . . .” Romans 8:16 This “witness” which leads to assurance that we are in God’s family is not a direct or immediate feeling or sense that we are God’s children—some inner confidence that may be entirely misplaced by being based on nothing but the notion itself. The believer will not say merely, “I know that I know that I know.” In fact, having confidence in…
She Better Be Careful
The person who runs from God and does not want to know him lest her motivations and deeds be revealed, had better do all she can to shield herself from any insidious notion that God has in fact displayed himself in nature and in a written revelation. She must tightly grasp evolution (or some other mechanistic theory) on the one hand, and “the-Bible-as-merely-human-words-written-by-well-meaning-people” in the other hand. If she lets loose of either, she is going down. She feels strongly…
The Head of the Church Knows Best: Benefits of Having a Team of Elders
In the first church I served as a pastor, I was the only elder. I was in that position for nearly five years. Since 2007, I’ve served as one elder on a team of elders. In the 1990s, I became convinced biblically that this is God’s design for each local church — to be led by multiple qualified elders (cf. Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). I’ll not argue for that here. I simply want to list some of the benefits of…
An Amazing Promise NOT for You (Jeremiah 29:10-14)
10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.13 You will seek Me and…
Is Healing in the Atonement?
It is a valid question to ask, “Is physical healing in the atonement?” The answer is, without equivocation, “Yes.” But maybe not as is commonly perceived. All good things come to the believer through Christ’s death for us. “By his stripes you are healed” in every way possible! It is judicially right that mercy is yours forever due to his death in your place. When merciful actions come to unbelievers, however, (God “sends the rain on the just and the…
Good Works Are Not Your Problem
Rather than writing off good works, the Apostle Paul considered good works and faith to be the closest of friends. The Christian life is “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). In fact, Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Good works are a major reason Christ died for you. Don’t think little of them. Rather, it is Mosaic Law-works (such…
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