“Some seem to think that we poor souls, who are the Puritanic school, are ‘cabin’d, cribb’d, confined’ by harsh dogmas, from which we would gladly escape. They imagine that we have to check every rising aspiration of our nobler selves, so as to preserve the tyranny of a certain iron system. John Calvin is supposed …
Which Explains a Lot of Church Services
“Postmodernism is a turning from rationality, and at the same time an embracing of spectacle” (Arthur Hunt, The Vanishing Word, p. 185).
The Trouble With Boys
“As parents consider their little boys who appear to have a surplus of this initiative, a surplus of masculinity, they may err by leaving it entirely undisciplined, or they may seek to discipline the troublesome masculinity out” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 38).
Fifth Decade of Psalms/Psalm 49
INTRODUCTION: We come now to a very potent expression of the biblical take on blind wealth in the face of inexorable death. As we treat the subject of our riches, let us take care, first, to remember the whole counsel of God on this subject, and let us take even greater care to not allow …
Why Sexual Issues Are To Be Front and Center
Our culture’s wholesale abandonment of biblical ethics in matters of sexuality — what I have recently called pomosexuality — is the direct and immediate result of a failure of the Church to proclaim and live out life in Christ, life in the gospel, life in the triune God. So the way out of this impasse …
The Shaman and the Chicken Bones
I once read a quip as a tag line on the bottom of someone’s email that was really quite profound — it said that if your pastor says that the wine in the Bible was really grape juice, then how can you believe anything he says? Whenever someone stubbornly clings to foolish and thrice-disproven notions, …
Hard Truth and Soft Comfort
As you first start coming to grips with your responsibilities in your son’s defiance and rebellions, you will have sort through the attempts at comfort that many Christian friends will offer. You will also have to learn how to reject the same suggestions that proceed every human beings natural inclination to self-justification. That false comfort …
Financial Crisis in a Nutshell
Or, perhaps I should say, “financial crisis in a nuthouse.” Here is the basic reason why you should be urging your congressman to vote to keep Congress out of any financial rescue operation. The perpetrators of this crisis are brazen, and they are also in Congress. And in this last week, I have seen them, …
Snow in August
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 154 “As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool” (Prov. 26:1). Sometimes tenderhearted employers try to steer wayward or deficient employees by means of false praise. They render praise in the …
Pastry is Bread Transfigured
“Paradox is the only basket large enough to hold truth. It is the very simplicity of bread which provides the foundation for all the complexities that man has wrought with flour. The violin is an astonishingly plain piece of business, carried beyond itself by craftsmanship: Stradivarius, Guarnerius, and Amati have gone down in history because …