INTRODUCTION:Goliath was a very great giant, but envy is a greater giant still. Just as giants devour, so envy devours. Envy grows on unnatural food, and when a person gives way to temptation and eats this food, the results are perverse. THE TEXT:“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking …
Wanting to be the Third Son
You have heard a number of times that we are an evangelical and Reformed congregation. But to avoid falling into the use of denominational buzzwords, we should remind ourselves from time to time what the words we commonly use actually mean. An evangelical preacher is not someone who waves his arms when he talks. An …
Jesus is the Contagious One
In the Old Covenant, we learn that sin is contagious (Hag. 2:13-14). We see that if a clean object comes into contact with an unclean one, it is the clean object that becomes unclean. We recognize that this principle continues to apply in certain ways in the New Covenant as well, which is why we …
The Mission to Ramothgilead
A common way of reasoning in Proverbs is to contrast two options in order to illustrate for us what our priorities ought to be. For example, it is better to be poor and righteous than rich and unrighteous. But we have to remember that this is a choice between two when there are actually a …
Facebook Friend Missions
Just about all of us have been affected (and in good ways) by the communications revolution. But there are downsides, advanced in part by our ability to move our ignorance around the world at spectacular rates of speed. But there is another danger besides high-speed gossip and slander, which is the danger of mistaking a …
Related in Their Turn to the Primordial Bicycle
“To argue that the Ford Taurus evolved from the Model T because they each have four tires is a dubious procedure. Maybe four tires is just a good idea, and anybody who wants to build a car should use it. Maybe a pig liver does the same thing that a human liver does, and for …
Two Kinds of Study
“The preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation . . . He must not be always seeking to make sermons, but always seeking truth, and out of the truth which he has won the sermons will make themselves . . . Here is the need for broad and generous culture. Learn to study …
Thinly Disguised Brigandage
The Christian faith is inescapably political. Jesus is a king, and we are His polis. We are charged with bringing the gospel to every nation, and we are to preach that gospel in such a way as to topple the central idols of every people group. When those idols are toppled, the worship of God …
Motherhood Means More
My daughter Rachel has just completed contributing a series of three articles on motherhood to the Desiring God web site. Many thanks to them for running with these — the responses indicate that this is a deep need in our circles. Here is a link to the most recent article. It is just great. And …
Which They Don’t
“But for someone who bases an awful lot on reason, I think he needs to pay closer attention to what he is doing in the name thereof. His conclusion does not follow from the evidence being presented, not unless wet streets cause rain” (God Is, p. 11).