The General Assembly of the PCA has now taken a strong stand against paedocommunion. But the practice of communing baptized children faces greater challenges than just this kind of opposition. Churches that practice paedocommunion (as a good number in the CREC do) face their own challenge to the practice, a challenge that arises from within. …
Super 8
This last Thursday night, Nancy and I went to the first showing of Super 8 here in Moscow, just after midnight, so I guess you would say it was actually Friday. We did not do this because we are such avid moviegoers as a general rule, but rather because the lead role in the movie …
Pentecostal Authority
INTRODUCTION: The Jewish festival of Pentecost is now famously connected to the sign gifts that were poured out on this day—gifts of tongues, and prophecy, and the like. We get the denominational name of Pentecostal from this day, and so one of the things we should learn as we mark this day is how that …
Seven Baskets Left
We are privileged to celebrate this Supper on Pentecost Sunday, the day when God in His mercy made it abundantly clear that He had given His Son, the bread from Heaven, as the life of the world. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus miraculously feeds the multitudes on two occasions. In the first instance, in …
With All You’ve Got
The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all you’ve got. This of course can only be obeyed in the context of the grace of God found in the gospel. The way we commend ourselves to God is in Jesus’ name, because He is the only one who perfectly loved God with …
Steven and Katie
In the name of the God of all grace, welcome. Steven, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. Katie, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. This is a Christian wedding and, as such, it is therefore a testimony to the grace of God. But what is grace, exactly? For too many people, …
Say Somebody Is a Skuzzbucket
Over at The Daily Beast, Lee Siegel writes this: “Creepy as Anthony Wiener’s photos are, the level of outrage aimed at him is wildly unfair. We’d have no heroes left if we held everyone to this ridiculous standard.” Just when you think that discourse in our nation has gotten to the bottom of the barrel, …
A Test, Nothing Serious
Baptism Points Away
“The meaning of Abraham’s circumcision was not, ‘Abraham got saved.’ Rather, it was, ‘Salvation will come to the world!’ It is true that Abraham was personally saved, and that he was saved by faith. But he was saved because he believed in the objective promise — that is, in the coming Christ . . . …
And Without Holding Anything in Reserve
“A preacher may have little or much personality, but certainly, when he gets into the pulpit he needs to use all that he has” (Macartney, Preaching Without Notes, p. 149).