INTRODUCTION:And so we are expecting the rise of Samuel, and the fall of the house of Eli. Eli warned his sons of this, and a prophet warned Eli. And now the word of the Lord comes to Samuel for the first time, and it is a word that highlights the loneliness of a prophetic calling. …
Christ Is Not Food to the Faithless
Fathers feed their children. One of the ways we know that we are children of God is that He provides food for us here. We come in faith rejoicing at what He has provided for us here. Now some might wonder if this is really true. Do not hypocrites join churches? Don’t they participate in …
Teaching Us on the Outside
The Word of God tells us to put to death our members which are on the earth, and this exhortation is followed by a list of that unhappy crew (Col. 3:4-6). Uncleanness, lust, fornication . . . all must die. The apostle Paul gives this assignment to Christians, to saints and faithful brethren (Col. 1:2). …
The Grace of Human Sexuality
Father in Heaven, You are the one who created us male and female, and it was one of Your great gifts to us. We confess to You now that our nation has fallen into a great confusion about this. We no longer even know what marriage is, and we have raging political debates over what …
Last Concert Post
The Logos Benefit Concert is this evening, and I am now in a position to announce that the first chord played this evening will be D Major. But do not fret — there will be plenty more of them throughout the course of the evening. Actually, the guitar players need to fret, otherwise there won’t …
No Tension Whatever
“When I was first struggling with this issue, Acts 4:27-28 was my undoing. ‘For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Piliate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.’ The most heinous …
How Sudden Turns Teach
“Although not every joke form contains as radical a reversal . . . nonetheless, the humor is occasioned by the sudden shift which is unexpected . . . This sudden reversal in preaching comes as the clue to resolution reverses the train of diagnostic thought. The resultant shock does not come in the form of …
When Gollum Bit His Finger Off
Believers often find themselves up against it. The challenge might be medical, familial, financial, educational, or personal. We tend to think in terms of pressure or stress, and when it gets really bad, trouble. The old Puritans thought in terms of affliction, as well as in terms of God’s antidote to affliction, which is contentment. …
Praise of God
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #33 “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby …
Seven Reasons Why We Can’t Water Down the Lake of Fire
John Piper and I have been writing about a possible way in which my recent video response to Rob Bell’s universalism could be troubling. Near the end of the clip I echo a theological point made by C.S. Lewis about the nature of damnation, and how Hell is in some way “chosen” by all its …