In the recent national security debate, Newt Gingrich clashed with Ron Paul, who had said something that sounded like “terrorism is bad, and we should certainly go after them for doing such things.” Paul had cited Oklahoma City as an example. In response Newt said that the point was to head off such attacks beforehand, …
One of Jupiter’s Moons
Those who are accustomed to the language of punditry know that when a candidate or office holder is said to “pivot,” this means that he has double-crossed somebody, most usually the people who elected him. “Pivoting” is a nice way of saying that I am going to go off and do something else now. “Something …
The Witch of Endor
INTRODUCTION:The miserable King Saul is now approaching the very end of his life, and he is terrified. In that terror, he casts about for a word of certainty, but what he is given provides no comfort for him. THE TEXT:“And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for …
All One to Him
One of the things we learn in the gospel is that God is great when it comes to forgiveness of sin. Not only does He forgive great sins in individuals, He also forgives the sins of nations. When we stagger at the conversion of one unbeliever, it is because of wonder that God could be …
What Are They Doing Here?
Jesus regularly redraws religious boundaries, and He does so by means of table fellowship. But when we do what He has commanded, and we observe what He has established—as we are doing right now—there is a constant temptation to reestablish the old boundaries, the boundaries that He abolished. This is a table for cleansed sinners. …
Baptism and Christian Education
CREC churches share a deep commitment to the pursuit of Christian education. We are convinced that the world must be understood in a distinctively Christian way, and young saints are to be trained up into that way of thinking about it. The reason the world must be understood in a Christian way is because the …
Thanksgiving 2011
Thanksgiving in the midst of war is not an incongruity; it is one of our chief weapons. The Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). We are not yet privileged to sit down in Isaiah’s hall, where the trumpet and spear are mounted in places of honor, where …
Psalm Singing
One marked feature of worship in the CREC is the abundance of psalms. There have been some in the Reformed tradition who have insisted on singing only psalms, but that is not what we are doing. We do not hold to “exclusive psalmody,” but it would be fair to say that we seek to practice …
Slaughtering Pigs With a Butter Knife
Okay, we know that the outlook and behavior of the president during all these debt negotiations has been lame sauce. But let us not forget virtually everybody else! The supercommittee failed to reach a consensus, and so — unless Congress acts — 1.2 trillion will be automatically cut from future spending, half from the military …
Centrality of Worship
It is fairly common in CREC circles to hear folks speaking about the centrality of worship. This requires some explanation because it is easily misunderstood. Because the church exists in time and in history, that which is “central” to our identity and work has to be understood in terms of our mission and task. A …