In his essay on membership in The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis says this: “in the first place, when the modern world says to us aloud, ‘You may be religious when you are alone,’ it adds under it’s breath, ‘and I will see to it that you are never alone.'” I thought of this when …
Because a Curious Angel Will Ask, “Where Is It?”
“No one, standing at the last judgment, will have the right to say that he would have acknowledged the authority of Jesus, but certain key interpretations of the First Amendment prohibited it. At that great day, when the sky and earth have fled to hide themselves, they will not be authorized to appeal to Jefferson’s …
Like Bees on a Branch
“The right text is the one which comes of itself during reading and meditation: which accompanies you in walks, goes to bed with you, and rises with you. On such a text thoughts swarm and cluster, like bees upon a branch” (J.W. Alexander, quoted in Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 29).
The Glory and Grace of New Birth
INTRODUCTION:This chapter can be understood in three basic segments. The first describes the condition of man prior to regeneration (vv. 1-3). The second is a treatment of how God’s grace works in such people, and the nature of the change accomplished in them (vv. 4-6). And the third is a description of the design God …
Bread and Wine Multiply
The Lord Jesus enacted the true nature of the world for us when He fed the 5,000 and the 4,000. In both cases, He refuted the central tenet of unbelief, which is that resources are scarce, and that God must be a skinflint. Zero-sum thinking is the idea that more for one person means less …
Love Will Never Be Devalued
There is quite a striking difference between fear and prudence. The Scriptures tell us that we ought not to call “conspiracy” whatever the worldlings are calling conspiracy, and I would want to apply this to the breathless and panicked way that some have of responding to economic threats. Whenever an idol is toppled, this ought …
And It Also Doesn’t Mean Later
“Every knee and every tongue includes every knee and every tongue in the White House and in Congress. It includes all nine tongues on the Supreme Court and all eighteen knees” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 75).
Fertilizing the Soil So No One Will Ask “Why Cumbereth It the Ground?”
“As time for reading is limited, the preacher should make sure he is reading the books that will produce the most sermons” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 27).
Reservoir of Relativism
A web discussion I was just in made me think of a few follow-up observations on my post of a week or two ago when I was discussing “logic” as a necessary attribute of God. Lewis says somewhere that courage is not so much a separate virtue as it is the testing point of all …
Crawlers and Climbers
“We disobey the Lord’s example in two ways. The first is the error of the permanent pietist — one whose faith rests in his own desire to be holy. He takes the lowest seat, and refuses to budge when invited up. He is too holy to receive God’s promotion. He is, in fact, like all …