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 …
And Have a Cold Nose
So as a world tour kind of thing, it is not so much, but still we all have to go up to the Logos Knights Court for the concert on Friday night, so it is kind of a tour. Let’s call it a there-and-back-again tour. Anyhow, what’s a tour without a T-shirt? These were graciously …
Like Pirates on the Beach
I received a question from a reader who agreed with my general thinking about government robberies, but wondered if I believed that any taxation whatever amounted to theft. And if I thought that some taxation was, and some was not, then how to tell the difference? Is it simply done on the basis of what …
Not to Mention Unsightly Splotches
This weekend I had occasion to browse the theolgy section of a bookstore, and picked up Spong’s The Sins of Scripture. The funnest part of that experience was reading the blurb for it on the back cover from Bill O’Reilly, of Fox News fame, which seemed to me to be just about right. Inside, Spong …
Song of Hannah
INTRODUCTION:God heard the prayer of Hannah, and He gave her a son. She understood what was at stake, and utters a glorious psalm of triumph, a prayer that served as a model for our Lord’s mother, Mary, when she triumphed in much the same way. The horn of Hannah was exalted—and this is a striking …
That Our Eyes Might Be Opened
A biblical scholar and exegete has recently pointed to the striking parallel between the fall of our first parents and one of the resurrection accounts. In Gen. 3:7, it says “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew . . .” In Luke 24:31, it says, “And their eyes were opened, and …
Not at All Symmetrical
It would seem that grace is a good deal, and absolute grace would be a really good deal. If salvation is free, unearned, unmerited, and undeserved, then this means that absolutely anyone can be saved. What could be the catch? Well, the catch is that these terms mean that anyone can be saved by Christ …
Free and Full
Father of all mercies, we ask You to forgive us in accordance with all Your mercies, and not in accordance with what we deserve. We confess to You that as a nation, we have wanted to earn some measure of our standing before You, and so we ask You to pour out upon our people …