If someone entirely unacquainted with Christian Scripture or church history were given a copy of just the Old Testament, and that person read it carefully and thoroughly, one of the first things he would wonder would be, “Where’s the sequel? Where is the second part?” The Scriptures that were given to Israel were clearly looking …
Feel Free to Bring the Kids
The gospel is declaration, not investigation. We were not told to go out into the world, in order to find out where the Spirit had already begun His secret work. Rather, we were commanded to go preach, declare, and announce the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We were to do this openly, and …
The Nature of Folly
Folly is not defined against a worldly standard. There is a kind of folly that exists there, true, a dumb and dumber kind of thing. But we are not concerned with that. In Scripture, folly is not a matter of intelligence, but rather of a moral indisposition to submit to God. Some of the most …
Collecting Follies as Though They Were Trophies
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we confess that because we have abandoned You as a …
Three Things Sarah Palin Needs to Get Ahead Of
Readers of this blog may recall that in the last presidential election, I brought myself to vote for the Repuglican ticket for the first time in many years, and I did so because of Sarah Palin’s presence on that ticket. She is genuinely and sincerely and believably pro-life, and that, in my mind, is the …
Pod Porn
One of the older fears about pornography that has not been borne out has been the fear that widespread pornography would create a sexually enflamed male populace. But what has happened is that porn has actually dampened sexual interest in real women, serving many men as a cheap substitute. When it comes to real people, …
The Rubber Band is Just Fine
“What Paul is urging here he calls modesty, which in this place is not so much directed at décolletage only as it is against every form of ostentatious display. All the things mentioned were the sorts of things that ancient women of the Roman glitterati did — braiding jewels into their hair and sprinkling gold …
How God Smiles on a Sermon
“The congeniality of the Spirit affects the preacher at the point of proclamation and the hearer at the point of reception. It is not argument, nor logic, nor eloquence that eventually wins the day” (Sargent, The Sacred Anointing, p. 235).
The Groove of Ashtaroth
A few days ago I noted that when Jesus compares false teaching to leaven, He is requiring His ministers to exhibit high levels of discernment (Matt. 16:6). Earlier in Matthew, He had told us to guard against wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15) — an image that certainly requires vigilance and courage, but not quite …
And What A Peaceful World It Would Be . . .
[Discussing 1 Tim. 2:8-15] “These men should be men who have refrained from the characteristic male sins of anger and quarreling. The hands that are lifted up to the Lord should not be hands that have struck another in ungodly anger . . . When Paul says ‘likewise,’ he is not comparing the sins themselves, …