INTRODUCTION: The gospel changes lives. Not only does it do this, but it has this impact on every aspect of our lives, which includes our sexual identity, our sexual lives. This fixes a number of problems, but if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit it also creates some new problems, some new …
The Just Shall Live By Faith
Okay. Faith and works. We will have to roll up our sleeves on this one. In this chapter Piper interacts with Wright’s assertion that our final justification is on the basis of the “complete life lived.” Wright says, and Piper agrees, that “the attempt to shore up justification by faith by saying that the life …
Declaration and Doing
Chapter Six of Piper’s book is about whether or not justification determines our standing with God, or whether, as Wright argues, it is God’s formal declaration that this standing has already been established. According to Wright, the declaration of the gospel of Christ’s kingship is “very much the means” that God uses to transform individuals, …
Random Political Musing II
In the thread on my random political musing of a few days ago, someone asked who I was supporting in the race for president. It would be easier to say in the first place which candidates I couldn’t support, and then, second, what scenario could reasonably be expected to make me happy. In the interests …
Push Back
One evening a father was sitting in front of the television, watching the evening news. His teenage son happened to walk through, and stopped for a moment. A commercial came on, and so the son said, “Dad, how can you bear to watch that stuff?” His father looked up. “Well, otherwise I would not know …
Love Throughout the Week
Jesus taught us to take and eat, not take and speculate, or take and quarrel. And not only did He tell not to quarrel, He specifically told us not to quarrel. This covenant bond is designed by God to draw us closer and closer together in love for one another, and to deal with those …
Random Political Musing
Mike Huckabee makes me nervous. He gives me the willies — to wit, the fantods. Other than all the potential fun games we might have with his name — Huckaboom, Huckabust, and after the first great scandal of his administration, Huckagate — the whole thing gives me cold duck bumps all over. The first round …
Humility Reigns
Recall that the last section of Zechariah consists of two great prophetic oracles. The first is found in chapters 9-11, and the second is 12-14. We come now to a glorious prophecy of the coming Christ. “The burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach . . .”(Zech. 9:1-10). The human …
Truth or Unrighteousness
The word adikia is used multiple times in the New Testament, and is rendered by different words like unrighteousness or iniquity. In order to not burden ourselves, we will take it in several installments. Jesus claimed to have “no unrighteousness” in Him, because He was seeking the glory of the one who sent Him (John. …
Sermons Should Be Tailor-Made, Not Fetched Off the Rack
“Consider what sins appear to be most rife in the church and congregation — worldliness, covetousness, prayerlessness, wrath, pride, want of brotherly love, slander, and such like evils. Take into account, affectionately, the trials of your people, and seek for a balm for their wounds” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 87).