Another flap has broken out at the University of North Carolina, where a Christian student organization was denied status as a student organization because they declined to sign a statement that said non-Christians were welcome to be members and officers in the organization. Of course, this has caused something of a hissy fit on the …
Greatness Stoops
Our Father God, Your Word proclaims all life, And death has died, the enemy laid low. You have thrown down all pettiness and sin, You have declared that greatness always stoops. The way of life must now embrace the cross, The selfless one emerges from the grave, And we rejoice since Jesus led the way.
The Golden Stumbling Block
Once there was a man who was studying in the Graduate School of Theology. He knew many Doctrines, and he knew three times as many Rejected and Suspect Doctrines. He was constantly disputing with his instructors, and fellow classmates, and he justified this as being necessary as a Student of the Word. He thought he …
Stay, and Believe in Jesus
Several years ago, we began observing the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis. Quite a bit went into that discussion beforehand, but one of the striking things about our preparations for it was the warning I got from a wise minister. He said that when we went to weekly communion, we should expect a great …
Hard Providence
As a congregation we affirm the exhaustive and complete sovereignty of God. We have done so in an era when many within the church at large dispute it, and so many of us have been in debates on this subject. But men are not the only ones who might test or probe the depth of …
My Sane Baptist Friend
I recently had an email exchange with someone I shall call my “sane Baptist friend,” or SBF for short. He had some questions about the Auburn Avenue deal, and I thought our exchange might prove helpful to others. There are a couple back and forths here. For ease of following, my original words are underlined, …
Is Skulk a Great Word or What?
The word skulk just captures it, you know? For those who read this blog from other parts of the great wide world, I hope the posts on our local intoleristas have not been too boring. But it should really not be boring for anyone, offering, as it does, a window that gives us a view …
Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
As we consider the context of this next blessing, we must understand that Jesus is not pronouncing an indiscriminate blessing on all forms of sorrow and mourning. Just as the previous blessing was reserved for those who are poor in spirit, so this blessing is for those who spiritually mourn. Christ teaches us: “Blessed are …
Words on a Page
One of the perennial frustrations in contemporary political discourse is caused by the linguistic dishonesty of the human heart. For example, the Constitution says certain very specific things about what can and cannot be done, and our current crop of solons blithely disregard such “words on a page” in order to do whatever it is …
Grease on the Nose
The only thing that is worse than pathetic behavior is pathetic behavior supplemented with pathetic excuses. Those who would violate the pastoral/church member relation (on a massive scale) in order to get material for their partisan mud-gobbing are pathetic. Those who would try to justify such a thing by pointing to what they thought they …