Learning to live in genuine community is one of the central goals that we have set for ourselves. And, to be honest, we did not set the goal—it is set before us in Scripture as one of the basic elements of the Christian faith. We are one in Jesus Christ, and this is not to …
The Table at the Center of the World
God has fashioned the human race in such a way that sitting down for a meal is the center of all family life. Guests are certainly welcome, but in the day-in and day-out pattern of living, the meal is the center. This is one of the reasons we can tell that the modern family is …
Catholic Evangelicalism
With the FV controversy in mind, I was asked this last week whether I considered myself more “basically”evangelical or more “basically” Reformed. With the one qualifier that if you believe both, then to answer the question is not to say which you believe to be “more true,” let me address it this way. As I …
The Cruciform Heart
As we seek to gather in our hearts and minds the message of this wonderful book, we can see the heart of it here in the last passage. Just as we need to summarize, so does Paul. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as …
When Missing by a Hair Means Missing by a Mile
“There is one other general point I would emphasise here before we leave this matter of the content of the sermon; and that is that we are to preach the Gospel, and not to preach about the Gospel. That is a very vital distinction, which one cannot easily put into words, but which is nevertheless …
Heaven Forbid
“However strange it may seem to Westerners, the much-publicized virgins promised to Islamic martyrs in Paradise is no myth or distortion of Islamic theology. Muhammad painted a picture of a frankly material and lushly sensual Paradise for his followers—containing everything a seventh-century Arabian desert-dweller could possibly dream of: gold and fine material things, fruits, wine, …
Self-Authenticating Ultimacy
“Hence the late-romantic tendency to insist on a total separation between the aesthetic and the moral; and finally the modernist tendency to grant art the ultimate legitimacy and authority that were previously reserved for morality” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, pp. 389).
It Shouldn’t Be Either
“Jesus tells us that the hireling does not care for the sheep the way a good shepherd does. In saying this, the Lord was teaching in effect that the ministry cannot be allowed to become a profession. Despite this severe warning, the modern Church has steadily drifted into a compromise with what we might call …
Near Italy, Kinda
The other day my attention was drawn to a post made by a former NSA student, Matt Yonke. That post is here. The reaction to it among some of our TR critics was swift and beside the point — an example can be seen here, if Scott Clark doesn’t do something to break the link …
Sowing and Reaping
Paul has already told us that the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are inconsistent with one another. But a problem is caused because people who live in accordance with the two “lists” have to associate with one another, both in the world and in the Church. Now what? There is …