INTRODUCTION: For a number of years, we have been emphasizing community, life together, fellowship, communion, what the New Testament calls koinonia. The response to this emphasis has been significant—showing that there is a real spiritual hunger for this kind of thing. But there is a hitch—other people are involved. A number of months ago, Doug …
Not One Bone
Psalm 34 is an acrostic—what the Latin Fathers called psalmi abcedarii. There are nine of these psalms total, and it is a pity that we can’t figure out a way to bring this across in translation. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall …
Can’t Give Away What You Don’t Have
“When I say zeal I mean that a preacher must always convey the impression that he himself has been gripped by what he is saying. If he has not been gripped nobody else will be” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 87).
This Goes Way Back
“Israelis tenaciously hold on to the occupied territories of the West Bank because of promises made millenniums ago to the patriarch Abraham; Iraqis invade the lands of fellow Moslems in order to settle grudges that date back to the time of Nebuchadnezzar; Iranians stir up revolutionary passions that have lain dormant since the demise of …
Moral Dyslexia
“Mary Shelley, at this point in our narrative, did not understand all this, but by the time she had finished writing Frankenstein she did not see things Shelley’s way, either. She had by that time experienced the sadistic consequences of her sexual profligacy. Frankenstein was her attempt to make sense out of the conflict between …
Oceans of Beer
“Thus a man who slept with twenty women before his conversion, but was enough of a jerk not to marry any of them, is thought to be qualified for eldership after his conversion, but a man who married one woman and was divorced from her before his conversion is thought to be automatically disqualified. This …
Something Will Stick
“This has been an old dividing way: if we can besmirch the chief of a party, we shall do well enough with the rest; wherefore let us make as ill interpretations of what they do as we possibly can. Let us fasten as ill things upon them which we can have any pretense for. Let …
Baptism and Salvation
Matt Yonke, the young man who posted a blog piece on how the FV affected him in a Rome-ward direction, has posted a follow-up question on baptism. Someone else has reasonably asked for a contrasting response from an FV person. So this post is my response to Matt. His question is here: “Here is an …
The Cosmos: God’s Breath on a Cold Morning
God is greatly to be praised. He is worthy of all honor and praise. Our ability to praise Him falls short of necessity, and yet we are still summoned to it. But unlike the failures of sin, there is a glorious failure in praising God. Who can even begin to do it justice? Rejoice in …
Haste Makes Waste. Whattaya Know?
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 126 “The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want” (Prov. 21:5). We should begin by excluding from our consideration the camouflaged distortions of these tendencies. There is a timidity …