Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Oh God, my Lord and God, I seek You early in the morning. My soul thirsts for You, My body longs for You In a dry and thirsty land, Where there is no water. I long to see Your power and glory, …
Why the World Limps
The world used to be a pleasant place. Occasionally trouble would arise—a plague, or a disaster, or an invasion. But men instinctively knew how to deal with all such events—they would find the one responsible, whether he was responsible or not, take him outside the city limits, and stone him there. The pile of stones …
Then Go Away
There are three Persons in the triune Godhead, and the eternal Logos is one of those Three. He is numbered among the divine entities who mutually indwell one another, and who make up the one true and living God. This one, who is numbered among the Three, became flesh and dwelt among us, and He …
Cereal or Eggs?
The next chapter is the heart of Dawkins’ book, so the best plan would seem to take more than one installment to deal with it. At the conclusion of this chapter, Dawkins says that “this chapter has contained the central argument of my book” (p. 157), which is actually kind of scary when you think …
Our Communion Parable
Father and Lord, we come to You in the name of the Lord Jesus, and ask You to hear our prayer. We are thankful for our food, for the wine, for another Sabbath, and for the opportunity to worship You tomorrow together with all Your people. We thank You for the communion of saints, and …
Merit Isn’t One of Those Words
The next chapter in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry is entitled “The Covenant Before the Covenants,” and is written by Scott Clark and David VanDrunen. In the course of reviewing it, I intend to quote Ambrose Bierce not once, but twice. The first citation is of a more general nature. The topic of this chapter …
What is the Recruitment Pool?
“The inescapable and painful fact is that only Muslims are tempted by militant Islam. This creates a moral, legal, and political challenge. While anyone might become a fascist or Communist, only Muslims become Islamists. And if it is true that most Muslims are not Islamists, it is no less true that all Islamists are Muslims” …
Why Not Both?
“Thus we have a curious dichotomy in the modern literary scene. Whereas the popular culture gives us books that offer entertainment but no ideas, the ‘high culture’ gives us books that offer ideas but no entertainment. There are many books—in my opinion the best books—which manage to do both” (Gene Edward Veith, Reading Between the …
A Slight Improvement
“The Bible contains a great deal about doctrinal priorities. Some of the most withering criticism leveled by our Lord was directed at religious meatheads who did not know that the altar was more important than the gold placed on it, and honoring parents was more important than contributing to the current pledge drive for the …
Being Made Worthy
Breaking a bad habit is hard to do, and the difficulty is directly proportional to how long the bad habit was indulged. The Christian church needs to break two bad habits when it comes to the Lord’s Supper. These two habits consist of looking in the wrong place as we meditate. The first place we …