We have already learned about ultimate loyalties. But we learn in this chapter that ultimate loyalties are meaningless unless we learn to set them alongside certain lesser loyalties. “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or wonder . . .” (Deuteronomy 13:1-18). The land they …
The Family That Eats Together Stays Together
This is not just a meal, it is a household meal. It is a family meal. This is a meal for sons and daughters, not for aliens and strangers. This may strike us as odd, because we know that in the Scriptures we are to invite everyone to this meal. But there is an important …
The Company of the Peeved
Even though we are Christians, a forgiven people, we still struggle with remaining sin. God in His ultimate wisdom did not choose to translate us immediately to heaven the moment we were converted. His desire is for us to learn how to love Him, over the course of our lives, when there is an adversary …
Gods of Nature
“Before considering Puritan work in other genres, I wish to examine the casual classicism of Puritan poetry. Like most education people of the Renaissance, the Puritnas had a solid grounding in the classics. Had anyone taken their divinity seriously, the classical deities might have seemed false gods to the Puritan. As it was, however, the …
No Metaphor Mechanics
“The other use, direction, or bent, Pascal called the esprit de finesse—we might call it ‘intuitive understanding.’ . . . It does not analyze, does not break things down into parts, but seizes upon the character of the whole altogether, by inspection. Since in this kind of survey they are no definable parts, there is …
Churches, Not Doctrine Clubs
“The headship of Jesus Christ over the church has a very practical application in issues of reformation. If a church is a Christian church at all, this means that it does not ‘have a right’ to its own doctrinal traditions. The headship of Christ means that He is the final authority, and he has set …
Just Sign the Confession
“The three friends are no more interested in truth than are Soviet prosecutors. They are there to persuade Job to recognize in public that he is guilty. It does not matter of what he is guilty, provided that he confesses it in front of everyone. In the last analysis, the unfortunate man is asked to …
Please, Pat, Stop
Frank Turk has put together a good thing for you to sign. After Pat Robertson’s most recent prophetic embarrassment, Frank organized a petition for Christians to sign if they would like Robertson to cease and desist. Frank has also given a short explanation of what this is supposed to do here. Please cruise on over. …
What We All Wished We Had
For the last several years, I have been privileged to be involved in editorial and writing work on the Omnibus project. Some of you may have noticed the books as they have appeared in the right hand column here. Just yesterday I received Volume III in the mail, and thought this would be a good …
State of the Church 2007
Introduction: Our God has blessed us in innumerable ways over the last few years. One of those blessings has been growth, and it has been the kind of growth that has been hard to channel through the normal kind of “new members’ classes.” And so, this year the state of the church message is going …