I recently received a letter from a lady on the other side of Moscow’s own little version of the national cultural divide. We had been scheduled to meet, and she was writing to cancel that meeting. According to the letter, the thing that concerned her was something that had to be addressed (by me) before …
Proverbs and Beyond
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 59 We have already addressed the fact that Proverbs is full of generalizations, and the fact that they are generally true. We also have to reckon with the fact that the substance of some of these generalizations is repeated over …
The Car of Revolution
“The car of the Revolution is barreling down the highway, and a few traditional-values conservatives have got a back door open and are trying to slow the thing down by dragging their feet on the pavement. It does not appear to be working” (Black and Tan, p. 20).
The Only Public Savior
“Given that Christ is our only possible Savior, how is it that Christians believe that Christ can be banished from our public life, while simultaneously believing that sin and disobedience can be kept out of our public life by some other means, some other savior? How can we reject Christ in this way and not …
Grape Juice in the Wineskin
“The new wine of the gospel will necessarily burst the Enlightenment wineskins. And yet, most contemporary Christians have turned their wine into grape juice in order to prevent the wineskins from coming to such an unhappy end” (Black and Tan, p. 20).
Delivered In Our Generation
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Gracious Father of all salvation, we magnify Your great works of deliverance through the ages, as You have always shown kindness to Your people. You brought Abraham out of the idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees. You delivered Moses when he was …
Invited to Stay
Jesus Christ invited Judas to this meal, knowing what was in his heart. Jesus Christ warned Judas about his peril, in much the same way that God warned Cain about sin lying in wait for him. And the greatest possible grace and the greatest act of treachery met together. But the Table was not defiled. …
Absolutely Uninterested
Although we are a Christian people, we still have a tendency to hide from the sheer goodness of the gospel. One of the ways we have of doing this is to turn the word sinner into a technical theological one, meaning that no one is perfect, and despite this, any one can call on God …
Ceasing From Strife
We learn from Proverbs that it is an honor for a man to cease from strife (Prov. 20:3). This is one of many examples in Scripture that show how the wisdom of God is 180 degrees out from the wisdom of man. In how many fruitless quarrels have participants refused to back down from the …
The Age of Revolution
“The nineteenth century was the century for revolutions, even if we allow for the French Revolution in the last decade of the eighteenth century and the Russian Revolution in the first decades of the twentieth. The War Between the States was our participation in those widespread global upheavals. The Revolution, generically considered, is an enemy …