Once there was a boy who had just learned to ride his bicycle. He had never had training wheels, but the previous Saturday his father had spent a good portion of the morning trotting behind the bike and holding the seat, letting go of it for a few seconds from time to time. After much …
Practicing More
This Table is the culmination point of all that we have done in assembled worship. Here all the hymns, psalms, prayers, amens, confessions, and heedings converge. This is the place where it all comes down. As we never tire of reminding you, it does not do this because it is a magic table, or because …
You Can Climb Out of a Hole, But You Can’t Dig Out
We live in a day when few people, including many Christians, understand what justice really is. In this series, we are not talking about a conversation between friends, or between a husband and wife. If a wife were to ask her husband if he would mind not interrupting when their youngest daughter is trying to …
Aesthetic Berserkers
[A certain literary critic] “was charging through the corridors of beauty with a literary sledgehammer, taking wild swings at anything that smacked of nobility or purpose” [Bryan F. Griffin, Panic Among the Philistines (Chicago, Regnery Gateway, 1983), p. 119.]
Half As Hard
“I was once speaking with a mother who was wanting to excuse her son’s behavior because of certain circumstances which she believed were rigged against him. I did not agree with her, but her assumption led to an interesting question. She believed that her son was living in a world where he would have to …
The Captain of Our Salvation
We must never forget the central theme of this book, which is the supremacy of Christ. In this next verse, we need to consider the supremacy of Christ in His authority to save. “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to …
Lavished Grace
Gracious God and Lord, we thank You for all the provision that You have lavished upon us. We are very grateful, and we would like to thank You now for the food, for the wine, for the hands that prepared all that we see before us, and for the fellowship that we will enjoy around …
Preserving the Memory of Art
“Accordingly, while it is not expected of every age that it be capable of producing good art, it is demanded of the literary establishment of every age that it at least keep the memory and the standards of good art always before itself, well polished and clearly labeled. A literary establishment that cannot do this …
Self-Study
“This difference in student ability is one of the reasons why our government school debacle is not a whole lot worse than it already is. Even though most schools do not teach phonics anymore, some students are bright enough to teach themselves phonics — but of course these are the kids who could teach themselves …
Isn’t the Prefix “Post” Modern?
There are problems, but reading Stanley Grenz is not at all like reading Brian McLaren. In his book A Primer on Postmodernism, Grenz begins by giving us a general survey of the intellectual landscape, which he does competently. It is when we get to the “and therefore we shoulds” that I start to object. Even …