Faith is the alone instrument that God uses to bring justification to the individual believer. This faith that He uses is the real thing, living faith, faith that looks to Christ alone (apart from any defective works that person might have). But a very common form of “defective works” would have to include defective theories …
That We Might Be One in You
Our Father in heaven, You have given us the rest we enjoy from our physical labors, and You have given us the rest of our salvation. We ask that we would be marked as people of grace, rest, delight, and kindness. As we look forward to worship tomorrow, we ask that You would bless this …
Persevering Grace
It cannot be the case that all who are covenantally “in Christ” by virtue of baptism are in exactly the same position as regards the grace and favor of God—with no distinction save that some persevere. To think that having “all grace” except for persevering grace is somehow reassuring is to have a wildly skewed …
Joy and Strength/Psalm 21
As with many of the psalms, David intends himself in the description, but under the inspiration of the Spirit, the language transcends David’s situation, and finds its fullest fulfillment in the triumph and victory of the Lord Jesus. “The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he …
Busy Pants Liberals
Dear visionaries, Joanne finds that what I have written in the past on the Confederacy is “morally repugnant.” I see that I will have to begin abbreviating. BWS? By what standard, henceforth BWS? Having a fixed standard of right and wrong found in the Scriptures enables me to admire that which was noble about the …
Stuff
Dear visionaries, Jon opposes the death penalty for various reasons, but one of them is that the innocent have sometimes been punished. But this is no reason for opposing the death penalty — it is an argument for judicial reform. We don’t want the innocent spending the rest of their lives in the slammer either. …
Audio Reading of Post
Pillared Majesty
Pillared majesty shapes the halls of God, Each pillar bears the weight of holiness. The floors of the colonnade are emerald green, With marbled streaks of glory. Shekinah smoke is clean like mountain air, And yet so dense that sinners cannot breathe. The central hall ascends to all the thrones, Where elders and their crowns …
The God Who Obeys
Once there was a man whose marriage was on the rocks. It had been on the rocks for some years, but he had just found out about it. This was quite a shock to his system, because for some time he had used bluster, bravado, and bullying to keep anyone from saying anything that might …
Come One, Come All
As we approach this Table, we have to be careful. One the one hand, we are encouraged to come gladly, putting away all false scruples and morbid introspection. On the other hand, we know that coming to this Table is inconsistent with stark unrepented sin. How can we teach against one error without encouraging the …
What Is A Christian?
One of the stories circulating out there is that the federal vision folks have changed the definitions of words, words like Christian or justification. This is said because it is simply assumed (not demonstrated) that any expansion of a word’s uses must necessarily include an abandonment of previous uses. I was brought up in an …