The human heart is naturally prone to idolatry, and this is especially the case with the religious heart. Never forget that the religious heart is not the same thing as the gracious heart. What is the second commandment? “You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in …
Hunger and Thirst
We must begin by noting that the Beatitude we are considering here does not say, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after blessedness . . . “ We all want to be happy, blessed, and we are tempted to make that state of blessing our goal. But the spiritual irony is that such blessings …
Lift Up Your Heads/Psalm 24
INTRODUCTION The psalter contains all of human experience. In Psalm 22 we saw faith in agony and conflict. In Psalm 23, we saw pastoral peace and trust. Here we see the majesty of triumph. THE TEXT The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he …
Now You Tell Me
One night, after having consumed far too much pizza, an old school Presbyterian minister retired to bed. About two in the morning, after much turning and spindling up in the covers, he awoke in a sweat, and there, hovering over the foot of his bed, in a nimbus cloud of glory, was the Westminster Confession, …
Reformation and our Children
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6). One of …
The Corruption of Medicine
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 15 If the basic assumptions underlying what has come to be called “conventional” medicine are biblical in their origins, then how are we to account for the large numbers of conservative Christians who have turned their back on this form …
Heresy Stew
Having become a heretic in the broader Reformed world, I am sometimes asked how I did it. What is the recipe? How might a young man who wants to cook up something similar go about the business? Here is the good news. You probably have the ingredients in your library . . . kitchen . …
Pleasures Forevermore/Psalm 16
This psalm is a plea for deliverance, but at the same time it is suffused with great confidence and hope. As a prayer offered on behalf of the Lord Jesus, we should not be surprised at the weight of glory contained here. “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust . …
Prayer for Reformation
Our Father and God, our idols have failed us. We have sacrificed our children to the demons of personal choice, and we now see that the Molech of modernity devours, just as his ancient father would do. The land is polluted with blood, with the blood of innocents. But You are the righteous one. Father, …
Show Me How
I once heard of a husband and father who had a problem with anger. Over the years, in his treatment of his wife, and in his outbursts against his children, he taught his entire family a profound slander against God the Father. Our Father in heaven reveals his wrath against His enemies, but He bestows …