The message yesterday was on forgiveness, both receiving and extending it. The name Jesus was given to the Lord because He was to save us from our sins. The heart of the new covenant contains the promise of forgiveness of sin. The message can be heard here. The date and texts are right, but the …
Forgiveness of Sin
INTRODUCTION: The Lord Jesus was born into a sinful world. His advent was not designed as an inspirational moment to crown all the others, but rather He was sent as a Savior. He came to bring forgiveness, and consequently if there is anything His followers should understand and practice, it is forgiveness. THE TEXT: “Then …
Grace or Law?
“A vision of the good has far greater power to move men and women to do the right thing than all the horrible images we may conjure up to terrify them into doing it” (Vigen Guroian, Rallying the Really Human Things, p. 10).
Impromptu Answers to Prayer
Some time during high school, I worked for a summer or two (I forget) up at Cedar Campus, a Christian retreat center in Michigan’s upper peninsula. I have a number of fond memories of that place. Actually one of my earliest memories is of that place as well — I think I was around five, …
Green Lament for Sale at Wal Mart
I recently heard the new Eagles album was pretty good, and so I went and looked on iTunes for it. Nothing. A day or so later, I popped into a small record store downtown to ask about it, and the gentleman from the sixties running that place said, yes, it was in fact out, but …
Instead of Running Away from Barth
This looks really interesting. It appears that our Reformed brethren based in the UK didn’t get the same internecine fraticide memo that we all did over here. Although I am sure someone over there will write and let me know about something going on. Anyhow, I look forward to the day when the different strands …
Concrete Secularism
The last chapter of Darryl’s book is obviously the one in which he steps up, wraps up, and sums up, and of course it is also the place where some of our more obvious disagreements come to the fore. Darryl’s basic assumption is that the coming of Christ ushered in a new relationship between church …
Compassionate Conservativism Isn’t Either One
Darryl’s next chapter, “The Dilemma of Compassionate Conservatism,” provides a good overview of the recent interactions of the state and evangelicals, and the attempt to have the government provide help to various “faith-based” social agencies. Darryl does good work pointing out the corners that we have painted ourselves into, but his narrow conception of what …
Dancing Solipsistically
“On the dance floor itself, a great seething mass of people move like maggots in a tin. With so large a number of people crammed into so small a space, it is astonishing that they is no social contact among them. Most of the pairs do not even look into each other’s eyes; because of …
First Time for Everything
I understand that a bunch of you are going to be at the Evangelical Theological Society Conference in San Diego this week (Nov. 14-16). Well, as it turns out, Canon Press is going to be there as a vendor for the first time, and they are going to have books for sale. Now I understand …