Everyone seems to know that a marriage should look like love, but what does love look like? As with everything that is valuable and precious, there are many counterfeits and knock-offs. No one counterfeits worthless things, but they do want to copy things of great value. This is why there are things like paste diamonds, …
Grace and Glory: Eighth Decade of Psalms/Psalm 79
Introduction: This is a psalm of Asaph, but given the subject material it is likely “Asaphic”—of the school of Asaph, in the tradition of Asaph. The scenes described fit very well with Israel’s later history, and not really from the time of David or Solomon. A sonnet can be a Petrarchan sonnet without having been …
That Little Wooden Tray
We have been considering the relationship between self-discipline and the possibility of free and responsible government in other areas. Men and women who are slaves to their vices are not going to be capable of creating or sustaining the various forms of public liberty that God wants us to enjoy. It is not possible to …
Southern Exposure
We have come here to eat and drink; we have come here to be nourished. Now one of the central reasons why God nourishes us is that He wants us to bear fruit. His intention for us is fruitfulness. Nutrition is not a dead end process. He nourishes us so that we might flourish and …
Stick to the Point
“Let unity run clear through the sermon, and clear out. If there be other lessons to be taught from the text, teach them in other sermons” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 210).
Helen Green, R.I.P.
In one of the last conversations I had with Helen, one of the things that came out was her concerns over all her sewing. She couldn’t sew anymore. Would she be able to sew in Heaven? It would be easy to dismiss this kind of concern as a frailty, as the kind of whimsical thing …
Little Hellions
The great enemy of self-control is feeling. I do not refer to feeling as rightly ordered sentiment, which is an essential part of what it means to be human. Rather, I am referring to the modern and very pernicious habit of making feelings foundational to all arguments. And by all arguments, I mean political arguments, …
Yesterday’s Manna
As you know, as we come to this meal, we are coming to Christ. Moreover, if we are doing it properly, each time we come we are coming to more Christ. Although we have been given all of Christ in principle, we have not yet experienced all of Christ in time. We are temporal, finite …
Ian and Lydia
In Christian circles we are very accustomed to the word grace. The word refers simply to the unmerited favor of God, but we need to be careful here. We sometimes confound the difference between unmerited favor and demerited favor. When Adam was first given the gift of life, when he was established in the garden, …
Communication is Completely Free
Self-control, self-government, is foundational to every form of free government. We have been talking about its importance when it comes to temptations to vice, our emotions and passions, and so on. But there is another area where self-control often goes missing as well. That is in the area of work, vocational competence, and delivery of …