Introduction: For various reasons, the word federal is grossly misunderstood today. But our word comes from the Latin word foedus, which means covenant. Thus a federal union, or confederated association, should be understood as one bound by covenant oaths and loyalties. As Christians who understand the importance of covenants in the Bible, we should set …
Tend the Weeds
As I mentioned before, love is what makes a Christian community grow. Community is like a garden, and gardens contain many growing, beautiful things. But community is also the garden in which grumbles grow. Since the fall of Adam, there has never been a garden without weeds, and this is because our hearts are in …
Seven Courses
Not only is this a covenant meal, with all the parties to the covenant alive and present, Scripture gives us another image to use with our grasp of the word testament. “For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth” (Heb. 9:17). …
That’s What He Does
“It is fitting that the preacher should be characterized by a homiletical tendency, as that the poet should be characterized by a poetic tendency” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 108)
On Not Threatening the Minister
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #198 “Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him: but conduct him forth in peace, that …
No Faithy Sensation
As we heard in the message today, we are called to live from faith to faith. The just shall live by faith. But living is an all-encompassing verb. Living by faith means walking by faith, singing by faith, fellowshipping by faith, eating and drinking by faith, reflecting by faith, and meditating by faith. And faith …
Surveying the Text/Habakkuk
Introduction: Apart from what can be inferred from this book, we know nothing of the prophet who assembled it. But from the things described, we can see that he was a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. The book is delivered sometime between 612 B.C. and 599 B.C.—before Babylon attacked Jerusalem, but after Babylon had …
A Cabin by a Pristine Lake
Love is what makes a Christian community grow—people are attracted to it. They gravitate to the fellowship, to the teaching of the Word, to the worship of God, and to the community that all this necessarily engenders. But precisely because love makes a community grow, so also a community growing makes love harder. It is …
On Christian Disobedience #6
Introduction: In times like these, what do we do to prepare ourselves? If a moment of “defiance” is going to come, what should we do to get ready? This is an appropriate question in the wake of these Planned Parenthood videos, because it is quite possible that the moment has already come. How should we …
Meditation and Prayer at the Table
As we come to this weekly meal, we are to come in order to meditate and pray. And as Matthew Henry put it, meditation is conversing with yourself, and prayer is conversing with God. Both are necessary, but whenever you converse, whether with yourself or with God, it is necessarily to converse intelligently. In other …