My brief post on the reversal of the turnaround at World Vision generated some questions and comments, so let me chase them here. Start with the central thing — and that would concern our duty of not being the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. If the subject is sin and repentance, …
Bedrock Discipleship: Testimony
Introduction We are evangelical Christians, and so we are very familiar with the word testimony. We have heard a good many of them. But we are also reformational Christians, and this means that a number of us grew either weary or suspicious of the practice because of how it has been mishandled so regularly in …
Architectural Incongruity
God hates a particular kind of incongruity with a passion. He detests the notion that we can create a liturgy, or a worship space, or a tall steeple, that somehow masks or deals with sin. But if such things could deal with sin, then Jesus didn’t have to die. “When ye come to appear before …
Just a Taste
We are gathered here for a meal, but it is not the final or ultimate meal. We are not yet at the time for the marriage supper of the Lamb. We are not yet ready for the feast at the consummation of all things. We are still living in the shadow lands, and the ultimate …
An Odd Credo
I believe that God is God, and that we are not. I believe that Jesus is our Savior, and that we are not. I believe that the Holy Spirit is our wisdom, and that we are not. I believe that Jesus died under the wrath of God for our sin, and that He was raised …
That’s a Link Right There
“God’s creation is a theater and the human mind is a picture gallery, and we link the two by using words” (Wiersbe, Preaching and Teaching With Imagination, p. 41).
Don’t Preach Purple Unless It Is
“And whatever the subject might require, let a man not speak in an emotional manner unless he really feels it” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 284).
Total Depravity
This was originally published in Antithesis (Vol. II/No. 2), April/May 1991. Pride and Prejudice Before I came to understand and embrace the Biblical doctrine of resurrecting grace, I was kept away by a combination of factors. One reason, of course, was my own prejudices and ignorance. Certain truths tend to rub our theological fur the …
As It Has Pleased Him
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #146 “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (1 Cor. 12:18). In the lines preceding this, Paul has been using the illustration of the human body. The …
Sanctuary and Parish
I have written before on the ideal relationship of church and kingdom, comparing it to the church at the center of town, and life in the kingdom fanning out into the parish from that center. Word and sacrament are at the center, and they shape and form the lives of believers outside the sanctuary, but …