Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Praise the Lord, Praise Him in the sanctuary. Praise Him in the heaven of His power. Praise Him for all He has done, For all His mighty acts. Praise Him in line with His excellent greatness. Praise Him with brass; Praise Him …
Really Catty
The kingdom of God is not a way of being good in the first place. It is a way of forgiveness, which means that other things, far less respectable, have to be addressed first. Once there was a young girl in junior high school who approached her mother one night about a problem she had …
Reformed or “Reformed”?
Green Baggins is a web site critical of the FV. While some of the standard issue misunderstandings are on display there, and the language of heresy is unfortunately employed too quickly for my taste, nevertheless there is an obvious personal and theological integrity, displayed in a willingness to correct things once they have been worked …
A Biblical Building Code
In this passage, we conclude the commentary of Moses on applications of the sixth commandment. In some fashion or other, all these commands concern a respect for life. And in all these commandments, we see the glory of biblical wisdom. Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray . . . …
Honor Through Rest
Gracious God and Father, we lift our grateful hearts to You now, and ask that You would be pleased to honor Your name through our rest before You. We ask that we would be enabled by Your Spirit to take it easy, to set down the burdens of our vocational callings, and prepare our hearts …
Guilt and Responsibility
Questions concerning life and death remain before us. In the passage we are considering now, more aspects of the sixth commandment are unfolded. If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it . . . (Deuteronomy 21:1-23) In old Israel, when a man was found slain, …
Mercy and Glory (1 Timothy 1:12-20)
Introduction: God advances His kingdom in the world, and because he calls fallen men to be His ministers, He is always working with flawed instruments. The only exception, of course, was the Lord Jesus Himself, but everyone else, from the apostles on down, has to deal with their inadequacies for the task. The Text: “And …
I Know My Baptists
Well, I am done with By Faith Alone — done with the book, that is, not the doctrine. I want to deal with the last three entries in one post all together because I don’t really have a great deal to say about each one. John Bolt, a professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological …
Why Not Now?
The next chapter in By Faith Alone is entitled “Covenant, Inheritance, and Typology,” and is co-authored by R. Fowler White and Cal Beisner. Their argument is ingenious, intricate, and, I believe, entirely unsatisfactory. What they are seeking to do is understand the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace in …
Like Gideon’s Men
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! The Lord said to my own Lord, Sit here, at my right hand. And as You sit, and as You reign, I will make a footrest from Your foes. The Lord shall send the rod of strength, From out of Zion comes …