Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of all gods, King of the heavens, we worship You now in the Spirit You have sent, and in the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have spoken Your Word into this dark world so that we would …
Jesus Is Lord. No, Really.
We are gathered here as the people of God, summoned to be citizens of new polis, a new city, a new kingdom. This kingdom is not intended to function as a sort of shadow government until the end of the world, constantly out of touch, constantly impotent. No, this kingdom was designed to grow and …
Blessed Meat and Wine
Gracious Father and God, we rejoice before You now, and look to You to continue to pour out Your grace and mercy upon us. We are glad that You have given us this food, and we thank You for the hands that prepared it all. We ask You to bless the meat and the wine, …
Say It Again
You know that God is the only Lord. You know that He is to be worshiped in accordance with His holy Word. You know that the gospel is the only life to be had in this wretched world. But remember also that this gospel proclaims a new creation, a new heaven and new earth. This …
Westminster One: Of the Holy Scripture
1. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; (Rom. 2:14–15; 1:19–20; Ps. 19:1–3; Rom. 1:32; 2:1) yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary …
Introduction to Confessional and Systematic Theology:
Remember that a systematic understanding of any given text is really synonymous with a formal understanding of the text. Understanding of a work is impossible unless there is an ability to summarize it, and summary is nothing but a systematic distillation. The real enemy is systematic misunderstanding of the text (not to mention systematic misapplications). …
Try, Try Again
A couple years ago, I started posting a series of notes on the Westminster Confession. But I never finished posting them, I didn’t like the format I was using, and there I was, like the guy with the half-finished tower in the gospels. Not to mention the prospect of having to exposit that stuff about …
A Fourth Decade of Psalms/Psalm 32
Introduction: This is categorized as one of the penitential psalms, but the heading lists it as a maskil, a teaching. In one of the other penitential pslams (51), David vows that as a result of his forgiveness, he will teach sinners the way (51:13). It is quite possible that this pslam is a fulfillment of …
Our Life
You are the covenant people of God, and You have gathered in faith today around the declaration of God’s holy gospel, and in humble reliance on the means of grace which He has given. This is your life, and your only life. What is our life? We have no life in ourselves, and our life …
Conservatives Blitz Anyway
I believe it was Samuel Francis who said that Washington D.C. was run by two political parties — the Evil Party and the Stupid Party. The same thing is true in contemporary ecclesiastical politics. We have the people who are selling out the “faith once delivered,” and then there are those who are clueless about …