Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! We praise Your name, oh God, for You are the living and triune God. The idols have mouths, but do not speak. You have no physical mouth, and yet You speak the eternal and everlasting Logos, the Word over all, the Word …
False Peace With False Gods
God has assigned a task to the Church in the world, and that task is to throw down all idols, and to establish the right worship of God throughout the earth, from the River to the ends of the earth. But looking around, we have to come to grips with the fact that idolatry in …
Life Devouring Death
The psalmist praises God because God prepared a table for him in the presence of his enemies. Surely this would include the presence of the great enemy, death. Now rightly understood, this table is the central example of that gracious provision, and rightly understood, this table is one of the great weapons in the arsenal …
The Ultimate Letter to Rome
Dear Joel, Once we get past our agreement that perseverance in the faith should be considered a good thing, the doctrine of perseverance creates a large number of questions. Some of the disagreements that arise out of this are extremely subtle, so it is important to define our terms very carefully at the outset. According …
Love the One You”re With
Dear Joel, I have a little time free, so on to my next installment. This one will be less doctrinal than the others, but there are obviously doctrinal underpinnings. I want to address obedience and the affections. Another way to speak of this is in terms of covenant loyalty. I was recently in a conversation …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXII
Introduction: Husbands are commanded to love, and we are taught that the kind of love they are to render is the kind that bestows loveliness. But wives are not encouraged by this to simply be passive recipients—they are given a command as well. They are to be subject to their husbands (v. 24), and they …
Some Ping Pong
When I was in junior high school, I used to play a lot of ping pong. Occasionally, in the course of these bouts, one of my friends would hit a lofter — a slow ball about three feet above the table, just on my side of the net. I confess that when this happened it …
More of What You Subsidize
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 49 One of the fundamental laws of life, and therefore of business, is that you get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you penalize. In every social context, certain behaviors are rewarded (in some way), and other …
A New Creation Spoken
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of all creation, we lift up our voices in praise and adoration because You are worthy of all praise and adoration. We know that You have spoken the universe into existence, and when our father Adam rebelled against You, in your …
Little Ones in the Heavenly Courts
This morning the exhortation is for a particular (and very important) part of our congregation—the little ones. I want to begin by asking all the children who are eight-years-old and younger to pay close attention. Step out in the aisle if you need to, or stand on your chair, or have your mom or dad …